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Calvin Rees
Administrator
USA
18514 Posts |
 Posted - July 16 2010 : 07:20:22
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Commuter rail system part of downtown master plan
by: KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
Friday, July 16, 2010
7/16/2010 6:47:05 AM
Jack Crowley thinks Tulsa is a fantastic place.
On Thursday night, he presented a plan to about 50 people at Tulsa Community College's Metro Campus on how it could be even better.
"The plan tends to be general; it tends to be flexible," Crowley said as he unveiled the city's proposed Downtown Area Master Plan. "It's not telling someone that they have to build a two-story building across the street."
But it does have specific objectives: to revitalize the downtown area; to connect downtown to the River Parks system; and to initiate local and regional rail transit.
Crowley said the development of some type of local rail transit is a key first step to creating a denser, more vital downtown.
"You need to be looking at it for the competitive reasons," he said. "But you also need to be looking at it for mobility, and mobility is going to become even more and more difficult" as fuel costs rise.
The plan unveiled Thursday calls for a commuter rail system that would run on existing railroad tracks from the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa campus north of downtown to 23rd Street and Jackson Avenue across the river. A separate system, which would use trolleys, would run along Boulder Avenue from the OSU-Tulsa campus to Veterans Park at 21st Street.
Eventually, the local transit system would become a regional transportation system, serving communities such as Sand Springs, Broken Arrow, Jenks and Owasso.
Crowley acknowledged that the city's current density does not justify a rail transit system.
"But you create it because it will create the density to make this city more cost-effective to run," he said.
And by that, Crowley means a more livable, pedestrian-friendly city.
Crowley said professors often say people are usually willing to walk about three city blocks.
"But I say, 'Through what?' " he said. 'If you're walking past interesting shops with windows open and awnings and coffee places (that are) relatively safe and well lit in the evening, you walk half a mile and not even know it."
Crowley noted that the city is rich with historic structures such as the Mayo Hotel.
He said any plan to revitalize downtown must include the city's architectural treasures.
"I think every city in the country has regretted tearing down half of what it's torn down in order to make way for something that either never got built or is something that looks far worse than what you tore down," he said. "The bottom line is you've got tremendous assets here."
The plan includes $1.1 billion in proposed capital-improvement projects. But that does not mean taxpayers would be left picking up the entire tab, Crowley said.
In Tulsa "you have private investment, public investment, foundation investment and public-private partnerships," he said.
"I haven't seen any (city) that can match the capability that you have here."
Thursday night's event was the first of several public forums the city expects to hold on the Downtown Area Master Plan before it is sent to the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission in late summer or early fall. The City Council will then consider it.
The plan is the result of more than 2½ years of public meetings and discussions with local residents, business owners and other people potentially affected by the plan.
Crowley, who led the effort to develop the master plan as former Mayor Kathy Taylor's special adviser on urban planning, is hopeful that the plan will produce more than dust.
"I have never seen a city that has as much strength and foundation as this place," he said.
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Kevin Canfield 581-8313
kevin.canfield@tulsaworld.com
Copyright © 2010, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved
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