Recently in Tulsa::Zoning Category
If you're curious what Tulsa's zoning code and other ordinances were like in 2003, here they are, in PDF format, courtesy the late City Auditor Phil Wood, who put city government information online long before any official city website. Also includes the City Charter, list of officials from the founding of the city, sales tax ordinances, and bond issues.
What Should I Read to Understand Zoning? - Market Urbanism
Nolan Gray writes:
"We are blessed and cursed to live in times in which most smart people are expected to have an opinion on zoning. Blessed, in that zoning is arguably the single most important institution shaping where we live, how we move around, and who we meet. Cursed, in that zoning is notoriously obtuse, with zoning ordinances often cloaked in jargon, hidden away in PDFs, and completely different city-to-city.
"Given this unusual state of affairs, I'm often asked, 'What should I read to understand zoning?' To answer this question, I have put together a list of books for the zoning-curious."
Interesting list. I've read, and I recommend The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I'm intrigued by Zoned in the USA, Zoned American, and Land Use without Zoning. The blurb about The Zoning Game contains an important note: The zoning code and zoning map don't tell the whole story of how zoning is applied in your city.
Jane Jacobs and the Death and Life of American Planning
Provocative comments from a professor of urban planning, but some of the best ideas are rebuttals in the comments: "...what does it say about our profession when a group of citizens -- most with no training in architecture, planning or design -- comes up with a very good idea that the planners should have had? When I asked about this, the response was: 'We're too busy planning to come up with big plans.' Too busy planning. Too busy slogging through the bureaucratic maze, issuing permits and enforcing zoning codes, hosting community get-togethers, making sure developers get their submittals in on time and pay their fees. This is what passes for planning today. We have become a caretaker profession -- reactive rather than proactive, corrective instead of preemptive, rule bound and hamstrung and anything but visionary. "
Reclaiming "Redneck" Urbanism: What Urban Planners Can Learn From Trailer Parks
"Trailer parks remain one of the last forms of housing in US cities provided by the market explicitly for low-income residents. Better still, they offer a working example of traditional urban design elements and private governance. Any discussion of trailer parks should start with the fact that most forms of low-income housing have been criminalized in nearly every major US city. "
"Michael Monaghan has wanted to develop his property on Main Street in Hackensack, New Jersey, just a few miles away from Manhattan. Yet the city twice denied two applications for banks to build on his land.
"Instead, Hackensack's Planning Board designated Michael's and another owner's land as an 'area in need of redevelopment,' authorizing the use of eminent domain to condemn and seize the properties. 'I've stood up and tried to protect my property for the last eight years,' he said in an interview with a local paper....
"But fortunately for property owners, Hackensack's entire city council was booted out of office. The grassroots group Citizens for Change won every single seat on the city council, despite being outraised 2:1. Their slate of candidates successfully ran on a platform against costly litigation, nepotism, and corruption. "
Tulsa's Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Plans
Tulsa Development Authority: Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Master Plan, May 1991
Tulsa Development Authority: Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Urban Renewal Plan, as amended February 16, 2006, to expire on June 2, 2014.
OSCN Found Document:ELIAS v. CITY OF TULSA
Jamil's was almost zoned out of business in the mid '60s, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared the original 1955 law creating metropolitan area planning commissions unconstitutional because of population requirements designed to limit the law's application to Tulsa County.
Tulsa City Council: Community Gardens
Minutes of the Feb. 24, 2009, Urban and Economic Development committee meeting, with a link to the backup packet, including the text of the community gardens ordinance, minutes from the TMAPC hearing, and public comments and letters on the idea.
Urban Review STL: Euclidean Zoning To The Extreme
Good discussion of the evolution of use-based zoning, from Euclid v. Ambler to the present, and why St. Louis needs a new land use code to go along with its new comprehensive plan.
Preserve Midtown: Midtown Under Attack!
Good overview of the problems caused by teardowns, and what Preserve Midtown proposes to do about the problem.
