River Plan- Public Infrastructure

[brunoflipper]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070621_238_A1_hOKto84204

Country river tax vote proposed

OK to advance master plan sought


Tulsa County voters could be asked this fall to approve a $277 million tax initiative to implement portions of the Arkansas River Corridor Master Plan, officials said Wednesday.

If approved, the private sector will add more than $100 million, the largest private donation for a city-county project in state history, said Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

The foundation is spearheading the private donation collection.

"Here's an opportunity to actually implement a plan which citizen input has been included at the ground level and reflects what they really want on the river," said Jerry Lasker, executive director of the Indian Nations Council of Governments, which created the master plan.

This initiative would address 25 miles of the 42-mile plan, he said.

"It's wonderful to get the public and private sector together to actually get this plan started," Lasker said.

Local philanthropist George Kaiser is championing the public-private partnership.

"I don't know how long the people have been expecting and promised this kind of development," Kaiser said."It's time they get it."

Mayor Kathy Taylor, who supports the initiative, said this step is just a continuation of the work that was done on the river corridor master plan.

"We, as public officials, have been saying how do we implement what now has been studied, and how do we do it responsibly," Taylor said.

The plan rests on a countywide tax increase vote, which the County Commission could put to a vote later this year, possibly in October.

Randi Miller, chairwoman of the Tulsa County Commission, said the county will likely decide in early August whether to call a vote.

One possible tax source would by the 0.4 percent sales tax approved by county voters in 2003 as part of the Vision 2025 tax increase and designated for incentives to Boeing to build airplanes in Tulsa. The Boeing deal never came to fruition, and the tax was never collected.

If voters again OK'd that sales tax, it would likely take seven years to raise the necessary public portion of the funding.

Tax money would pay for infrastructure and land acquisition.

The public funding includes low-water dams in Sand Springs and Jenks and work on the Zink Lake dam near 31st Street. Tax money also would be used for pedestrian bridges across the river at 41st Street and 61st Street, and a 500-foot-wide channel created in the river to ensure continuous water flow from below Zink Dam to 71st Street.

The public also would fund land acquisition that would allow the city to assemble land for private river development along the west bank.

Some $17.7 million from various county tax sources has already been designated for river improvements, including the design and engineering of dams envisioned in the project.

Private donations would enhance current gathering locations and create new ones on the east bank at 31st, 36th, 41st, 61st and 71st streets.

Miller said she supports the plan because it will be the catalyst to transforming the river.

"For the seven years I've been an elected official, I have supported river development and have been at the table working to get it done. It's very important to me," she said.

Commissioner John Smaligo said he is "impressed with this version in particular with the commitment from the private sector."

"It seems like it is obviously a much more equitable plan put forward to start river development," he said.

Smaligo said the timing of the interest in the private sector "has to be weighed in the decision. You don't want to lose the opportunity of the private sector funds that may not return again."

Commissioner Fred Perry said it is important for the public to know this is the implementation of the Arkansas River Corridor Master Plan and "not just dreamed up in a back room."

Perry said he likes the plan and the way it came together, but he wants to hear from the public.

Taylor said this plan "is our ability to make a world-class enhancement of the 42-mile plan. I think that is what we all think Tulsa deserves."

Chet Cadieux, QuikTrip president and chief executive officer and Tulsa Metro Chamber chairman, is a businessman who has pledged to financially contribute. He said this river has had more plans than any in the country.

"We've planned it to death," he said. "Yet those plans have never been implemented."

The reason for the high level of interest from the private sector standpoint is "frustration," he said.

"Every time we go do something for the city, you hear people saying 'Hey, I thought the river was next,' "Cadieux said."Let's quit planning and go do it."

Keith Bailey, former Williams Cos. chairman and chief executive officer, and a volunteer with the project, said the idea comes at the right time because environmental studies needed to accomplish it are already under way.

Kaiser said the concept is to do the most obvious improvements first -- the three dams. That would be followed by the river channeling work -- the so-called living river -- in two stages, Kaiser said.

Once water is flowing in the river, then the two pedestrian bridges would be constructed.

"The entire plan includes things the public has been saying for years that they want to have and things are absolutely necessary elements for the river to make it physically attractive and a natural gathering spot for people," Kaiser said.

Taylor said as soon as the public approves the initiative, the city can acquire land and begin seeking proposals for private development along the river.

Officials believe that the public could see actual construction begin as early as two to three years.

The plan works closely with previously announced improvements in River Parks.

By September, the public will begin seeing efforts to transform the trail system in River Parks between 11th Street and 71st Street on the west and east banks, Kaiser said.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation donated $12.4 million to the project and $2.6 million is funded from the city's third-penny sales tax.

Levit said the work to bring water into the river is legitimately a public responsibility, whereas bank beautification, enhancements of community gathering spots, and recreation areas like playgrounds or art gardens are that of the private sector.

Dams: The dam in Sand Springs will act as a holding tank for water released from Keystone Dam to ensure the control of constant water flow downstream.

Lasker said the two new dams and the Zink dam after it is rebuilt will be safer. The dams will have a step-style design to cascade water down the river, eliminating dangerous rolls of water under the current dam.

The dams also would be designed to allow for fish migration and sand movement through the river corridor.

Retrofitting the Zink Dam would also enhance the "Tulsa Wave," an area south of the dam near AEP-PSO that is popular with kayakers, Lasker said.

Living River: Miller said the living river plan is basically part of the master plan because it is puts water in the river, which is the goal of that plan. At one time, low-water dams were planned for the area, but they were ruled out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she said.

"This is just another way to get water in the river," she said.

Kaiser's conceptual plan would keep water in the river at low flow by creating a narrower channel that would meander through the river bed.

While the river has some water at low flow, it is spread across the 1,500-foot-wide channel, exposing much of the river bottom and allowing water to pool in some places and become stagnant.

By concentrating that water into a 500-foot-wide naturally designed channel, it would create a constant flow of water and "recreational zone" that could be navigable with a small craft such as a canoe or kayak.

The dry areas of the river, during low flow, would be an environmental corridor with sandbars and some vegetation that could be viewed from either river bank, yet not obstruct high water flows.

At high flow, the water would be free to flow throughout the entire width of the river.

The project would be compatible with an effort to protect nesting areas for least terns in the Arkansas River, planners have said.

Pedestrian bridges: "It's important to bring people to the river not just to run a couple of miles and then go home, but to spend the day, walk across the bridges to logical areas where there are logical activities on the other side," Kaiser said.

The planned pedestrian bridge at 41st Street will connect what would likely be the most developed gathering spot on the east bank to existing soccer fields, where there is room for west bank development, Kaiser said.

The planned bridge at 61st Street would connect to Turkey Mountain, where there is a wilderness area and trail.

Bridges could be elegant or basic in design, he said.

Acquisition: "If you're going to do a prudent development of a new area," Kaiser said, 0 "you want to assure you have all of the land you may need for future purposes."

Land opportunities lie along the river a little on the east bank, but more on the west bank south of the 11th Street Bridge, he said.

Also, there may be opportunities with American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma and Sinclair refinery, he said.

Taylor said that once land is assembled, the city would have control over what is developed by seeking development proposals from the private sector.

Cadieux said developers take an enormous risk in assembling land.

If a city does that, then "there isn't any risk for the city because they know it will be developed, it is just a matter who the developer is," he said.

Kaiser said its important for the public to have control of the land to be developed so that it can protect the tax investment in the project.

Community Gathering Spots: The goal of the project is to follow traditional public patterns, and not reshape the way people use the area, Kaiser said.

Natural places are already established and will be enhanced, he said.

Cadieux said QuikTrip will sponsor the gathering spot between 36th to 41st streets and he envisions a play ground for children, some of which will include large water features to play in, climbing walls and musical bridges.

"I'm talking about features that you can't probably ever do with public money."

Kaiser said River Parks will not be commercialized by the amenities created at the gathering spots. He also said those amenities will vary from one spot to another.

Kaiser said the private sector also wants to provide "connectors" tying the river to downtown through Centennial Walk, a historic walking route through downtown already funded with Vision 2025 money.

The goal would be to create a "visible portal" to the river where there is common signage, sidewalk material and lighting, Kaiser said.

"We want to lead people to the river," he said.




/tulsaworld- you really need to stop only using a spellcheck program and get a human to proofread your crap... three articles today have either the wrong word correctly spelled or homophones...

[sgrizzle]

Related poll:
http://tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6887

[Renaissance]

Now this is a plan I can get behind.  Add in Tulsa Landing, and the vibrant river is achieved.

Speaking of Tulsa Landing - I'm reading between the lines and seeing that this includes public funding for that venture, correct?  So we won't have to worry about a second vote coming to a bond-weary electorate.

[sgrizzle]

I'm hoping this vote plus a tiff does the above shown projects plus the landing.

[brunoflipper]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I'm hoping this vote plus a tiff does the above shown projects plus the landing.

amen, brother

[brunoflipper]

but they've got to come up with something better than "gathering area" for the various locales... they all stick out over the water so i say we call 'em "piers"...

[brunoflipper]

what excites me the most is the blair property acquistion...

re-direct riverside through the blair front yard and then you'll get space for riverfront retail/mixed/public use development?

fekkin' a, that is brilliant... i will crap golden eggrolls if that happens...

[cannon_fodder]

I am reserving judgment until I read the article in the TW over lunch.  But at very least, people are thinking big (and practical!).  The Channels team deserves some credit for bringing this close to reality I suppose - just by raising the level of debate.

[waterboy]

I really like that this plan's focus is on the Tulsa portion of the river (even though it relies on the impoundment of water in Sand Springs to do it).

Tactically, the use of the "living river" concept of narrowing the river to maintain its channel is one that I have proposed to anyone who would listen for the last few years. That is quite gratifying.

This plan could be the one.

[swake]

I am all for this, but there need to be some safeguards as to what we are getting. First, the site between 11th and 21st on the west bank. Before we just hand over land or money to the guys from Branson, we need to dictate style, design and build standards and get from them exactly what they are trying to accomplish. Tulsa Hills on the river is not an option if they want public assistance. Second, the standards need to be applied to the entire riverbank, no more Kum and Go stores backing the river. Let's do this, and let's do this right.

[Conan71]

I like this a lot better than "The Channel$".

[sgrizzle]

This is obscenely better than the channels.

Welcome back to Waterboy!

While I share excitement with the blair concept shown, I am really hoping there is no excreting of eggrolls involved.

What is really great is that all these plans get people off of riverside drive and closer to the river, sometimes over it. Too bad they couldn't throw in a bit more in the 71st and south areas to draw people up from the riverwalk/aquarium.

[brunoflipper]

quote:Originally posted by brunoflipper

what excites me the most is the blair property acquistion...

re-direct riverside through the blair front yard and then you'll get space for riverfront retail/mixed/public use development?

fekkin' a, that is brilliant... i will crap golden eggrolls if that happens...

pancakes?
the drawing in the paper changed...
the part that showed the blair property development is gone... that sucks, without that this looks like just a big park...
holy ****... 100 bucks says somebody spilled the beans...
anyone have an archived version?

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by brunoflipper


anyone have an archived version?

The dude abides.

[Kenosha]

It's a very good package in many respects.

Include $ for streetcar or light rail line from Downtown to the West Bank, to Jenks, with proper land use policies to encourage TOD and River mixed use development, and it's a brilliant plan.

JMO.