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Tweedledee IV appoints Tweedledum Jr to Port Authority

Newly sworn-in Tulsa Mayor G. T. Bynum IV has appointed outgoing mayor Dewey F. Bartlett Jr. to the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority. The Tulsa World published a list of 52 appointments by Bynum IV to authorities, boards, and commissions. By my quick count, 23 are reappointments to the...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 13, 2016 5:24 PM

Pearl District rezoning proposals: Approval courts public cynicism

In less than an hour the Tulsa City Council will consider three zoning proposals to take specific properties out of the Pearl District Form Based Code -- which gives property owners a great deal of flexibility as to their use -- and place them under specific traditional zoning classifications....

Posted by Michael Bates on August 21, 2014 5:24 PM

Pearl District plan on TMAPC agenda today, September 5, 2012

The Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission will cast its final vote today, September 5, 2012, on the Pearl District Association's request for a form-based land use ordinance covering the neighborhood. The new rules governing the Pearl District would be phased in to replace the existing use-based zoning code. The Pearl...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 5, 2012 9:05 AM

Form-based codes, historic preservation design guidelines on TMAPC agenda

Today's (July 11, 2012) meeting of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) includes these two items near the very end of the agenda, under "Other Business": 21. Review and discuss the Tulsa Preservation Commission Design Guidelines Updates for Residential Structures and Non-Residential and Mixed-Use Structures within Historic Preservation Overlay...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 11, 2012 11:35 AM

Keeping the promise to the Pearl District

UPDATE 2012/04/03: The City of Tulsa Planning Department has issued a "policy analysis" of the Pearl District regulating plan, "a supplemental review of adopted plans of the City intended to provide the Planning Commission with a full understanding of the issues and policies created to address them." Attached at the...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 2, 2012 7:58 PM

INCOG is not TMAPC -- once more again s-l-o-w-l-y

There's a good article by Mike Easterling in the brand new edition of Urban Tulsa Weekly about the possibility that the City of Tulsa will establish its own in-house planning capability to replace the work it currently outsources to the Development Services department of the Indian Nations Council of Government...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 2, 2011 6:46 PM

Keith TMAPC appointee doesn't live in TMAPC jurisdiction

Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith has appointed a new Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) member, but his home and neighborhood are not within the TMAPC's jurisdiction. Keith's appointee is Ryon Stirling, a City of Sand Springs homeowner. His property is unaffected by the decisions of the TMAPC. The TMAPC's...

Posted by Michael Bates on January 3, 2011 6:14 PM

Gomez TMAPC appointment on tonight's Council agenda

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr's nomination of ousted City Councilor Eric Gomez to the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission is on tonight's City Council agenda. The nomination is likely to be defeated by a supermajority, based on public statements by the councilors, but it's still worth expressing your concern to...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 13, 2010 3:15 PM

Eric Gomez on TMAPC? Seriously?

"He is either totally clueless or absolutely in your face, one of the two." "I guess he wants everybody mad at him." "He's appointing a councilor that threatened to sue one of his constituents over a planning issue to the planning commission?" Those were the instantaneous reactions of my lovely...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 3, 2010 11:03 PM

PLANiTULSA: Wither INCOG?

A commenter on another website noticed that I hadn't said anything about behind-the-scenes machinations by the INCOG -- the Indian Nations Council of Governments -- to modify the PLANiTULSA vision and policy plan, particularly the part that recommends that the City of Tulsa bring in-house the planning functions it currently...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 29, 2010 12:26 PM

TMAPC & PLANiTULSA: The hearing and the delayers

I spoke at Wednesday's TMAPC public hearing on PLANiTULSA, Tulsa's first comprehensive plan in a generation. I haven't had time to write my thoughts on the event, but my friend Jamie Jamieson copied me on an email to a Pearl District neighborhood leader. He did a fine job describing yesterday's...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 11, 2010 6:55 PM

PLANiTULSA district meetings

A series of meetings about PLANiTULSA, the proposed new comprehensive plan for the City of Tulsa, will be held in each city council district starting tonight and continuing over the next two weeks, hosted by the district councilor. Here's the schedule: Day/Date Time Dist Councilor/Aide Location   Tues/2 Feb 6...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 2, 2010 12:14 PM

Liz Wright on the radio

Pat Campbell interviewed not-ousted Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) member Elizabeth Wright on 1170 KFAQ Wednesday morning. It was an informative interview -- well done to both Pat and Liz. You can listen to the interview on the station's podcast: TMAPC's Elizabeth Wright interviewed by Pat Campbell, December 2,...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 3, 2009 1:12 AM

Karen Keith ouster of Liz Wright fails

County Commissioner Karen Keith's attempt to oust Elizabeth Wright from the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) failed for lack of a second at this morning's Tulsa County Commission meeting. Barring another ouster attempt, Wright will continue to serve on the TMAPC until her term expires on January 18, 2011....

Posted by Michael Bates on November 30, 2009 10:49 AM

Is the TMAPC a quasi-judicial body?

In the course of the ongoing effort by Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith to remove Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) member Elizabeth Wright, I've heard and read the TMAPC described as a "quasi-judicial body." Accordingly, these same sources claim that TMAPC members are like "referees," that they are to...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 30, 2009 12:29 AM

Karen Keith keeping Elizabeth Wright TMAPC accusations under wraps

Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith has yet to supply Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) member Elizabeth Wright with a list of specific allegations justifying Keith's call to remove Wright from the TMAPC over a year before her three-year term is due to end, according to an email from Wright...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 29, 2009 11:55 AM

Vote against removing Liz Wright: An open letter to John Smaligo and Fred Perry

I can't attend Monday morning's Tulsa County Commission meeting, so I sent the following letter to County Commissioners John Smaligo and Fred Perry urging them to vote against removing Liz Wright from the TMAPC. (I didn't figure there was any point in sending it to Commissioner Karen Keith, the lead...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 22, 2009 11:56 PM

Blast from the past: A truly rude TMAPC commissioner

In February 2004, leaders of neighborhood associations and homeowners' associations showed up by the dozens for a 1:30 p.m. hearing before the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) on zoning protest petitions. Many of those present had to make special arrangements to be at a City Hall meeting in the...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 22, 2009 1:11 AM

Karen Keith's <em>ex post facto</em> crusade for unfair zoning

Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith's bizarre and unprecedented campaign to remove Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission member Elizabeth Wright (for bogus reasons, a year before her term expires) reaches its climax on Monday, November 23, 2009, at 9:30 a.m., at a public hearing to be held as part of the...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 20, 2009 12:20 AM

Karen Keith trying to bully neighborhood leader off planning commission

UPDATE 11:40 a.m. 2009/11/02: Liz Wright called earlier this morning to tell me that the County Commission voted to approve the November 23 public hearing. Karen Keith based her call for a hearing on the need for geographical balance and her desire to make her own appointment, neither of which...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 2, 2009 12:07 AM