2010 planitulsa Process

Thousands of Tulsans helped create the vision for Tulsa’s future with energy, enthusiasm and love for this special place. The Comprehensive Plan is the culmination of two years of hard work and many conversations with Tulsa stakeholders, all of whom chose to participate in shaping the future of our community.

In addition, a volunteer Citizens’ Team worked closely with City of Tulsa staff, community members, stakeholders, and the consulting team to guide the process. The Citizens’ Team spent many days reviewing analysis and findings, developing the Guiding Principles, shaping the workshop process, providing input on the scenarios, and representing Tulsa’s diverse communities.

Developing a Vision

The PLANiTULSA process began with a survey of Tulsa residents to establish key values and priorities that influenced the guiding principles developed by the Citizens’ Team. The PLANiTULSA Team then hosted 11 community workshops between Fall 2008 and Winter 2009. More than 1,500 Tulsans took part in 11 different workshops (seven that focused on small or specific areas, three that were city wide, and one that focused solely on transportation issues) where they helped create solutions for issues in their community. These include: where new homes and jobs should go, what kind of new transportation investments should be developed, where those investments were needed, and how to protect environmental and open space areas. The future painted by workshop participants showed a Tulsa with more vibrant streets and corridors with a lively mix of housing, retail, jobs and parks and a strengthened downtown.

Based on community input, a set of four Scenarios were created. Each scenario showed an alternative future for Tulsa by varying different factors related to economic development, planning, transportation, infrastructure, and other policy decisions. The Citizens’ Team and the public reviewed these scenarios and voted on their preferred Vision for how the city should feel and look in the future. With over 5000 responses, strong support was shown for new possibilities versus continuing the current trends. The Vision for Tulsa is designed to reflect these diverse values and preferences, and accounts for the best aspects of the most popular scenarios: revitalizing downtown, reinvesting in Tulsa’s corridors, preserving existing communities, and building new neighborhoods and centers.

Building the Plan

Based on the vision for the future, a set of guiding principles were developed to move Tulsa towards the shared vision. The Comprehensive Plan is built around those principles and organized into five chapters: land use, transportation, economic development, housing, and parks, trails and open space. The Priorities, Goals, and Policies are outlined for each chapter topic. In July 2010, the Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and approved by the Tulsa City Council. The City of Tulsa and INCOG continue to implement the Plan today, and the Tulsa Planning Office is in the process of updating the plan in time for its 10th anniversary.