Pearl District detention pond public meeting, Monday, October 14, 2019

Tulsa District 4 City Councilor Kara Joy McKee is hosting a public meeting on Monday, October 14, 2019, at the Central Center at Centennial Park, 1028 E 6th St, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74120, from 6 pm to 8 pm, to discuss the planned Elm Creek West stormwater detention pond. The City Council has begun condemning homes in the neighborhood where legendary radio newsman Paul Harvey spent his childhood, and his childhood home is itself in the footprint of the pond and threatened with demolition for the sake of a pond of questionable utility and funding.

The Dawson home at 1111 E. 5th Place is one of the homes that Councilor McKee and her colleagues have voted to condemn, with the approval of Mayor G. T. Bynum IV. The Dawsons purchased the home last summer, moved in, and have done extensive renovations to the century-old home. The homes of other urban pioneers in the neighborhood have not yet been condemned, but unless the City Council votes to halt the acquisition process, it's only a matter of time. Other owners would gladly begin renovation work but have been deterred by the city's pond plans.

Here is Councilor McKee's note about the event:

This letter below was sent to affected residents earlier this week. If you know residents in this area, please help me remind them to attend. Many have questions about the use of eminent domain and what houses may or may not be taken by the city and why. I am hopeful that we'll get more clarity at this meeting.

Dear Property Owner/Resident in the Elm Creek Basin- north of Central Park:

You are invited to a public meeting with the City of Tulsa's engineering staff and consulting engineers to discuss a project in your neighborhood.

The meeting will be held Oct. 14, 2019, at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Central Center at Centennial Park, 1028 E. Sixth St.

PROJECT AREA: Elm Creek Basin - north of Centennial Park

PROPOSED WORK: Pearl District Flood Control
(Elm Creek West Pond)

FUNDING SOURCE: 2014 Improve Our Tulsa sales tax

CONSULTING ENGINEER: Guy Engineering Services, Inc.

CONTACT:
Chris Gimmel
Stormwater Design Project Manager
City of Tulsa
(918) 596-9498
cgimmel@cityoftulsa.org

This meeting will give area residents and property owners the opportunity to ask questions and learn about the scope and duration of the project.

Anyone wishing to attend and needing accommodation for a disability can contact Compliance Officer, LaKendra Carter, in the Mayor's Office of Resilience and Equity, (918) 576-5208, at least 48 hours before the meeting.

The public is welcome to attend to attend to watch, listen, and hold us accountable as we work out what has happened so far and what should be happening going forward.

I hope that the councilor and the other city officials who plan to attend will come a little early and then walk a block north to see the Dawsons' home and the other renovated homes threatened by this pond. A City Council vote set condemnation in motion, and a City Council vote could rescind it.

Tulsa has a bad habit of condemning property and then not using it. Maple Park sits on land where homes once stood, cleared for a Riverside Expressway interchange that was killed by neighborhood protests. The near northside neighborhood still sits empty, 15 years after the city finished clearing it for college buildings that will never be needed. When the "Model Cities" urban renewal program bought and cleared most of Deep Greenwood, the promised redevelopment never took place, and the land sat empty until it was repurposed decades later for what are now the OSU-Tulsa and Langston-Tulsa campuses.

Property acquisition should stop and condemnation actions should be rescinded until the necessity of the Elm Creek Basin ponds are re-evaluated and, if the ponds are still deemed necessary, full funding for construction has been secured.

MORE -- A few examples of public officials rescinding an eminent domain taking:

Johnstown, New York, June 2019 (Leader-Herald): Council unanimously votes to rescind condemnation vote a month earlier. (Recorder News coverage)

Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, September 2018 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel): Village rescinds farmland taking because they don't need the land yet.

Carolina Beach, NC, August 2018 (PortCity Daily): City rescinds eminent domain for purchasing entire properties, opts for easements for beach replenishment.

West Vincent Township, Pennsylvania, January 2012 (Fox Rothschild law firm): Township rescinds taking of 33 acres belonging to Ludwig's Corner Horse Show Association, in response to public outcry. "I have seen governmental entities far too often become entrenched in their actions and irrationally refuse to reconsider their decisions. Fortunately, the Township was an exception."