REI

[Tulsasaurus Rex]

Thanks for doing this Cannon

Yes, huge thank you.

[cannon_fodder]

Public Comment:  33 con signed up, 10 pro.  Anna American requesting brevity, feel free to support each other instead of taking your time if you can.

Discussion on public comment - if you comment now, you don't get to comment again if this meeting is continued.  

In favor goes first (my commentary winds down and I only listen with one ear...)

[RecycleMichael]

I like that the BA guy wore shorts to the meeting to show off that he was an athlete.

[cannon_fodder]

There was 13 PRO development, 1 was kind of a plant who was actually opposed.  The Chamber, Mr. Warren, chair of parks department, etc.  a high school student, businessmen, and residents.   Reasons are:

Development is good on this site.
Can't get the reputation of hard to do business with.
Love REI.
Sales tax.
Encourage outdoor activity/health and fitness.
Fits well with the area.
Could help the volleyball courts.
Bring more life to the river.
Could be a destination.


Moving on to the against...

[RecycleMichael]

My favorite against argument was the guy who said that we couldn't put a whore house on the property.

I think having a whore house across from a Burger King makes sense.

They both have the motto, "Have it Your Way."

[swake]

[cannon_fodder]

My favorite against argument was the guy who said that we couldn't put a whore house on the property.

Dobie Langenkamp is awesome.
https://www.ogel.org/about-author-a-z-profile.asp?key=12

http://www.pennwellbooks.com/r-dobie-langenkamp/

[Hoss]

Dobie Langenkamp is awesome.
https://www.ogel.org/about-author-a-z-profile.asp?key=12

http://www.pennwellbooks.com/r-dobie-langenkamp/

Ha, I didn't realize we still had that site.

[swake]

Dobie Langenkamp is awesome.
https://www.ogel.org/about-author-a-z-profile.asp?key=12

http://www.pennwellbooks.com/r-dobie-langenkamp/

His daughter used to work for my mother and I went to high school with his sons.

[cannon_fodder]

Tabled until March 1.

[PonderInc]

OK, so here's the site plan from the PUD exhibit at the TMAPC hearing on 5-20-2015:


And here's the "new and improved" site plan from today's article in the Frontier:


https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/mayor-bynum-lays-out-his-development-plan-for-71st-street-and-riverside-drive/

It does appear that the city negotiated for more trees and a bit more green space in the parking lot. It looks like the berms caused a serpentine sidewalk along Riverside, if you think that's an upgrade. (Berms are good for drivers passing by.  Not so good for actual pedestrians.)  If I understood the meeting today, these changes would be a required condition before the city would consider abandoning the park land. The city also negotiated some edits to the contract language to resolve some of the issues that people have complained about, although I'm not exactly sure what those changes are.  Also, someone hired an artist to make a much prettier rendering. Woo-hoo! Nice job on the watercolors!

We still have my "favorite" feature, the 75' radius turnaround for trucks between the restaurant and the REI loading dock. Just FYI, traditional Tulsa arterials are 40' wide.  Just sayin...

The above sketch would be a perfectly fine upgrade to most of our suburban Home Depots and other such commercial lots where our landscaping requirements are so minimal they're non-existent.  This takes us from hopelessly sub-par suburban sprawl to mediocre plus suburban sprawl.

Are these changes enough to make this a wonderful addition to Tulsa's River Parks?  Nope.  Is it better than nothing?  Yep.  Is "better than nothing" the best we can hope for in Tulsa?  Gawd.  I hope not.  We'll see....

[PonderInc]

I realize that my tone in the above post sounds a bit sarcastic.  For the record, I totally understand that the current administration was handed a turd of a problem (Or as former Mayor Terry Young said, "A bad lemon and a bunch of rotted Bartlett pears...") and they are trying to do the best they can.  This is really the first time the City Council has had an opportunity to address this issue.  (They previously voted on what was basically a minor administrative change to the comp plan land use map, and I think they applied the RDO-2 river overlay to this land, which would only apply in the case of a major amendment to the PUD.)

Dooey handled this poorly from the beginning, and as GT said, we don't have a time machine to go back and fix it.  Had the previous administration handled this appropriately, we would have STARTED with a discussion of whether or not the citizens of Tulsa wanted to abandon any park land for economic development purposes.  If so, we could have moved forward with discussions of what type of development was desired and how to achieve that.  Instead, we're doing the whole thing backwards.

However, this is our current reality, and I sincerely believe everyone in the administration and City Council is trying their best to do the right thing.

[swake]

His daughter used to work for my mother and I went to high school with his sons.

Not to derail a perfectly good thread too much, but I guess no one realizes who Dobie's daughter is.

[johrasephoenix]

Wait... those two site plans look exactly the same.  The only difference is that some architectural summer intern messed around with it on Adobe Illustrator to make it look more design-y.  Did a single building move or change orientation?

Like really - those are the same buildings with "Drop Shadow" effect in Illustrator and Photoshop trees. 

[Bamboo World]

Wait... those two site plans look exactly the same.  The only difference is that some architectural summer intern messed around with it on Adobe Illustrator to make it look more design-y.  Did a single building move or change orientation?

Like really - those are the same buildings with "Drop Shadow" effect in Illustrator and Photoshop trees.
 

The layouts are similar, but not exactly the same.