OKC Plan, 2000-2020 - City of Oklahoma City

The City of
Oklahoma City
OKC Plan,
2000-2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vision ....................................................................................................................... 1
Land Use and Design ............................................................................................. 9
Rural Area ............................................................................................................ 12
Urban Growth Area .............................................................................................. 14
Traditional Neighborhoods .................................................................................. 19
Downtown ............................................................................................................ 21
Regional Commercial Centers and Major Activity Corridors ............................. 22
Regional Mobility Corridors ................................................................................ 23
Industrial Areas .................................................................................................... 24
City-wide Policies ................................................................................................ 25
Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization .............................................................................. 27
Transportation ........................................................................................................................... 33
Public Services ............................................................................................................................ 47
Parks and Open Space ............................................................................................................... 57
Education .................................................................................................................................... 65
Historic Preservation ................................................................................................................. 71
Culture ........................................................................................................................................ 77
Community Appearance ........................................................................................................... 83
Economic Development ............................................................................................................. 93
Environmental Concerns .......................................................................................................... 97
Regional Context ...................................................................................................................... 103
Implementation ........................................................................................................................ 109
i

Explanatory Notes
This plan provides general direction to public and private decision makers as to growth,
development, redevelopment, and revitalization in Oklahoma City. Specific development
requirements will be contained within City’s ordinances and regulations.
Directions are general statements of the basic approaches to be carried out in the plan and are
equivalent to goals in other plans. Actions are more specific statements indicating steps/programs to
carry out the directions and are equivalent to policies in other plans. Plan conformance of
development proposals will be evaluated according to action statements.
The Development Areas map (page 10) and the Land Use Plan map (page 11) are generalized and
are not intended to be parcel specific and may be adjusted in relation to specific development
requests.
This plan is not intended to be all inclusive as to actions for accomplishing the Plan’s directions.
The absence of a direct reference in the Plan to any specific action does not limit the City in taking
actions reasonably related to accomplishing the directions set forth in the Plan.
ii

Vision

Rural Neighborhoods
Rural areas are primarily used for agricultural, forestry, mining purposes and scattered
residential development. Rural areas for the purposes of the plan are areas that do not require a full
range of essential city services. Essential services are defined in the 1990 OKC Plan as Water,
Waste Water, and urban fire protection. For the purposes of this discussion, “rural” will be defined
as all areas of Oklahoma City that presently lack one or more essential service and where such
services are not anticipated to be made available for at least 20 years. Areas in which it is anticipated
that all essential services are to be made available during the Planning period will be defined as
Growth areas, even if the present character is Rural.
Assets
Because of the large incorporated area and its location between the woodlands to the east and the
rolling prairie to the west, Oklahoma City has a wide variety of rural areas. These areas include the
wooded areas to the east and northeast, the rolling and partially wooded countryside east of Draper
Lake, the scenic areas south of Mustang, and gentle prairie topography in the north and northwestern
parts of the city. All these areas provide a rich and scenic context for the urban area and contain a
variety of assets that are in critical need of protection. These assets include the following:.
The agricultural, ranching and oil and gas extraction uses contribute significantly to the
Oklahoma City economy.
Rural areas provide locations for people who choose to live close to the city but enjoy the peace
and quiet of the countryside.
The surrounding rural areas provide a scenic context for the city. Properly protected, the
surrounding rural areas can pleasantly contrast with the intense development of the city and be a
source of community enjoyment and pride.
Many of the rural areas are in the watershed areas of Oklahoma City’s lakes (and surrounding
lakes, such as Thunderbird and Arcadia) that provide storage for the region's water supply.
Protection of these areas was a reason for the aggressive annexation program of the 1960's.
The rural areas include recharge areas for the region's aquifers, such as Garber-Wellington.
Directions
The historic uses, such as agricultural, ranching, and oil and gas extraction (where they are not
detrimental to the environment or neighboring properties), should be encouraged to continue and
be supported by appropriate services in rural areas.
Natural assets, such as wooded areas, natural topography, wildlife habitat, creeks and wetlands
should be protected.
An appropriate level of rural public services should be provided in an efficient and economical
manner.
1

Urban Growth Neighborhoods
Urban growth is the area of Oklahoma City where all city services are presently available or
are anticipated to be made available during the horizon of the Comprehensive Plan (minus the
revitalization area.) This area was mostly developed after 1946 and is characterized by its
accessibility by motorized vehicles, low density single family housing, and commercial strip
development. The majority of Oklahoma City's growth and development in recent years has
continued to occur in this area.
Assets
Much of Oklahoma City's recent economic expansion has occurred in this area.
Public school quality is rated highly by residents.
Residents perceive fewer crime and social problems.
Housing quality and property maintenance is better than in some of the older parts of the City.
The variety of retail facilities and services are diverse and convenient.
Growth areas are close to the edge of the City or to rural areas.
Growth areas included are close to major parks and lakes.
There is an abundance of fully served land ready to be developed.
Capital Improvements Program (CIP) policies subsidize development costs.
Directions
Encourage “Traditional Neighborhood Development” in which higher density and more efficient
use of the infrastructure (streets, water lines, sanitary sewers) is achieved through the use of grid
plats similar to those in the Traditional Neighborhoods development area.
Provide a full range of public services to ensure long term desirability of the growth areas
As the areas mature, assure that they evolve into mature self-sustaining communities by
developing more public and civic uses.
Improve the appearance of strip commercial streets, with appropriate facade improvements,
landscaping, parking lot improvements and enhanced signage limitations.
Encourage a greater mix of land uses within growth neighborhoods to provide convenience and
reduce automobile trips.
Meet the market demand for a wide variety of housing types conveniently located to
employment centers.
Encourage development of vacant parcels adjacent to areas of existing development.
2

Traditional Neighborhoods
The Traditional Neighborhoods development area includes Oklahoma City's historic town
site and surrounding neighborhoods that were developed along the early transit lines. Most of these
areas are characterized by the simple geometry of “grid” streets with some diagonal boulevards.
They contain a rich variety of architectural styles and a mixture of land uses. Recent decades have
seen many of these areas, which radiate from downtown, go through a period of gradual but
persistent economic decline. They house a disproportionate number of Oklahoma City's poorest
residents, suffer from higher crime rates and have lacked consistent private investment in recent
decades. Most of these areas are in need of revitalization.
Assets
A wide variety of architectural styles that adds lasting texture and interest to historical
neighborhoods.
Conveniently located close to downtown and in the center of the region.
Lack of traffic congestion due to the overlapping capacity of the grid street system, convenient
access to freeway system, and outmigration.
Proximity to the MAPS projects
Mature trees that create an urban forest
Ethnic diversity that adds variety and interest to the area.
Organized neighborhoods and business associations which are actively involved in the area's
revitalization.
Neighborhood oriented elementary schools and quality magnet schools.
The availability of special funds and programs to assist in the area's revitalization, such as
CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) and HOME (Home Investment Partnership
Program).
A grid layout that is convenient for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users.
Large inventory of quality historic housing stock available for rehabilitation.
Development patterns with street orientation that is easily adaptable to neighborhood watch and
community policing programs.
Proximity to major employment centers, such as downtown, Capitol-Medical Center, Shepherd
Mall, Tinker Air Force Base/General Motors, and Reno-Meridian area.
Directions
Continue programs designed to preserve historic assets, while allowing appropriate change as
historic neighborhoods are revitalized.
Take advantage of the natural assets of the area by encouraging redevelopment that supports the
character and charm of the traditional city.
3

Continue supporting the capacity of neighborhood, non-profit and business organizations that
support revitalization programs with performance measures.
Support the redevelopment of neighborhood oriented elementary schools to provide a focus for
neighborhood revitalization.
Develop a CIP (Capital Improvements Program) that supports and encourages private investment
in revitalization areas.
Encourage redevelopment by removing regulatory barriers.
Encourage middle income families to return to the revitalization areas.
Provide incentives to develop infill housing and businesses on the large inventory of vacant lots
in the revitalization areas and maintenance of existing stock.
Reduce crime through increased enforcement activity and community policing.
Improve the appearance of strip commercial streets, with appropriate facade improvements,
landscaping, parking lot improvements and enhanced signage limitations.
Downtown
Oklahoma City’s downtown, like downtowns throughout the nation, experienced a decline in
economic vitality in the period following World War II. A number of factors contributed to this
decline—plentiful land available for development at the City’s periphery, flat terrain with an
absence of natural geographical boundaries, school desegregation, increased reliance on the
automobile, an improved middle class standard of living, and competition from adjoining cities.
In an effort to redress the decline of downtown Oklahoma City, over a thousand buildings
were torn down between the 1960s and the 1980s to create a platform for renewal. This renaissance
effort had been only partially realized when the oil bust of the early 1980s hit, sending downtown
into an economic tailspin. In order to reverse the trend of decline, voters, in 1993, approved a series
of bold new construction and refurbishment projects, collectively referred to as MAPS (Metropolitan
Area Projects). The 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building interrupted the
momentum for renewal, but with the completion of the first MAPS projects and the finalization of
bombing repairs and reconstruction, investment interest in downtown is resurging.
The challenge now is to capitalize on the gains made in the last few years in order to create
reinvestment momentum that will continue indefinitely. New investment must be able to build off
what already exists; it must be able to successfully compete with the suburban market; and it must
contribute to the creation of a self sustaining, down-turn resistant downtown community that
functions beyond the 9 to 5 work day. There are no short term fixes. Any new investment must be
focused on the long term and must be sustainable.
4

areas:
Achieving sustainable downtown revitalization requires an emphasis on development in three
residential development and the creation of a permanent downtown urban neighborhood,
improved occupation rates for office and commercial buildings, and diversification of core
downtown functions, and
continued development of an Entertainment/Cultural district.
A revised view of the City’s role in providing supporting infrastructure and services is also needed.
Oklahoma City downtown is presently divided into several semi-distinct districts. While the
success of downtown as a whole is a top priority, the separate identity of each of these districts is
important and needs to be emphasized in future redevelopment efforts. These districts are:
Downtown core
North Downtown (N. 4th to N. 13th, Classen to I-235)
Bricktown entertainment district
Harrison-Walnut area
Cultural district (including the area from the Civic Center to the Myriad Gardens).
Initial redevelopment efforts will need to focus on these districts because they have already
been supported by MAPS and bombing funds. It will be difficult to plan for revitalization of the
south downtown area (the area between the present alignment of I-40 and the river) until the
proposed route for I-40 has been finalized and funds set aside for construction. Redevelopment of
this area is unlikely to be successful until the downtown core and contiguous districts are stable and
growing on their own accord. Furthermore, strategic alliances should be formed and planning
assistance should be provided to the contiguous neighboring districts to help facilitate their stability
and encourage redevelopment.
Assets
MAPS projects
Reconstruction in wake of the Murrah bombing
Bricktown vitality and capacity for further growth
Public support for downtown revitalization (citizen survey).
Excellent regional access (I-40, I-35, I-235, I-44 and renewed Amtrak service)
Enterprise Community designation and possible Empowerment Zone designation.
Potential additional Federal bombing recovery funds
Vacant land, much of it in the control of the Urban Renewal Authority
Reconstruction of I-40
Automobile Alley revitalization
5

New Federal Campus
Murrah National Memorial
New YMCA
St. Anthony Hospital complex
Nonprofit community development and improvement organizations such as Automobile Alley
Main Street, Midtown Redevelopment Corporation and Historic Preservation, Inc., Downtown
Now, Inc., Myriad Gardens Foundation, and others.
Arts Council of Oklahoma City Cultural Complex and Oklahoma City Art Museum (to be
located in the Centre Theater building)
Potential for the development of a Cultural District.
Directions
Make downtown an attractive, desirable and efficient center for business and regional
entertainment and cultural activities.
Make downtown the priority location for government offices, high rise office buildings, business
retail, and cultural and athletic attractions.
Focus the revitalization strategy on residential development, improved occupancy rates and
quality of commercial space, enhancing cultural/entertainment options and supporting
infrastructure (parking and parking management, streets, access, signage, green space,
streetscaping, and other amenities and services).
Encourage an economic mix of downtown housing that will lead to sustainable growth. Provide
public incentives and support for residential development.
Make all forms of transportation safe, easy and pleasant downtown.
Improve downtown appearance.
Support diversification of downtown economic and cultural activities. Promote downtown as a
“Second Neighborhood” or “Central Social District.”
Promote public-private cooperation to support redevelopment. Provide public and encourage
private support for nonprofit civic organizations working on behalf of the different downtown
sub-districts.
Promote, protect, cherish, honor, value, safeguard, and revitalize our historical resources.
Ensure downtown education facilities and experiences are the highest quality.
6

Regional Shopping Centers
The City of Oklahoma City makes a significant investment in taxpayer funds to support the
City’s three regional shopping centers. Support is provided in the form of roads, sewer and water,
ongoing maintenance, fire support, and other services provided directly to the centers and to the
catchments of residential development that provide the centers’ customers. In return, the City
benefits from the sales tax revenues generated by the centers.
The City’s mission is to protect and enhance this reciprocal cycle of mutual benefit as much
as it can (within its jurisdictional limitations) to ensure that the quality of life we enjoy in Oklahoma
City is maintained.
There are three regional shopping centers in Oklahoma City—Crossroads Mall,
Quail Springs Mall and Penn Square Mall. Each of these attracts large numbers of shoppers
annually, generating substantial sales tax revenues. By their presence, the malls act as a community
anchor, and therefore a construction generator since they provide a substantial incentive for
residential and other development within the mall’s customer catchment. Not insignificantly, the
malls also provide a form of “main street” social outlet for the suburban shopper.
Assets
High quality, diverse retail outlets
Primary generator of sales tax revenue
Primary generator of development in surrounding neighborhoods
Community anchor
Social meeting place
Direction
To sustain and enhance the viability of existing regional shopping centers wherever possible by
maintaining existing City services and infrastructure and providing additional services and
infrastructure when justified because of Center expansion or improvements.
Industrial Areas
Although manufacturing employment has been declining in recent years as a share of total
employment in our nation, the industrial sector remains a significant employer and generator of
wealth for many Oklahomans, and will no doubt continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
Following the oil bust of the mid-1980’s, Oklahoma City business and government leaders actively
worked to diversify our economy. The City will continue its efforts to foster new growth and a
diversified economy.
7

Oklahoma City faces stiff competition in our attempts to attract high profile wealth
generators, such as high tech industry and tourism. The City, therefore, needs to continue focusing
on its particular strengths—an industrious work force, its highly rated universities, the availability of
developable land, low cost of living, minimal environmental constraints, and three major interstate
highways, including the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act) corridor. To remain competitive
with other communities, the City will also need to focus more attention on its overall appearance.
Assets
Abundance of affordable, easily developable land
Proximity to major interstate transportation routes, including NAFTA corridor
Stable economy
Major universities and Vo-Tech facilities
Plentiful water supply
Participation in the Brownfields program to clean up polluted sites
Diversified production capacity
Directions
Ensure adequate supply of land and infrastructure to support continued industrial growth.
Attract development that optimizes the Oklahoma City economy via high employment, high
wages, low environmental impact, significant growth potential and long term viability.
Improve the aesthetic appearance of industrial areas.
Review existing barriers to industrial expansion with view to mitigating these wherever possible.
Address any historic environmental issues that may be hindering development in industrially
zoned areas.
Aggressively market Oklahoma City strengths for industrial development to out of state
companies.
Provide public infrastructure support as required to support expansion and new industrial
development.
Encourage the development of industrial parks to accommodate varying land use needs.
Protect land designated for industrial development from encroachment by conflicting uses.
8

Land Use
and Design

Every era brings new conditions and new policies to meet them. The coming of the
automobile led to the 1910 plan for a Grand Boulevard loop around the city. Frantic growth in the
1920s and pent-up development pressure in the 1940s each produced city plans calling for orderly
development.
The post-war boom brought freeways, suburbs, strip development, annexations and
downtown demolition. A new comprehensive plan in 1977 tried to stabilize neighborhoods and deal
with the implications of unrestricted outward development.
A 1990 plan responded to early concerns about the city’s appearance and its capacity to
attract industry. This plan sharpened the criteria for approving outer development, created industrial
reserves, and encouraged attractive development along highways.
The end of the century brings stronger mandates to revitalize the central area and improve
appearances. There is also a call to begin restoring a sense of community. The land use and design
policies below respond to these new imperatives.
The land use policies in this plan address the location, types, and intensity of growth and
redevelopment anticipated in Oklahoma City for the next twenty years (2000-2020). These policies
are intended to serve as a guide for decisions by citizens, businesses, and City officials in their
decisions affecting our City’s future growth. The Plan’s land use policies will also direct efforts to
ensure that public services including water supply, sewage treatment, police and fire protection, and
transportation facilities are adequate to meet anticipated growth and redevelopment.
Design policies address how land, structures, and transportation links will be built to achieve
a high-quality community. Design policies are thus an essential compliment to land use policies
which address where, how much, and what type development should occur at various locations. The
key elements of community design include street widths, intersection treatments, sidewalks, lighting,
parking arrangements, landscaping, buildings, and architectural characteristics. Making these design
elements work together in a cohesive, comfortable, and engaging manner is the challenge of shaping
our City’s environment.
Properly implemented, good community design and land use policies can conserve land, keep
infrastructure and public service costs under control, and lead to more satisfying, livable
communities. To the extent possible, design and land use policies should be implemented through
the development regulations of basic zoning districts.
The Development Areas Map (page 10) and the Land Use Plan Map (page 11) indicate the
location of various areas to which particular plan policies will apply.
9

Rural Area
The Rural Area contains open country with very low intensity development. The
predominant uses are agriculture, open space, and residential on large lots. These neighborhoods lie
beyond the reach of most urban services for the next 20 years or more.
Determining the suitable intensity for development is a key factor in planning for the Rural
Area. This will include decisions as to appropriate density for residential development and the scale
and character of commercial, industrial, and other non-residential development.
There is no single standard for appropriate residential density, given the broad expanse of the
Rural Area, varying levels of public services throughout the area, and wide differences in the scale
and character of existing development. A near-urban density of one dwelling unit per acre may be
appropriate where public services are generally available at close to urban area levels. In locations
where public services are minimal to absent, the appropriate standard may be lots of five acres and
larger. At locations with intermediate service levels, densities between one and five acres per
dwelling unit may be appropriate. Factors to be considered in decisions regarding appropriate levels
of development in the Rural Area are examined in the following sections.
Compatibility with existing development. Rural residents and property owners have invested
in their properties, in large part, because of a desire for “country living.” These existing property
owners may view development proposals with smaller lot sizes than their own or with greater
amounts of commercial uses as impacting their preferred rural lifestyle. However, compatibility
should not be so strictly interpreted as to entirely preclude development, or force all development
within an area to be within a very narrow range of lot sizes.
Adequacy of services. Residential and commercial development replaces natural ground
cover with impervious surfaces (streets, parking areas, and rooftops) and increases the amount of
stormwater run-off. The increased run-off can overload area creeks and lead to downstream
flooding. In addition, the time required for police and fire units to respond calls in outlying rural
areas is generally greater than the response times in other areas of the City. As development
increases in rural areas, some residents and property owners may request better police and fire
protection. Meeting these requests would likely require increasing the number of police patrol units
and the construction of new fire stations.
Water quality and quantity. Water wells provide water supply for most of the Rural Area and
sewage treatment is generally provided by septic tanks. Soil types and subsurface geology differ
from location to location and this variability greatly impacts suitability for water wells and septic
tanks. Tight soils in some areas can increase the size of drain fields required for suitable operation
of septic tanks. Other areas may require alternative systems for sewage treatment. In other locations
underground water may be nearly absent or severely limited with only a small number of suitable
water well locations.
12

Traffic considerations. In some locations unpaved or poorly paved roads may be unsuitable
for the increased traffic volumes resulting from proposed development. In addition, the increased
traffic volumes accompanying increased development may lead to increased wear on roadways.
Current residents may perceive the increased traffic as a threat to their rural life-style. In areas of
hilly topography great care is needed in locating entry streets for proposed developments to avoid
traffic hazards from inadequate sight lines.
Public health and safety considerations. Aging oil and gas wells in the vicinity of proposed
rural developments may indicate possible contamination of underground water supplies. This
equipment can also be dangerous to children and animals. Sand mining operations and industrial
activities adjacent to rural residential development can create problems with noise, odors, blowing
dust, and trucks wearing down area roads.
Costs for City Services. Approval of rural development in areas where City services are not
adequate may lead to requests by some area residents and property owners for service
improvements. Meeting these requests may require the City to construct new facilities including fire
stations, road improvements, or extension of water and sewer service. The City could also face
increased operational costs from far-flung rural development including road maintenance and
vehicle expenses for police and fire response.
Additional factors. Increased development in rural areas will increase the number of
residents and business customers leading to possible conflicts with adjoining agricultural uses.
Overly porous soils and rock layers may increase the likelihood that water wells would be
contaminated from improperly located septic tanks and surface runoff of lawn and agricultural
chemicals. Efforts to preserve historic sites may be more difficult with the increased housing units
and businesses.
The Rural Area is shown on the Development Areas Map (page 10) and the Land Use Plan
Map (page 11).
Directions
Maintain the rural character of natural areas, open fields, pastures, forests, farmland, and
scattered farmhouses while allowing for rural development.
Establish residential densities that support rural lifestyles while providing levels of public
services appropriate for rural development. Relate residential densities to the following factors:
• Compatibility with existing development in the vicinity
• Adequacy of public services including water supply, sewage treatment, police and fire
protection, emergency services, and streets and roadways
• Potential hazards to public health and safety such as oil wells, oilfield equipment, and
mining operations
• Impact on surface water, aquifers, adjacent agricultural operations, or historic sites
Relate the scale and character of commercial uses and other uses that support residential
development to the needs of residents in the vicinity.
13

Create density and design options and preserve rural open areas through clustering of residential
uses on lots smaller than the density standard.
Provide limited amounts of commercial development in rural areas appropriate to meet the needs
of rural residents
Preserve attractive views, retain drainageways in a natural state, and maintain floodplains as
undeveloped areas (subject to Action statement on page 19).
Actions
Require subdivisions in rural areas to meet standards for services in rural areas, dedicate utility
easements, and pave streets according to standards for rural areas.
Limit residential development in the Rural Area to densities of 1.00 dwelling units per acre or
less. Urban density residential development (R-1 and higher densities) should occur in the
Urban Growth, Traditional Neighborhoods, or Downtown Areas as designated in the
Development Areas map where public water and sewage disposal facilities are available and
fire protection meets urban standards.
Allow residential densities within the R-A zoning district to increase from a minimum of 0.70
up to 1.00 dwelling units per acre, as open space areas are incorporated into proposed
developments. Allow the option of clustering acreage or sub-acreage lots within this overall
density standard provided water supply and sewage disposal requirements are met.
Conventional Lots
Cluster Development
Reprinted with permission from Zoning News, Chicago: American Planning Association,
October 1994.
Establish a new rural residential zoning district that would allow housing development at
densities between those allowed under the R-A and AA zoning districts. Encourage clustering of
residential units within developments allowed under the new zoning district to reduce the impact
of the development on adjacent areas, provide open space and recreational amenities, and protect
natural areas.
13-1

Evaluate applications for rural residential development according to the following factors:
• Whether the density proposed is compatible with existing land uses, lot sizes, and uses
permitted on property in the immediate vicinity.
• Whether adequate services exist, or can be provided, to serve the proposed development.
Among the services to be addressed are storm drainage, sewage treatment, water supply,
police and fire protection, and emergency services.
• Whether water quality and quantity is sufficient to serve the development, and required
water wells and sanitary services will not negatively impact nearby properties. Data related
to water sufficiency could include aquifer draw down and recharge rates, water flow rates in
pounds per square inch, and tests to determine pH (acidity), and concentrations of coliform
bacteria, dissolved solids, chlorides, nitrates, sulfur compounds, and arsenic.
• Whether the proposed development at build-out will have a negative impact on vehicular
traffic and traffic safety based on the current capacity and design of adjacent public roads.
• Whether oil and gas wells, mining operations, or industrial activity in the vicinity of the
proposed development raise safety or quality-of-life concerns.
• Whether the proposed development will have a positive or negative fiscal impact on the
City’s finances. The evaluation of the fiscal impact of proposed development should
consider both the City’s cost of providing additional levels of public services and the
anticipated revenues generated. Both costs and revenues will vary based on the size and
location of the proposed development.
• Whether the proposed development will have other undesired impacts including impacts on
natural areas, surface water, aquifers, adjacent agricultural operations, or historic sites.
Continue to protect water supplies by retaining sensitive reservoir watersheds as Environmental
Conservation areas.
Limit use within designated Environmental Conservation areas to public open space, crops and
grazing, recreation, and five-acre tract residential. Develop standards within designated
Environmental Conservation areas that ensure that proposed uses do not adversely affect the
quality of public water supplies and water wells on adjoining properties.
Allow the option of cluster development as a means to preserve drainageways as rural open
space.
Increase building setbacks along arterials to reduce the impact of development in rural settings.
Two-lane roads should be maintained in a way that provides safe transportation and preserves
rural character.
Support limited amounts of commercial (one-to-two acres per use) and recreational uses
appropriate to the needs of rural residents.
Create a rural commercial zoning district designed for rural needs.
Continue to enforce adopted rural fire protection policies.
13-2

Urban Growth Area
The Urban Growth Area (shown on the Development Areas Map, page 10) includes areas of
more recent and on-going development which are served by the three basic urban services—public
provided water supply, sewage treatment, and fire protection or where such services will be made
available within the time period covered by the Plan. Predominant uses are single-family homes,
apartments of moderate densities, regional and community shopping centers, low-rise office
buildings and industrial development in selected areas.
Within the Urban Growth Area residential densities usually exceed one dwelling unit per
acre. To achieve more compact residential areas, large-scale residential developments consisting of
a mixture of housing types and densities may range up to eight dwelling units per acre for an overall
project density.
Development is generally suburban in scale and modern, having mostly occurred over the
past 30 years. Construction markets are healthy, highway access is good, and household incomes
are moderate to high. Much bypassed or undeveloped land remains.
Direction
Encourage a variety of land uses, intensities, and development patterns, including the use of grid
plats, to provide more diverse residential options, a wider variety of commercial goods and
services and a more efficient use of public services.
Promote high-quality, desirable residential neighborhoods which are compact and pedestrianfriendly
with a mix of uses within walking distance. Neighborhood streets should be safe for
children, comfortable for bicycling, and pleasant for walking.
Promote high-quality commercial, office, institutional, and multi-family residential development
which is compatible with adjoining land uses, adequately served by the transportation network
and other public services, and scaled to the size of projected markets in the surrounding area.
Such development should contribute to, rather than detract from, the area’s appearance and
desirability, preserve natural features and topography, and have positive fiscal and other impacts
on the community.
Build and maintain a high-quality transportation system within the Urban Growth Area that is
adequate to the traffic needs generated by adjoining development, is cost-effective to build and
maintain, provides a full range of transportation alternatives, and enhances rather than detracts
from the Area’s appearance and livability.
Require new development to use public water supply, sewage disposal and fire protection
according to established policies.
14

Actions
Encourage a variety of land uses, intensities, and development patterns through the following
actions:
• Encourage development at higher residential densities than in the past.
• Encourage new residential construction which achieves higher densities and a mixture of
housing types within a unified development. Establish a density standard which would allow
large-scale, multi-type residential developments to achieve an overall project density of eight
dwelling units per acre. Under this standard apartment and higher-density residential areas
exceeding eight units per acre could be built when offset by lower density construction on
other portions within a unified project. Overall project densities exceeding eight dwelling
units per acre could be allowed through approved zoning for one or more of the following
situations:
- for bypassed parcels (see next policy statement),
- for development located along or within major activity corridors and major activity
centers, and
- as part of major mixed use development projects.
• Promote responsible development of bypassed parcels (vacant areas which remain
undeveloped several years after development has occurred on adjoining property) through
the following actions.
- Allow development at somewhat higher intensities than exist on adjoining developed
parcels.
- Adopt building compatibility guidelines for new infill construction. Negotiate effective
buffers and design features on infill development proposals to protect adjoining areas,
particularly adjoining residential neighborhoods.
- Continue promoting the re-use, redevelopment, and revitalization of low-performing or
declining commercial centers.
- Review the City’s development regulations, permit process, and fees to determine
appropriate changes which would encourage development of bypassed parcels.
• Encourage higher density and mixed-use development along arterial streets.
• Encourage higher densities, shorter setbacks and smaller lot sizes in passed-over areas that
feature smaller lots.
• Replace minimum lot sizes with average lot sizes to encourage development in passed-over
areas that feature larger tracts.
• Amend the zoning code to reduce lot size and setback requirements in order to promote
additional design options and greater variety and densities of housing.
• Encourage mixed-use commercial/residential buildings by allowing higher densities than
would otherwise apply.
• Amend zoning codes to allow multi-family residential and mixed residential/commercial
development in commercial districts.
15

Promote high-quality, desirable residential neighborhoods in the Urban Growth Area through the
following actions:
• Support street design which slows traffic, creates safer streets, produces a better relationship
between land use and traffic, and lowers the costs of development and public maintenance.
• Ensure that trees are used in all developments in accordance with landscaping regulations.
• Ensure that sidewalks are used in all urban developments.
• Encourage street layouts in new subdivisions which provide direct connections to nearby
destinations, such as local parks, schools, commercial districts, and adjacent neighborhoods,
without requiring every trip to go onto the arterial network.
• Encourage design concepts that minimize the visual impact of garages on the streetscape.
16

Promote high-quality commercial and high-intensity development in the Urban Growth Area
through the following actions:
• Provide incentives to encourage commercial districts rather than linear, strip development as
the preferred pattern for new commercial development. A commercial district is similar to
the traditional “main street” with multi-story buildings, service alleys, shared parking,
narrow facades, and an
occasional parking lot. These
commercial uses should have
a combination of uses
including residential.
Buildings, drives, parking
areas, and walkways should
be laid out in patterns which
encourage pedestrian activity.
Commercial districts should
be interconnected with
surrounding neighborhoods
for easy and convenient
access. As an incentive,
developers would be allowed
to dedicate larger amounts of
land to commercial use than
typically allowed in strip
commercial developments.
• Smaller-scale commercial development serving adjoining neighborhoods should locate at
major intersections in order to allow arterial streets to move volumes of traffic efficiently
and safely.
• Require that small-scale PUD’s address concerns related to building size and location,
landscaping, and signage in sufficient detail through specific development regulations and
development or site plans to ensure that the proposed development is compatible with
surrounding areas and is coordinated with nearby street, open space and utility patterns.
• Provide incentives (e.g. reduced parking requirements) for commercial buildings to be
placed close to streets and sidewalks, with parking areas placed away.
• Re-evaluate parking standards for large developments with the aim of reducing parking
requirements where appropriate and revise ordinances accordingly. Consider requiring
traffic impact studies for large developments which model fully developed conditions.
• Encourage shared parking among contiguous developments.
• Include on-street parking in the calculation for required parking for commercial, office and
church uses.
17

• Improve the appearance of commercial and office areas through the following actions.
- Establish a ten percent requirement for landscaping in commercial and office
development (new building and renovation).
- Encourage landscaping to be concentrated on the street side, especially between the
street and parking areas.
- Allow a reduction in parking space requirements for developments which provide
landscaping above the basic requirements.
- Require that landscaped areas be of sufficient size to allow full growth of vegetation and
to prevent interference with the quality of surrounding structures or paved areas.
- Encourage the use of native plants and xeriscaping techniques.
• Review Oklahoma City’s sign regulations to determine changes which would enhance
community appearance while maintaining the economic viability of businesses.
Work with neighborhood, community, and business groups in traditional neighborhoods to
develop community partnerships and resources that support neighborhood based cultural,
recreational, and educational programs.
Build and maintain a high-quality transportation system within the Urban Growth Area through
the following actions:
• Include streetscape elements in all street capital improvement projects. This includes
sidewalks separated from the street, street trees, bus shelters, pedestrian-scale lighting, and
bike lanes.
• Evaluate street width design guidelines to determine if they could be reduced.
• Require sidewalks to be installed along all streets within new urban development and ensure
that these sidewalks are properly maintained.
- When a new residential development goes in next to an existing retail or commercial
development, require the residential developer to construct sidewalk access up to the
property line to the existing retail/commercial area.
- When a new commercial development goes in next to an existing residential area, require
the commercial developer to construct sidewalk access up to the property line to connect
to the existing residential area.
All development within the Urban Growth Area should be served by urban water and sewer
utility systems in accordance with existing standards.
Encourage unified planning for all adjoining land owned or controlled by a project’s developer
to ensure proper land use and street relationships. Developers could submit sketch plans for
those portions of a development on which planned uses are not definitely known or on which
development will not occur for several years.
Evaluate landscape regulations to determine if more effective guidelines could be developed.
18

Retain flood plains in their natural, unaltered condition unless proven to be detrimental to
existing buildings or no other alternatives for remediation exist. Instead of concrete channels,
provide flood control with increased flood plains, on-site detention, reduction of impervious
surfacing, and preservation of the 100-year flood plain.
Traditional Neighborhoods
The Traditional Neighborhoods Area (shown on the Development Areas Map, page 10) is
located in the central portion of Oklahoma City. This area consists of mature neighborhoods and
commercial buildings built at least 30 years ago. Many of the area’s neighborhoods and structures
are historic and architecturally significant. Urban services are available and cost effective due to
more concentrated development patterns.
A broad range of land uses is present. Renovation and restoration activities are common.
There are moderate levels of new construction involving infill development on bypassed parcels or
demolition and replacement of older structures.
Directions
Protect the character and promote the desirability of the Area’s established neighborhoods and
commercial districts.
Identify and preserve historic neighborhoods and landmarks. Build upon the Area’s historic
character by encouraging redevelopment that supports the style and charm of the older city.
Support increased residential densities for infill development or in selected areas.
Revitalize low-performing or declining commercial and mixed-use districts.
Apply appropriate design and construction controls to ensure that new construction is compatible
with existing development.
Provide for the needs of major institutions such as universities, hospitals and museums while
ensuring that the institutions function as an anchor for their neighborhoods on the basis of
mutual benefit.
19

Support programs which enable resident and business groups to maintain and enhance the
appearance and desirability of their neighborhoods.
Actions
Protect the character of existing neighborhoods through the following actions:
• Maintain the traditional grid street pattern within these neighborhoods and keep alleys open
and functioning. When improving older streets in neighborhoods, maintain original street
widths and turning radii.
• Retain the traditional orientation of structures to the street.
• Preserve mature trees within the neighborhoods, remove dead trees, and promote the
planting of new street trees where needed.
• Maintain historical lot and block sizes.
• Ensure consistency and compatibility of construction materials and architectural styles.
Protect the area’s historic neighborhoods and buildings by continuing programs designed to
preserve historic assets. Allow appropriate change as historic areas are revitalized.
Work with neighborhood, community, and business groups in traditional neighborhoods to
develop community partnerships and resources that support neighborhood based cultural,
recreational, and educational programs.
Promote responsible infill development on vacant parcels through the following actions:
• Approve zoning requests for infill housing of higher but suitable densities on vacant lots
within established neighborhoods.
• Establish a revitalization zoning district or special overlay zoning that would put in place a
design review process. The design review process would ensure architectural compatibility
for infill development.
• Review the City’s development regulations, permit process, and fees to determine
appropriate changes which would encourage infill development.
Promote quality commercial, office, institutional, and multi-family residential development in
the Area which supports and is compatible with the Area’s residential neighborhoods. The
following actions can promote this goal:
• Continue promoting the re-use, redevelopment, and revitalization of low-performing or
declining commercial centers.
• Create additional Main Street districts to revitalize older commercial areas.
• Allow homes facing arterial streets to convert to office use only if the proposed office use is
located in an area designated for conversion and only under the condition of combining
several lots into a single planned development.
• Amend home occupation rules to allow homes facing arterial streets to employ up to two
outside employees and to affix name plates to the front of the home.
20

• Support universities, hospitals and museums when expansion is needed, subject to
appropriate plans and controls which would minimize adverse impacts on adjoining
neighborhoods and maintain the long-term viability of both the institutions and their
neighbors.
• Consider reduced parking requirements for commercial developments in Traditional
Neighborhood areas.
Support resident and business groups in maintaining and enhancing the appearance and
desirability of their neighborhoods through the actions outlined below. The Housing and
Neighborhood Revitalization Element provides further detail on these actions.
• Assist neighborhoods and commercial associations in organizing for neighborhood
improvement efforts.
• Continue programs that provide grants to neighborhood and business groups for physical
improvements. Improvements to consider include replacing crumbling sidewalks and curbs,
installing street trees and pedestrian-scale lighting, making park and school improvements,
and providing seed money for facade improvements.
• Look for ways to deal with life, safety, and handicap access issues with regard to older
buildings and areas. Currently, these regulations can place older buildings into economic
obsolescence and aggravate blighting conditions.
• Expand low income assistance programs to resolve exterior maintenance problems.
Downtown
Downtown Oklahoma City (shown on the Development Areas Map, page 10) lies at the
center of a metro area of more than one million people. Office, retail, and cultural and entertainment
uses predominate. Preserving and enhancing Downtown’s role as an employment, cultural,
residential, and entertainment center is a primary goal of this Plan.
Directions
Make downtown an attractive, comfortable, and exciting place to work, live, and visit.
Make traveling downtown safe, easy, and pleasant whether by vehicle or on foot.
Actions
Increase employment and housing densities in the Downtown Area.
Create a Downtown Appearance Improvement Plan. The focus would be on such issues as
property maintenance, streetscaping, increased open space, improved public spaces, litter
control, and reduced surface parking lots.
Expand the Urban Design District to include all of downtown.
21

Review existing street and traffic patterns to make driving, walking, or transit use easier, safer
and more enjoyable. Incorporate the findings of this review in the design and construction of
Downtown street projects. Study the one-way street system to identify unintended results.
Consider coordinating traffic lights and using intersection bump-outs. (Bump-outs are walkways
extended into an intersection with restrictions on vehicle parking and traffic. Bump-outs cut
down the distance and time required to cross a street.)
Provide design features in new downtown developments which promote pedestrian activities
such as benches, trees, transit shelters, and plazas.
Develop incentives to encourage development or redevelopment of downtown with a preference
for mixed uses, greater densities, and elements that contribute to the existing fabric and are
consistent with the downtown master plan.
Develop incentives to encourage buildings six stories and higher to be constructed in downtown.
Encourage the development of a master plan with all key downtown constituents to address key
issues relating to downtown and its future including, but not limited to:
• residential development;
• commercial development;
• entertainment, sporting, and cultural events;
• social issues (including homelessness);
• transportation;
• education; and
• infrastructure.
Regional Commercial Centers
Major Activity Corridors
Regional Commercial Centers and Major Activity Corridors (shown on the Land Use Map,
page 11) are areas of concentrated commercial activities serving customers from throughout the City
and region. Land use is predominately commercial with some office uses mixed in. Higher density
residential uses are appropriate within Activity Corridors and are encouraged as part of mixed use
developments within Regional Commercial Centers.
Directions
Promote large-scale commercial development serving regional markets which is economically
viable, provides a pleasant, attractive work and shopping environment, and complements
surrounding development.
Extend a human scale and pedestrian friendliness throughout large-scale commercial
development.
22

Actions
Maintain residential zoning for existing residential areas along major activity corridors. Allow
commercial, office, or institutional development within these areas only upon adoption of a
transition plan for a specifically defined area. The transition plan should include design
treatments and implementation measures to protect adjoining residential areas.
Allow buildings six stories and higher to locate within Regional Commercial Centers and along
Major Activity Corridors subject to development requirements which ensure compatibility with
adjoining development and minimize adverse impacts on nearby neighborhoods.
Investigate incentives to encourage enhancement of facility appearance. In particular, large
expanses of blank walls should be interrupted by vertical elements, doors, windows, or other
architectural elements.
Examine existing parking regulations for shopping centers to determine if these requirements
are excessive. Consider allowing alternative parking lot surfaces for peak-use overflow.
Increase landscaping requirements for surface parking. Planting islands should be increased in
size to ensure trees do not “out grow” the space available.
Designate certain key routes into and through the City as Appearance Corridors. Implement
programs to maintain an attractive appearance within these corridors including litter control,
property and roadway maintenance, and special appearance controls on new development.
Regional Mobility Corridors
After this Plan is adopted, the City will evaluate major activity corridors for designation as
Regional Mobility Corridors. Those corridors selected as Regional Mobility Corridors will be
programmed for concentrated housing, commercial, and office development with supporting
expanded transit programs offering a variety of transportation choices. Regional Mobility Corridors
will link downtown Oklahoma City with outlying areas and other metro communities.
The following policies serve as a starting point for selecting Regional Mobility Corridors.
These policies will be expanded as part of the corridor planning process.
Directions
Encourage high concentrations of housing, commercial and office development along the select
corridors.
Provide infrastructure improvements and expanded public services to designated corridors to
attract and support higher levels of development.
Provide special transit programs for the select corridors.
23

Actions
Adopt land use policies tailored for each designated corridor that protect existing centers, allow
sufficient space for major development, provide attractive designs, and mitigate impacts within
the corridor and on adjacent areas.
Encourage new development and seek intensification of existing uses along designated corridors
in conjunction with programmed street and transit improvements designed to increase volumes
and facilitate both vehicular and pedestrian movements.
Adopt special zoning districts for designated corridors that allow multiple types of uses by right,
high-rise buildings, and higher densities for housing; that reduce or eliminate parking
requirements for intensive development; and that require attractive appearances and transition
and buffering treatments to minimize adverse impacts on adjoining areas.
Distinguish these corridors with special names and place distinctive signs along the corridors to
prominently display the names.
Industrial Areas
Industrial Areas (shown on the Land Use Map, page 11) contain the primary locations for
manufacturing activities within Oklahoma City. These areas are also associated with major
transportation facilities serving the manufacturing activities including major highways, railways,
airports, and freight terminals.
Direction
Promote industrial areas which are economically viable, well-served by transportation and public
infrastructure, and is compatible with surrounding development.
Improve the appearance of industrial areas.
Actions
Designate sufficient lands for major industry and for industrial parks.
Create a Technology Park/Research and Development zoning classification. The development
regulations for this zoning classifications should provide for specialized communications
technology, underground utilities, enhanced landscaping including berms and trees, and other
amenities including sidewalks and trails.
Encourage industrial development around airports.
Confine heavy industrial zoning to established industrial districts and farther than a quarter-mile
from designated appearance corridors.
Encourage oil drilling in industrial areas to locate near major streets so as to keep interior areas
free of obstructions that could hinder industrial development.
24

Increase landscaping and screening requirements and develop a program to address screening
and landscaping needs adjacent to residential areas and along highways and arterial streets
abutting industrial uses.
Apply special design controls to areas designated for Protected Industrial development. These
controls could be implemented through Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) or by creation of a
new zoning district. Encourage industrial park design which includes sensitive design and
placement of buildings, screening or prohibiting outdoor storage, parcel sizes which allow for
long term expansion for individual users, special landscaping requirements, and buffering
treatments for truck access and loading facilities.
Facilitate high quality industrial development which brings about significant public benefits
including expanded employment opportunities through targeted extension of public utilities and
transportation services. High-technology developments may have special service needs
including fiber optic communications, grade separated highway access, rail access, proximity to
airports, and high volume demand for electric, natural gas, water, and sewer utilities.
City-wide Policies
The following policies apply throughout the City and supplement the policies previously
outlined for designated areas.
Direction
Support a variety of housing types and densities throughout the city
Promote land use development which is economically viable, beneficial for the community, and
compatible among uses.
Improve Oklahoma City’s appearance and livability.
Actions
Encourage apartment development in the downtown, in established centers of intensive
development, on open land around major shopping centers, and along major arterials and
highways.
Support mobile home parks and manufactured housing developments where that pattern is
already established or where compatible with the character of surrounding development. These
developments should have attractive layouts and adverse impacts on surrounding neighborhoods
should be minimized.
Review land uses for their impacts on surrounding development and determine which uses may
need tighter controls to minimize impacts.
25

Protect airport runway approach zones and restrict residential and commercial development
under the approach path of airport runways.
Restrict commercial uses with exterior displays to areas on the edge of downtown, along selected
sections of freeway frontages, adjacent to industrial districts, areas away from residential
districts, or along arterial streets where external display is well established.
Amend the zoning code to require new churches in the urbanized area to screen parking lots
against adjoining residential areas.
Place public buildings in visible and accessible locations.
Review sign regulations to enhance community appearance and ensure compatibility with other
urban design elements while maintaining business viability.
Enhance the appearance of major gateways into the City.
Support regulations and procedures which provide quality open space within development
projects and which ensure the long-term maintenance of these open areas.
Develop and implement a Tree Master Plan as a key element in the City’s program to enhance
the appearance of neighborhoods and business areas. The Tree Master Plan effort should include
the adoption of appropriate standards for planting and maintaining street trees and these
standards should be incorporated into the City’s Subdivision and street design standards.
Among the topics to be included in the Tree Master Plan are
• the benefits of trees,
• standards related to the location of trees and the relationship of trees to street paving and
sidewalks,
• standards identifying who should plant trees, when trees should be planted during the
development process, and who should be responsible for maintaining trees,
• City role in planting trees as part of neighborhood improvement programs and in promoting
tree planting and preservation, and
• resources to be utilized in planting and maintaining trees.
Implement design requirements through appropriate changes to the development regulations of
basic zoning districts.
26

Housing and
Neighborhood
Revitalization

Housing and neighborhoods are two basic and closely related building blocks of a
community. Adequate housing provides the foundation for creating healthy and viable
neighborhoods. In turn, strong neighborhoods are the underpinning of a vital community.
Despite its importance, sound housing is not the only indicator of neighborhood quality.
Other factors such as friendly neighbors, proximity to schools and transportation, retail stores,
services, natural beauty, and population diversity may be equally or more important than housing
quality. Neighborhood quality, therefore, is somewhat intangible and may have different meanings
depending on individual preferences.
Housing and neighborhood preservation policies, therefore, must account for the particular
factors that shape both city-wide and neighborhood housing markets. In addition, these policies
must incorporate citizen needs and preferences for adequate housing and neighborhood quality.
City-Wide Housing Policies
All residents of Oklahoma City, regardless of income levels and where they live within the
City, desire a broad selection of decent housing in safe and pleasant neighborhoods.
Directions
Provide adequate and affordable housing for all residents of Oklahoma City.
Ensure that residents of Oklahoma City will have a wide choice of desirable neighborhood
environments and housing styles.
Promote housing patterns which make efficient use of existing investments in public and private
services and facilities and which minimize the need for additional investments.
Actions
Provide adequate and affordable housing for residents of all income levels by promoting new
housing construction and rehabilitation of existing housing stock at a wide range of housing
prices.
Establish programs to assist prospective homeowners in overcoming barriers to home ownership
including down payment assistance, subsidies to lower interest payments, and assistance in
obtaining property insurance.
Promote housing choice by providing a variety of architectural styles and materials throughout
the City and in individual neighborhoods.
Adopt housing and development regulations which allow quality, non-traditional housing (such
as granny flats, backyard rental units, manufactured housing, and loft development) within
typical neighborhoods while maintaining compatibility with existing housing.
Establish land use patterns and transportation networks which promote efficient use of public
resources and promote choice among residents as to living and working arrangements.
Develop programs to redistribute locations for subsidized housing not requiring supportive
services throughout the metro region.
27

Provide the communications infrastructure needed for anticipated increases in home-based work
and review regulations including zoning codes and neighborhood covenants which may unduly
restrict home-based work.
Promote patterns of new housing construction, infill development, and preservation of existing
housing stock which make efficient use of existing investments in public services and facilities
and which minimize the need for additional investments.
Continue working with the Enterprise Community governing board, the Community Council of
Central Oklahoma, and social service agencies to continue and expand current programs
providing housing, employment opportunities, and supportive medical, mental health, and social
services for Oklahoma City’s homeless.
Provide an adequate supply of special housing for the elderly, handicapped, mentally ill, those
recovering from addictions, and other groups with special housing and social service needs
subject to the following standards:
• Locate such housing near the populations needing services, within a reasonable proximity to
community facilities providing services and treatment, and in areas where public
transportation is accessible.
• Avoid an over-concentration of such facilities in any one area of the City.
• Design and locate such facilities so as to ensure appropriate opportunities to participate
within the life of the surrounding neighborhood.
Review current zoning and development regulations to determine appropriate changes which
would promote an adequate supply of special needs housing satisfying the criteria set forth in the
preceding policy, while ensuring that the location and operation of such facilities does not
adversely impact the surrounding neighborhood.
Neighborhood Revitalization
In some areas within the City’s traditional (central city) neighborhoods, the housing market
has been weak and neighborhood quality has been difficult to maintain. These problems may be
compounded because a weak housing market often reflects the presence of other social, political,
and economic problems. Therefore, housing policies for revitalizing these neighborhoods must
address a broad range of factors related to neighborhood health or decline.
Directions
Promote the preservation of existing housing stock.
Promote the revitalization of older neighborhoods through a variety of efforts aimed at
increasing the desirability of these neighborhoods as places to live and own homes.
Work with neighborhood organizations to develop a comprehensive strategy for improving older
neighborhoods.
Review City policies, procedures, staff capabilities, and authority under state legislation and
pursue needed changes to promote neighborhood revitalization efforts.
28

Actions
Promote the preservation of existing housing stock through the following actions:
• Emphasize preservation of existing housing stock through rehabilitation over demolition.
• Strengthen the enforcement of property maintenance codes.
• Provide financial assistance through loan programs and tax incentives to owners for
rehabilitation of both renter- and owner-occupied properties.
• Assist in the creation of tax-exempt neighborhood organizations which could receive
donations of properties which owners can no longer afford to maintain.
• Develop other programs to provide incentives for rehabilitating, rather than tearing down
older homes.
Promote the revitalization of older neighborhoods through a variety of efforts aimed at
increasing the desirability of these neighborhoods as places to live and own homes through the
following actions:
• Promote safety through neighborhood based programs to reduce crime including
neighborhood policing and neighborhood crime watch.
• Improve schools in older neighborhoods by repairing or replacing existing school buildings
and involving neighborhood, business, volunteer, and civic groups, social agencies, and
other governmental entities in major programs to improve educational quality.
• Promote closer ties between schools, neighborhoods, and other community groups by
expanding the use of school facilities for neighborhood groups and programs.
• Repair or replace streets and sidewalks in poor condition, construct new sidewalks where not
now present, provide additional street lighting, preserve existing trees and plant new trees
where needed, and improve neighborhood parks and recreation programs.
• Replace water and sewer lines in older neighborhoods which are deteriorating and which are
inadequate in capacity.
• Improve the appearance of neighborhoods and the condition of housing through concentrated
code enforcement efforts.
• Provide assistance to residents for housing and neighborhood improvements including
training in property maintenance skills where needed.
• Identify and encourage neighborhood designs which promote participation of neighborhood
residents in outside activities and increase residents= perception of comfort and safety and
emphasize the relationship of the house to the street.
• Work with schools, neighborhood groups, and real estate professionals, and financial
institutions to convey the positive accomplishments of neighborhood revitalization efforts
and the benefits of living in older neighborhoods with a particular emphasis on attracting
higher income residents.
• Work with Oklahoma City employers to develop incentives to encourage their employees to
purchase houses and rent units within the center city.
29

Work with neighborhood organizations to develop a comprehensive strategy for improving
traditional neighborhoods through the following actions:
• Evaluate individual neighborhoods to assess housing needs and neighborhood strengths and
weaknesses.
• Based on neighborhood evaluations, select specific neighborhoods for targeted resources to
maximize the results from neighborhood improvement efforts.
• Provide assistance and training to neighborhood leaders in forming and operating
neighborhood organizations.
• Assist neighborhood organizations to build capacity for taking an active and effective role in
neighborhood improvement efforts.
• Transfer responsibility for neighborhood improvement programs to neighborhood
organizations as neighborhood organizations increase their capacity for effective
neighborhood action and provide financial assistance for their efforts.
Review City policies, procedures, staff capabilities, and authority under state legislation and
pursue needed changes to promote neighborhood revitalization efforts. The following actions
are among those which should be instituted based on this review:
• Review Building Code requirements for rehabilitating older structures to promote
rehabilitation efforts while providing adequate protections for public safety.
• Establish City staff persons to serve as liaison and facilitators to neighborhood groups and
business interests working on neighborhood improvement efforts.
• Develop City staff capabilities to provide specialized assistance to property owners and
neighborhood organizations involved in neighborhood improvement efforts including loan
packaging, identifying and marketing vacant properties in older neighborhoods, and
promoting neighborhood programs.
• Seek changes in state legislation to enhance the City’s ability to maintain and improve its
neighborhoods including:
- laws which would strengthen the City’s ability to obtain specific performance of
property owners cited for code violations,
- laws which would speed up the demolition process for long-time boarded properties that
can not be rehabilitated,
- laws which would strengthen the Citys ability to require property owners to rehabilitate
or sell neglected, boarded-up properties, and
- laws which would expedite the clearing of properties involved in probate.
30

Neighborhood Business Development
The vitality of neighborhood business districts is a vital component of neighborhood
stability. Strong neighborhood commercial areas provide convenient shopping and services for area
residents and provide employment opportunities for area and City residents. Declining businesses
not only fail to provide these positive benefits, but often detract from the neighborhood’s
attractiveness due to structural deterioration and poor property maintenance.
Directions
Preserve and strengthen business districts in traditional neighborhoods as a vital component in
the City’s overall program to build and maintain desirable neighborhoods.
Strengthen existing businesses within traditional neighborhoods and promote the development of
new businesses to provide additional jobs and higher incomes for central city residents.
Actions
Encourage cooperation among neighborhood residents and business owners to promote
redevelopment of existing neighborhood commercial areas and development of new businesses
in older neighborhoods which benefit both residents and business owners.
Improve the appearance of business districts and the condition of business structures through
concentrated code enforcement efforts.
Promote cooperative arrangements among business owners within identified neighborhood
commercial areas to identify common concerns and work toward solutions. Models for such
agreements include Main Street programs, Business Improvement Districts, and Business Owner
Associations.
Develop land use and development regulations which minimize adverse impacts of commercial
development on adjoining residential areas.
Assist neighborhood business owners in identifying potential markets and promoting appropriate
development to serve these identified markets.
Work with business owners to provide building, street, and parking improvements to maintain
and enhance the viability of neighborhood commercial areas.
Provide assistance and incentives to businesses and developers seeking to establish, relocate, or
expand in older neighborhoods.
Link incentives for business development to locating within older areas or hiring low- and
moderate- income residents.
Assist potential business owners with training in entrepreneurial and management skills and with
information about franchise and other business start-up opportunities.
Develop job training and education programs to build job skills of residents of older
neighborhoods and provide employees for businesses within older areas.
31

Provide transportation linkages, trails, and other connections between commercial areas in older
neighborhoods and MAPS projects and between commercial areas and adjoining residential
neighborhoods to stimulate commercial redevelopment.
Promote locations for economic development in the Traditional Neighborhoods (outside of
downtown and regional shopping centers).
Create a Traditional Neighborhood Commercial District Inventory. List the number of spaces,
size of spaces, features of existing buildings, or size of land parcel (for undeveloped land).
Areas to canvass for the inventory include, but are not limited to:
• Bricktown
• Automobile Alley
• MidTown
• Capitol Hill
• Plaza District
• NE and NW 23rd Street
• Deep Deuce
• Paseo
• Stockyards City
• Farmers Market
• Culbertson Place
• N. Western Ave
Promote operating programs or organizations that provide assistance for businesses. These
programs and organizations include, but are not limited to:
• Bricktown Merchants Association
• Automobile Alley Urban Main Street Program
• Midtown Redevelopment Corporation
• Capitol Hill Urban Main Street Program
• Capitol Chamber of Commerce
• Uptown 23rd Street
• Paseo Artists Association/Spanish Village Property Owners Associations
• Stockyards City Urban Main Street Program
Promote incentives that are available only for this area of town or for this age of buildings.
These incentives include, but are not limited to:
• Historic preservation investment tax credits.
• Low-income residential tax credits.
• Enterprise Community incentives.
• Special incentives offered in certain districts such as design assistance in the Main Street
areas and low interest loan pools.
Promote development within nodes or districts that are on major public transportation routes.
Alter routes, if necessary, to support the districts noted above.
32

Transportation

Transportation systems are responsible for moving people, goods and services from one
location to another within a community and beyond. Transportation systems are generally
composed of streets and highways, transit lines—both bus and rail, airports, railroads as well as
walking and bicycle trails.
Transportation systems have a profound effect on the urban form and development patterns
of a city. Transportation systems that facilitate access to employment, labor, goods and services are
crucial to the economic and social well being of a community. No other public service so affects
development patterns or is so affected by them.
Careful planning of transportation systems is becoming increasingly more important as
capital and social costs for most transportation systems rise. The construction of a single roadway
will cost millions of dollars and can open an area for more intense urbanization. Other consequences
can include increased air and water quality problems, faster storm water runoff, and less efficient
development patterns.
Assets
Local Street Network
Oklahoma City classifies its street network into a hierarchy of facilities based upon land accessibility
and traffic mobility. The classification system includes arterial, collector, and local streets. The
arterial streets are those streets that serve the longest trips and move the highest traffic volumes, with
access to individual properties being a secondary function. Collector streets provide middle-level
traffic volumes and access to property. Local streets primarily provide access to individual lots and
move lower levels of traffic.
In Oklahoma City’s traditional neighborhoods, the network of local streets is generally in a grid
configuration with section line roads serving as arterial streets and quarter section roads being used
as collector streets. In this configuration, virtually all local streets have access to an arterial street.
The street pattern changes in the urban growth area and local streets become more curvilinear in
character. The curvilinear local streets feed into collector streets. This system of local and collector
streets is framed by arterial section line roads. Access to the local street network from the arterial
streets is limited by a restricted number of intersections with collector streets.
33

Interstate Highways
Oklahoma City is at the crossroads of three of the nation’s major interstate highways.
These interstate highways link Oklahoma City with cities far away such as Minneapolis, MN;
San Antonio, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Raleigh, NC; and St. Louis, MO. In addition, the interstate
highways connect Oklahoma City with its suburban communities. These freeways make it possible
to travel anywhere in the metropolitan area within a matter of minutes. This ease of accessibility has
enabled suburban expansion and out migration trends.
Oklahoma City Location Map
34

The following map shows the Oklahoma City Expressway network.
Oklahoma City Highway Network
Oklahoma City has moderate traffic congestion problems only during peak travel times in a few
locations on its highway network. These locations include:
Northwest Expressway,
I-40 between I-35 and I-44,
Broadway Extension between Edmond and Oklahoma City,
I-35 between Norman and Oklahoma City; and
I-44 between I-240 and NW Expressway.
35

The map on page 37 shows that most of these locations either have major improvements planned or
have improvements under construction to address the congestion problems. The improvements
include the following:
timing of traffic signals along the Northwest Expressway,
construction of traffic separation walls along I-44 and widening of I-44 near Airport Road,
reconstruction of I-35 to add traffic lanes,
reconstruction of the Broadway Extension to add traffic lanes, and
relocation and widening of I-40 south of downtown.
To accommodate future traffic demand, the Kilpatrick Turnpike Extension (extending westward
from Portland Avenue to County Line Road, then southward to I-40 near Sara Road) is currently
under construction. Possible routes for a southwest segment of the Outer loop are being evaluated
by the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments, Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, and the
Oklahoma Department of Transportation as part of a Major Investment Study. The City of
Oklahoma City supports locating this segment of the Outer Loop immediately west of the
Will Rogers World Airport as shown on the map on page 37.
36

37
Oklahoma City Highway Improvements

Airports
Oklahoma City contains eight public and private airports that include Will Rogers World Airport,
Tinker Air Force Base, Wiley Post Airport, C.E. Page Airport, Downtown Airpark, Expressway
Airpark, Sundance Airport, and one private airport called Pilot’s Haven in southeast Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City Airports
Railroads
Burlington Northern/Santa Fe and Union Pacific are the two primary rail freight carriers serving
Oklahoma City. Amtrak reinstated passenger rail service once a day each way between
Oklahoma City and Ft. Worth, Texas in June 1999. Over 100 miles of heavy rail lines and/or rail
right-of-way currently exist within the city limits of Oklahoma City. Many of these lines and/or
rights-of-way are currently owned by Oklahoma City or the State of Oklahoma.
38

Transit Services (bus)
Metro Transit provides transit services for Oklahoma City. Metro Transit operates a fleet composed
of approximately 100 vehicles providing public transportation to metro area residents and
businesses. The transit bus system, shown on the following map, has 27 routes that service all areas
of the city. Included in these routes are four express routes to suburban areas.
Metro Transit Fixed Route Service Area
Metro Transit has contracted with a private company to provide van service to supplement existing
bus services. This new service will be available to selected areas under the welfare to work
program. It will be provided from 6:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Several
other additions are being made to existing routes. During the 1999-2000 Fiscal Year, 70 additional
hours of public transit per day are being added.
39

In addition, Metro Transit offers special assistance programs which include:
carpooling,
discounts for elderly and handicapped,
lift-equipped buses and vans,
congregate meal transportation,
services related to the RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program),
Share-A-Fare service,
Ride Share vans, and
use of City buses by public schools.
Light Rail/Trolleys
The trolley has made a terrific comeback in the United States. Many municipalities are looking at
funding for trolley operations, and others have interested private groups, which have funded city
approved operations on reclaimed trackage. Operations with classic original trolleys, have often
been the precursor, to expanded service on newly dedicated light rail, with modern equipment.
The first electric trolleys in Oklahoma City operated on the first Sunday of February, 1903. The last
operated between Norman and Oklahoma City and ended operation in 1947. Tracks on open
medians of city streets and some rural rights-of-way, were removed thereafter, as well as the
overhead wiring.
However, even today remnants of the lines still exist in the inner city as well as in El Reno, Guthrie,
and Edmond. Much of the trackage, which was laid in the brick streets and later in improved
concrete, are still there, preserved beneath only a thin layer of asphalt overlay. It is this very
trackage, some of which has been dormant for over 50 years, which could be the operational base for
a “heritage trolley” operation.
Abundant, original ex-Oklahoma Railway right-of-way exists in nearly every divided boulevard in
the city. Since the service has been discontinued, most of these medians have yielded tracks to trees.
However, these medians would convert easily to effective, and attractive, light rail, or heritage
service, and the only cost would be the purchasing of equipment and the laying of tracks, as the City
already owns the right of way.
40

Trails (walking, biking, and riding)
Oklahoma City is in the process of implementing the Oklahoma City Trails Master Plan. The master
plan recommends constructing a network of trails for improving transportation efficiency and the
community’s access to recreational resources. The Plan, shown on the following map, recommends
constructing 208 miles of off-road multi-purpose trails along 28 specifically identified corridors
throughout the city.
OKC Trails Master Plan
Directions
Traditionally, the primary focus of transportation planning in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area
has been on building streets and highways. As traffic volumes have increased new roads have been
built or additional lanes have been constructed to reduce traffic congestion. However, building new
streets has become a spiraling function as new capacity has been added, additional traffic has been
generated to occupy the added capacity thereby causing a need for still more capacity.
The two most recent transportation funding authorization laws, TEA-21 (Transportation Equity Act
for the 21st Century) and its predecessor ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act)
have recognized this pattern and encourage states and communities to develop multi-modal
transportation programs by offering funding for the development of alternative modes of
transportation in addition to constructing highways.
41

In addition to the increasing expense of continuous road construction, environmental concerns are an
ever more important consideration in transportation planning. A transportation system which relies
less on the automobile is becoming a necessity as the Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality
standards become more stringent. Oklahoma City may be in jeopardy of losing its attainment
designation for ozone (O 3 ) from the Environmental Protection Agency. Attainment designation
refers to the levels of six criteria pollutants in the air. Losing this designation will create a need to
develop and implement a mitigation plan which may include costly and inconvenient mitigation
measures. Pursuit of several actions in this section will help preserve air quality.
Finally, the OKC Plan (1989-2010) contains policies that call for a balance of transportation
alternatives, based on regional cooperation, that include walking, driving, biking, and travel by bus,
air, rail and water.
One key feature of a balanced transportation system is transit services. Metro Transit is pursuing the
expansion of its services by increasing the frequency and convenience of bus services along major
transit corridors. The following map shows potential regional mobility corridors where bus services
should be expanded in the short-term Later rail service could be established along one or more of
these corridors. Mobility corridors may extend through urban areas within Oklahoma City or link
suburban areas to the city. An objective of regional mobility corridors is promoting higher intensity
land uses and attractive mixed use areas that make transit usage more desirable and likely.
Potential Regional Mobility Corridors
42

Actions
General
Continue to pursue a more balanced and integrated transportation system for Oklahoma City that
provides for a wide range of transportation alternatives that include driving, biking, walking, as
well as transit (both bus and trolley), rail, light rail, and air services.
Make those dependent on transit (the handicapped, the elderly, and youth) a top consideration in
planning and implementing transportation facilities and services.
Establish an action plan with dates and a method of funding.
Reclaim the area around Union Station for redevelopment.
Streets, Highways, and Freeways (including I-40 realignment)
Review Oklahoma City’s functional classification street plan and subdivision regulations to
explore the use of narrower paved streets, and require sidewalks and landscaping.
Prohibit large trucks from traveling through the central city. Route these trucks around the
central city via existing bypasses. Alert truck drivers about these mandatory bypasses at weigh
stations upon entering the state.
Consider the cost of maintaining current roads before beginning to build new roads. Set aside
maintenance funds for roads.
Explore alternatives to building new highways. Implement and finance alternative modes of
transportation before building new roadways. Look to other communities for examples of coordinated
transportation planning.
Preserve, to the maximum extent possible, existing rail infrastructure in relocating the
I-40/Crosstown Expressway.
Restrict large trucks from using neighborhood streets.
Continue ongoing air quality improvement and traffic congestion mitigation measures,
specifically traffic signal timing and High Occupancy Vehicle or car pool lanes as warranted.
Identify regional mobility corridors and develop supportive transit and land use strategies for
each.
43

Railroads
Union Station, at 300 SW 7th, stands at the nexus of existing rail lines linking downtown Oklahoma
City to other major activity centers and transportation terminals (both urban and suburban). The
station and its grade-separated railway yard and corridors are assets of great potential value in
developing high-quality, low-cost multi-modal transport for Oklahoma City. Union Station is
owned by the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (COTPA) and several of the
rail corridors serving it are now owned either by the City or the State of Oklahoma.
Consider plans to develop Union Station as a modern, multi-modal transportation center for
intercity passenger trains and buses as well as regional rail and bus transit.
Preserve, to the maximum extent possible, existing rail access corridors and yard facilities
serving Union Station.
Transit
The citizens working group that assisted in developing this element concluded (by consensus) that
the current Oklahoma City bus system is inadequate to serve the needs of the citizens who are transit
dependent and is inadequate to attract choice riders.
Seek funding to increase Metro Transit’s fleet to 150 vehicles and aggressively explore the
possibilities of developing rail and/or light rail transit in Oklahoma City.
Provide timely and more frequent bus service with 15 minute headways.
Provide bus service connecting Will Rogers World Airport to downtown, the health sciences
center, museums, and to hotels to enhance the image of Oklahoma City as a first class city that is
concerned about its citizens and visitors.
Establish crosstown routes with grid concept transfer points to make it easier to travel across
town on transit.
Increase service and add extended Saturday and Sunday service.
Ensure that routes provide access to all large employers.
Expand park and ride programs and increase the number of park-and-ride lots to improve transit
ridership. Inform the public about park-and-ride programs and the location of park-and-ride lots.
Establish park and ride service at the Fairgrounds.
Provide suburb to suburb transfers.
Seek to provide covered bus stops.
Provide more trash containers at the stops.
Make transfer stations comfortable for transit riders. Provide restrooms.
Post schedules route maps at each bus stop.
Post route schedules and maps on the City’s web site.
Integrate buses and van pools into the whole transportation system.
44

Incorporate schools and school bus routes into City transit routes.
Run smaller buses during non-peak hours and on less used routes.
Reconsider the painted ads on the exterior of buses. Some of the participants in the Update
process expressed the opinion that the painted buses do not add to a good image for the City.
Use CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles on bus routes, particularly during heavy congestion.
Apply for all possible Federal funds.
Identify and implement a source of local funds to use as leverage for Federal funds. Possible
sources include:
• Ear-marked tax.
• Hotel-motel room tax.
• Interest on the reserve account held by the airport trust for buses to Will Rogers
World Airport and or support from local hotels and motels.
Trolley Service
Even with frequent road widening, highways will not be able to keep up with the increasing volume
of traffic. However, with light rail all that needs to be done to meet increasing traffic levels is to add
additional trains, or equipment to haul more riders on one line. Light rail improvements and
increased transit ridership would reduce the congestion, noise, and air pollution problems which will
come with increased automobile traffic. As the population continues to grow over the next twenty
years, we will quickly begin to overwhelm the existing highway infrastructure.
Identify areas in need of mass transit. Integrate bus, trolley and light rail in planning for these
areas.
Give priority to light rail planning and development over road widening projects, such as the
Broadway Extension and I-35.
Consider establishing light rail service connecting downtown and the Will Rogers World
Airport/Reno-Meridian area. This service would give convention goers easy access to other
activities and shopping in the Downtown area.
Expand rail access to Union Station if and when Option D to the I-40 relocation plan is
implemented and save, to the maximum extent possible, existing rail access corridors and
facilities, so that they might be used in future light rail expansion or converted to pedestrian trail
crossings.
Trails, Walkways, and Bikeways
Pursue the implementation of the Trails Master Plan using local and TEA-21 funding.
Integrate and coordinate trails into the total transportation system with linkages to buses,
trolleys, and trains.
Keep trails safe by providing good lighting with regular police patrols.
Prepare and implement a bike routes plan.
45

Provide a definite division between bike and auto lanes for the safety of both bike riders and
cars.
Require a pedestrian plan as a part of the platting process including sidewalks along collector
and arterial streets.
46

Public Services

The quality and availability of public services is a primary factor in determining a
community's quality of life. Public services provided by the City of Oklahoma City include police
and fire protection, water supply, sewage treatment, drainage, solid waste collection, and street
maintenance.
These services influence the level of satisfaction that residents have regarding their
community and affect the image of the community held by those outside the area. Public services
have a major impact on local capacity to sustain neighborhood quality and enhance economic
development.
Directions
Establish standards for the level and availability of public service in urban and rural areas which
maintain quality services while appropriately balancing citizens’ expectations for services with
the City’s limited resources.
Maintain a high level of public services in areas of existing development to preserve
neighborhood quality.
Promote the revitalization of declining neighborhoods and commercial areas through a targeted
program of public service improvements.
Concentrate new urban residential and commercial development in areas where public services
are currently available at the service levels established for urban areas.
When new urban development occurs in areas where service levels do not meet established
requirements, ensure that adequate services are provided at the time of development and that the
cost of extending public services to such an area are funded in such a manner as to minimize the
impact on the City’s ability to provide public services to areas of existing development.
Establish priorities for funding and expenditures for public services within the City’s budgeting
and CIP (capital improvements programming) processes which respond to anticipated growth
and development in conformance with City plans, which support the preservation and
redevelopment of currently developed areas, and which maintain quality services while
appropriately balancing citizens’ expectations for services with the City’s limited resources.
47

Police Protection
The Police Department of the City of Oklahoma City protects lives and property throughout
the City’s 621 square miles through community education, a focus on neighborhood policing and
preventing associated gang activity, an aggressive investigation, and the rigorous enforcement of
laws. As shown in the map below, the City is divided into four patrol divisions with a briefing
station in each division, plus a central facility in downtown Oklahoma City.
POLICE DIVISIONS AND STATION LOCATIONS
Service Standards
Maintain an average response time of six minutes for top priority service calls.
Maintain actual unassigned available patrol time at 50 percent to allow pro-active patrol time for
crime prevention.
Actions
Promote public safety in Oklahoma City’s neighborhoods through neighborhood based programs
to reduce crime including neighborhood policing and neighborhood crime watch.
Seek a permanent funding source to cover the costs for repair and replacement of police
equipment.
Continually review records of service calls (location, type, priority, and time involved) and
anticipated growth and development to determine the most effective allocation of police
resources and implement changes as indicated.
48

Fire Protection
The Fire Department of the City of Oklahoma City provides fire and emergency medical
response services for City residences and businesses throughout the City’s 621 square miles,
educates the public in fire and injury prevention, enforces City and State fire codes, and investigates
arson incidents. The map below shows the location and the 3- minute response area for each of the
City’s 35 fire stations.
FIRE STATION LOCATIONS
AND FIRE RESPONSE AREAS
Service Standards
A property is served with fire protection when it is located within the fire response areas set
forth below, when the required fire flow is within that specified for the fire zone in accordance
with existing standards, and when vehicle access is by two separate all-weather hard-surface
routes.
Fire Response Time for OKC Plan Development Areas
Development Area
Traditional Neighborhoods
and Urban Growth Area
Rural Area: RA development
(0.34 - 0.85 dwelling units per acre)
Rural Area: AA development
(up to 0.34 dwelling units per acre)
Response Time
3½ minutes
5 minutes
6 minutes
49

Actions
Review fire response standards and fire safety standards for different areas and types of
development.
Conduct a fire station location study to determine the need for and location of additional fire
stations based on anticipated growth and development.
Continue cooperative arrangements with other municipalities in the metro area to provide fire
response assistance as needed and to identify and address mutual concerns.
For proposed development outside the base response time area or where fire flow available from
the public water supply system does not meet the fire flow requirements, additional private fire
protection facilities should be required.
Emergency Response
EMSA provides emergency medical response throughout Oklahoma City.
Service Standard
Respond to all Priority 1 (life-threatening) calls within 8 minutes and 59 seconds from receipt of
call.
Actions
Identify and enact a permanent source of funding to cover the difference between the costs of
providing emergency medical response and the amounts collected as fees for service.
Evaluate warning systems to determine whether these systems are providing sufficient warning
to citizens of natural disasters, particularly in rural areas and determine what changes or
equipment is needed.
Encourage the construction of additional emergency shelters, including the building of
“safe rooms” or storm shelters for existing homes and newly constructed residences.
Develop and implement a “311” phone number for non-emergency (requests for information)
calls from citizens. Educate citizens as to the proper uses of the “911” and “311” systems.
50

Water Supply
The City of Oklahoma City provides water supply to some 165,000 customers within the area
shown on the map below. Commercial and industrial users make up 18,000 of the total customers.
In the rural areas of Oklahoma City, beyond the reach of the public water systems, water supply is
provided by private water wells.
WATER SERVICE AREA
Areas within ½ mile of trunk mains
Service Standards
180 gallons per person per day for all uses, average consumption; 100 gallons per person per day
for developments which contain only residential uses
25 pounds per square inch minimum water pressure for all fire flow and peak usage conditions
12,000 gallons per minute water flow in the Central Business District
3,500 gallons per minute water flow through section-line grid mains adjacent to newly
developing areas
500 gallons per minute water flow through fire hydrants in residential areas
51

Actions
Replace water lines in older neighborhoods which are deteriorating and which are inadequate in
capacity.
Require all new development within the Urban Growth and Traditional Neighborhoods
Development Areas to connect to public water supply systems in accordance with existing
standards.
Continue cooperative arrangements with other municipalities in the metro area to identify and
address regional water issues.
Continue ongoing studies of water supply and facilities to ensure adequate water supply and
treatment capacity to meet future needs.
Sewage Treatment
The City of Oklahoma City provides sewage treatment service to some 151,000 customers
within the area shown on the map below. In the rural areas of Oklahoma City, beyond the reach of
the public systems, sewage treatment water supply is provided by septic tanks.
SEWER SERVICE AREA
Areas within ½ mile of trunk mains
52

Service Standards
100 gallons per person per day treatment capacity for residential development; other uses as
prescribed in technical standards applied by the Water/Wastewater Utilities Department
sufficient main capacity to convey all wastewater to the sewage treatment plants
Actions
Replace sewer lines in older neighborhoods which are deteriorating and which are inadequate in
capacity.
Require all new development within the Urban Growth and Traditional Neighborhoods
Development Areas to connect to public sewage treatment systems in accordance with existing
standards.
Continue cooperative arrangements with other municipalities in the metro area to identify and
address regional sewage treatment issues.
Solid Waste
The City of Oklahoma City provides solid waste collection and disposal services to 153,000
households and small commercial customers throughout Oklahoma City.
Service Standard
Once a week collection at the street curb for single family and duplex residential customers
Actions
Continue the curb-side recycling program and seek expanded participation by citizens.
Pursue cooperative arrangements with other municipalities in the metro area to identify and
address regional solid waste issues.
Storm Drainage
Publicly maintained drainage improvements enhance public safety and minimize property
and structure loss due to flooding. These improvements are generally concentrated in areas of urban
development.
Service Standards
In accordance with existing regulations, all area below the 50-year floodplain shall be dedicated
as a park, or drainage and utility easement.
53

In accordance with existing regulations, drainage channels sufficient to contain run-off from a
50-year frequency rainfall shall be shown on development plans and developed according to City
standards. Primary drainage channels are those which handle surface water from an area greater
than 500 acres. Secondary drainage channels are defined as those handling water from less than
500 acres.
Stormwater detention facilities should be constructed in those drainage basins with known
downstream flooding or in those which are projected to flood when fully developed for the uses
and intensities indicated by the Land Use Policies of this Plan. To apply this standard, flooding
is defined as the flooding of structures. Detention must be designed to accommodate a 100-year
frequency flood and should release stormwater at a rate not greater than that which existed prior
to development.
Actions
Pursue cooperative arrangements with other municipalities in the metro area to identify and
address regional storm drainage issues.
Roads, Streets, and Bridges
Oklahoma City’s road and street system provides for the movement of persons and freight
within the community and between Oklahoma City and other cities. These streets should be
improved and maintained to appropriate standards based on traffic volumes, the character of the land
served, the need for enhanced neighborhood quality, and functional classification.
Actions
Review street classification and design standards to ensure that the City’s street system provides
for efficient traffic flow and enhances neighborhood quality. Incorporate the design guidelines
set forth in the Land Use and Design element into the City’s street classification standards and
subdivision regulations.
Require that new street construction comply with the design guidelines contained in the Land
Use and Design element and with corresponding requirements of the City’s street classification
standards and subdivision regulations. Bring existing streets up to these guidelines and
standards when such streets are improved or reconstructed through capital improvements or
other street projects.
Place a high priority on replacing bridges in rural areas to maintain access for emergency
vehicles.
Work with county officials to clearly establish responsibilities for maintaining roads in rural
areas.
54

Animal Welfare
The Animal Welfare Division of the Neighborhood Services Department is responsible for
control of the excess population of unwanted and vicious animals; containing and monitoring
animals involved in human bites in accordance with State health laws; and disposing of unwanted or
vicious animals through adoption, reclamation, or euthanasia.
Actions
Seek the resources needed to more effectively deal with the large number of stray animals in
Oklahoma City.
55

Parks and
Open Space

Open space and a well-balanced park system provide more than opportunities for recreation
and leisure. Open space is a vital component of a balanced, attractive, and desirable urban
environment. The role of leisure in our culture expands when a park system reaches into
neighborhoods, work places, and cultural and educational facilities, and provides the transportation
corridors between these sites. In this context, a park system can enhance property values, expand
local businesses, attract new or relocating businesses, increase local tax revenues, and promote a
sense of community.
Amenities, such as attractive views, open space preservation, and convenient recreation
opportunities, are valued by people. This can be reflected in increased property values and increased
marketability for property located near such amenities. Developers recognizing these values
incorporate open space into their planning, design, and marketing of new and redeveloped
properties.
Increasing population and changing demographic characteristics will continue to impose
increasing demands on urban open space. A balanced and adequate system of parks and open space
is essential. Oklahoma City must commit to improving and maintaining the system for present and
future generations.
Oklahoma City Parks are shown on the map on page 58. A list of parks is included at the end
of this element on pages 61-63.
Directions
Create stable and attractive neighborhoods by developing parks that are enjoyable, visually
appealing, safe, and easily accessible. Maintain a system of parks that assures all residents
access to recreational opportunities by providing parks, athletic and play fields, special use
facilities, and recreation programs.
When feasible, develop a linked open space system that is accessible to neighborhoods, serves
all age groups, and is the physical framework around which the majority of parks and public
facilities are developed.
Plan for the acquisition, funding, and development of land for parks and recreation amenities
including sufficient resources for maintenance. Look for alternative methods of increasing the
level of park maintenance.
Promote well-maintained private common lot open spaces within neighborhoods and in
surrounding commercial areas, allowing for trail access when feasible.
57

58
OKLAHOMA CITY PARKS

Actions
Parks Plan
Prepare a Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan for Oklahoma City for adoption by the Parks
Commission and Planning Commission. The City of Oklahoma City has begun the process of
selecting a parks planning consulting firm to develop such a plan. This plan will include
standards for parks and open space in Oklahoma City.
Conduct a survey of Oklahoma City residents to determine the type of parks and park facilities
citizens want and incorporate the findings of this survey into the Parks, Recreation, and Open
Space Plan.
Identify unneeded parks, determine appropriate uses for the properties, and take appropriate
action to accomplish the reuse and redevelopment of the properties.
As part of a Parks Plan, develop a program for acquiring and developing parks and open space to
serve all new residential developments. Implement the program for acquiring and developing
parks and open space through appropriate changes to the City's subdivision regulations and
through projects within the City's CIP (capital improvements program).
Development Regulations
Request the designation of open space when considering Planned Unit Development (PUD)
zoning.
To enhance and ensure the longevity of proposed private common areas, City development
regulations should include standards that must be met prior to Council's acceptance of a final
plat containing common areas. The standards might include the filing of relevant covenants,
provisions to pay for maintenance, and the placement of signs marking the common area
boundaries. Standards such as these will help ensure that these semi-private parks are more
easily managed by neighborhood associations.
Provide incentives for developers who provide parks and open space within their developments.
Encourage public recreational facilities such as playground equipment, ball fields, and trails
within flood plains.
Identify areas having natural beauty, environmental sensitivity, or special ecosystems deserving
of preservation.
Parks Program
Work to increase public awareness of the location of City parks, the facilities and programs
available at these locations, and the needs of the City's parks program.
Conduct an assessment of security needs during the planning stage of proposed parks and
recreation areas. Locate new parks in areas that are highly visible and accessible from
surrounding residential streets and utilize trails to increase activity and visibility in parks,
thereby improving security and decreasing vandalism.
59

Identify new revenue sources and increase revenues allocated to parks and open space operating
budgets and capital improvements. Consider additional funding options including additional
funding within the City’s budget, county funds, dedicated sales tax, general obligation bonds,
impact fees, federal, state, private, corporate, and foundation grants, tax increment financing
districts, and assessment districts.
Encourage corporate and private sponsorships and/or partnerships for acquiring, developing, and
maintaining parks and open space.
• Continue seeking maintenance partnerships with neighborhood associations and other
organizations to increase the level of maintenance within the City's park system.
• Encourage private development that will retain or create open space areas or expand
recreation opportunities.
• Work to create public/private partnerships that lead to the development of urban plazas.
Continue to participate in joint planning by the city and the school district for preservation,
development, and upgrading of open space and recreational facilities.
• Continue to seek opportunities to co-locate public uses such as schools with parks. This
could include co-locating elementary schools with neighborhood parks or middle and high
schools with community and regional parks or enhancing existing school grounds to
accommodate wider public usage.
• Establish minimum selection criteria for joint school-park sites to encourage development
for multiple uses.
Open Space, Trails, and Greenways
Continue implementing the Oklahoma City Trails Master Plan.
Develop a system of linear parks or greenways, which extend through developments connecting
adjacent greenways and the Oklahoma City Trail System.
Identify drainage ways and flood plain areas that could be used as greenways and developed
with flood control, environmental protection, and recreation in mind.
Encourage the use of some vacant parcels in existing developed areas as common recreation
spaces.
Provide bike parking at all public facilities and include it as an amenity offered in key locations.
Encourage businesses to provide bike parking.
Support community gardening programs by allowing gardening activities on under-used City
properties where appropriate.
Explore designation of Oklahoma City as a Tree City.
Explore establishing a program for designating developments as “Tree Preservation
Developments.”
60

OKLAHOMA CITY PARKS FACILITIES
Neighborhood Parks
Airport Heights Park
SW 36th and Shawnee
3.40 acres
Draper Memorial Park
SW 3rd and Broadway
0.50 acres
Guilchester Park
Guilford Ln and Dorchester
0.50 acres
Lela Park
1829 N. Lela
5.00 acres
Bob Akers Park
SE 11th and Fairmount
5.00 acres
Bicenntenial Park
east of Civic Center
2.00 acres
J.B. Black Park
NW 22nd and Council
10.00 acres
Britton Park
NW 96th and University
1.40 acres
Britton Triangle Park
NW 97th and Shartel
0.70 acres
Brookwood Village Park
SW 93rd and Shartel
4.90 acres
Burton Triangle Park
NW 97th and Shartel
0.50 acres
Campbell Park
Park Place & Broadway
2.50 acres
Chisholm Creek Park
NW 117th and Walker
7.75 acres
Corbin Park
NW 12th and Tulsa
4.25 acres
Creston Hills Park
2240 NE 19th
7.80 acres
Denniston Park
NW 25th and Drexel
4.20 acres
Douglas Park
NW 45th and Walker
8.40 acres
Dulaney Park
NW 41st and Drexel
6.00 acres
Edgemere Park
NW 33rd and Harvey
Elm Grove Park
SW 8th and Penn
6.60 acres
Florence Park
NW 15th and Classen
1.30 acres
Flower Garden Park
NW 46th and Classen
4.00 acres
Frost Heights Park
SE 26th and Phillips
1.50 acres
Geraldine Park
3229 N. Geraldine
6.25 acres
Girvin Park
NW 14th and Woodward
6.40 acres
Glen Ellyn Park
NE 22nd and Glen Ellyn
2.50 acres
Syl Goldman Park
5333 S. Independence
8.80 acres
Goodholm Park
NW 25th and Robinson
6.30 acres
Greens Tot Lot
Spyglass and Burlingame
0.70 acres
Grove Park
NW 30th and Grove
5.35 acres
Harden Park
NE 27th and Creston
2.10 acres
Harlow Park
NW 19th and Harlow
7.50 acres
Alice Harn Park
NW 14th and Classen
Harndale Park
NW 14th and Classen
4.80 acres
Harvest Hills Park
NW 104th and Harvest Hill
4.50 acres
Highley Park
NW 8th and Virginia
1.60 acres
Irving Park
NE 4th and Central
0.50 acres
Guy James Park
NW 33rd and Harvey
20.00 acres
E.B. Jeffrey Park
NW 16th and Meridian
4.20 acres
John F. Kennedy Park
NE 16th and Missouri
8.00 acres
Robert S. Kerr Park
Broadway and Robert S.
Kerr
acres
L.D. Lacy Park
NE 43rd and Stonewall
10.00 acres
Lakeshore Estates Park
8000 Lakeshore Dr
0.60 acres
Lippert Park
5500 S. Shartel
3.90 acres
Joe Louis Park
Renner and Jordan Aves
Lytle Park
N W. 7th and Greenvale
10.00 acres
May Park
SW 33rd and May Ave
2.00 acres
Mayfair Park
NW 43rd and May Ave
1.70 acres
Mayview Park
NW 71st and Drexel
1.70 acres
McCracken Park
SE 64th and Stiles
9.10 acres
Dean A. McGee Park
NW 111th and Shartel
McKinley Park
NW 12th and McKinley
10.00 acres
McMechan Park
NE 15th and McMechan
3.00 acres
McNabb Park
NE 33rd and Kelley
1.50 acres
Meadowbrook Park
NW 10th and Quapah
1.75 acres
Merrel Medley Park
Kingsridge and S. Penn
20.70 acres
Perle Mesta Park
NW 18th and Lee
2.60 acres
61

Military Park
NW 24th and Classen
1.50 acres
Redland Park
NW 141st and Kiowa Rd
10.46 acres
Siler Park
SW 95th and Fairview
4.90 acres
Victory Acres Park
SE 36th and Highland
2.00 acres
R.R. "Pat" Murphy Park
Hefner Rd and Meridian
10.00 acres
Reed Park
NW 12th and May
3.00 acres
Skyranch Park
SW 95th and Western
5.00 acres
Hosea Vinyard Park
SW 41st and Walker
6.80 acres
North Britton Park
NW 115th & Blackwelder
5.00 acres
Rhode Island Park
NE 70th & Rhode Island
1.70 acres
Sparrow Park
NW 28th and Harvey
2.00 acres
Wayman's Park
NW 19th and Drexel
1.50 acres
North Highland Park
NW 82nd and Harvey
2.00 acres
River Park
SW 8th and Agnew
14.00 acres
Stiles Circle Park
NE 8th and Harrison
0.70 acres
Dolphin Wharton Park
NW 63rd and Braniff
20.00 acres
Oliver Park
SW 29th and Broadway
26.00 acres
Riverside Park
E. Reno and Stiles
9.60 acres
Swatek Park
NW 29th & Youngs Blvd
4.00 acres
Winans Park
NW 20th and Broadway
3.00 acres
O'Neil Park
NW 13th and Shartel
0.50 acres
Manuel Perez Park
SW 14th and Harvey
2.00 acres
Perry Park
NE 48th and Lottie
2.50 acres
Phillips Park
NE 27th and Prospect
4.00 acres
Pied Piper Park
NW 100th and University
6.70 acres
Pilot Parl
1435 NW 2nd
1.50 acres
Quail Creek Park
Quail Creek and May
10.30 acres
Rockwell Park
600 N. Rockwell
Rose Park
2100 SE 40th
7.40 acres
Ross Park
NW 62nd and Ross
9.60 acres
Rotary Playground Park
SE 15th and Byers
8.50 acres
St. Clair Park
NW 22nd and St. Clair
0.60 acres
Sertoma Park
SW 15th and Portland
acres
Shallowbrook Park
SE 48th and Rhode Island
8.00 acres
Lorraine Thomas Park
SW 22nd & Independence
3.90 acres
Tinsley Park
NW 63rd & Independence
2.75 acres
Tolan Park
W. Reno and Blackwelder
10.00 acres
Top of the Town Park
SE 19th and Stonewall
4.20 acres
Tulsa Park
SW 24th and Tulsa
8.00 acres
Mark Twain Park
2401 NW 1st
0.30 acres
Mark Twain Elementary
School
2451 W. Main
1.90 acres
Woodland Park
NE 46th and Lincoln
6.70 acres
Woodrun Park
Hollyrock and Czech Hall
Rd
acres
Youngs Park
4510 S. Youngs Blvd
11.12 acres
Zurline Park
SW 26th and Woodward
4.80 acres
Unnamed
SW 54th and Mackleman
5.40 acres
Unnamed
NE 66th and Eastern
Unnamed
Hefner and Meridian
Unnamed
NW 120th and Western
Community Parks
Red Andrews Park
NW 7th and Shartel
2.30 acres
Brock Park
SW 29th and Penn
40.00 acres
Crossroads Sports Complex
SE 89th and Santa Fe
Crown Heights Park
NW 37th and Shartel
19.70 acres
Diggs Park
NE 22nd and Coltrane Rd
15.00 acres
Draper Park
SW 38th and Robinson
32.00 acres
Edwards Park
NE 14th and Bryant
49.10 acres
H.B. Foster Center
622 NE 4th
0.70 acres
62

Harn Garden
NE 16th and Stiles
9.30 acres
Memorial Park
NW 35th and Classen
16.00 acres
Wiley Post Park
SW 17th and Robinson
50.00 acres
Southern Oaks Park
SW 67th and Walker
21.20 acres
Harrison Park
NE 82nd and Walnut
30.90 acres
Hathaway Park
SE 38th and Lindsey
13.20 acres
Hiram Park
Happy Lane & NE Smith
15.00 acres
Lightning Creek Soccer
Complex
SW 81st and Western
34.60 acres
Macklanburg Park
NW 117th and Stratford
10.00 acres
Melrose Park
6700 Melrose Lane
9.00 acres
Minnis Lakeview Park
NE 36th and Adair
20.00 acres
Northwest Optimist Park
NW 73rd and Grand
40.00 acres
North OKC Rotary Park
NW 56th and Tulsa
18.50 acres
Northeast Center
NE 33rd and Lottie
11.50 acres
Overholser Park
NW 16th and Eagle Lane
Pitts Park
NE 20th and Kate
12.50 acres
Progressive Community
Park
NE 42nd and Lennox
12.50 acres
Ted Reynolds Park
Reno and Grand Blvd
18.00 acres
Rotary Park
SW 15th and Rotary Drive
40.00 acres
Schillings Park
SE 25th and Durland
8.50 acres
Sellers Park
SW 82nd and Villa
10.00 acres
Smitty's Park
NW 44th and Billen
15.00 acres
Stars & Stripes Park
Wilshire and Portland
42.70 acres
Taylor Park
1115 SW 70th
7.20 acres
Topping Park
NW 50th and Santa Fe
17.00 acres
Washington Park
NE 4th and High
19.00 acres
Wheeler Park
SW 9th and Shartel
43.00 acres
Large Urban Parks
Dolese Youth Park
NW 50th and Meridian
139.00 acres
Will Rogers Park
NW 35th and Grand Blvd
122.00 acres
Douglass Center
NE 10th and Carverdale
120.00 acres
Woodson Park
SW 33rd and May Ave
132.00 acres
Regional Parks
Earlywine Park
SW ll9th and May Ave
453.00 acres
Lincoln Park
NE 36th and Lincoln
632.00 acres
Trosper Park
SE 29th and Eastern
640.00 acres
Lake Hefner Park
N. Meridian & Lakeshore
4,000.00 acres
(incdg water)
Lake Overholser Park
NW 16th & Overholser Dr
2,800.00 acres
(incdg water)
Lake Draper Park
SE 89th & Midwest Blvd
Other Facilities
Martin Park Nature Center
4700 W. Memorial Rd
140.00 acres
Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge
north of Lake Overholser
Myriad Botanical Gardens
W. Reno and Robinson
63

Education

Education is a critically important issue in Oklahoma City. The quality of schools was rated
by participants in the OKC Plan Citizen Survey as one of the three most important factors (along
with quality neighborhoods and high-paying jobs) contributing to quality of life. Considering the
strong interest of citizens in education, City officials should consider a more active role in
supporting schools.
The City has a vital interest in the results of education, but has a limited responsibility for
how education is provided. Clearly, better educated children make better leaders, employees, and
parents tomorrow. Neighborhood stability depends upon the reputation of schools. The education
system provides a trained workforce which attracts employers. Vocational-technical schools,
colleges, and universities are very important to the regional economy, not just as places where
people are trained and retrained, but as employment and research centers.
The City’s relationship with the Oklahoma City Public School District (I-89) is the primary
key to addressing educational needs in Oklahoma City. This district contains nearly half of the
90,000-plus school age persons living in Oklahoma City. Lower-income children and families make
up a higher proportion relative to total population than in other districts, but other districts are not
immune to the educational problems associated with lower incomes and older housing. Although
large strides have been made toward improving the Oklahoma City Public School System, with the
use of magnet and other specialized schools, much work remains including the need for improving
many older facilities.
The quality of education, particularly as it is perceived by area citizens, has a major impact
on where residents choose to build and buy housing. Some home buyers choose homes in outlying
school districts because they sense that these homes will have higher resale value than comparable
homes located in the Oklahoma City district. Such perceptions contribute to further growth on the
outer edges of the City. The resulting spread-out development patterns lead to higher costs for
providing City services such as police and fire protection, water supply, sewer treatment, trash
collection, and street maintenance to new residents and businesses. A stronger Oklahoma City
Public School District could relieve some of the problems associated with urban sprawl by attracting
home buyers back to the central city.
Assets
Schools drive housing markets and provide area identity among residents.
Schools are the focal point of many neighborhoods or areas, and remain one of the most
compelling reasons for unity, involvement, and interaction among nearby residents.
65

OKLAHOMA CITY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS
HOUSING CONSTRUCTION AND LOSS, 1990-1996
(Oklahoma City portions only)
66

OKLAHOMA CITY AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Median Household Income in 1989
The twenty-four public school districts within Oklahoma City’s corporate limits (map on
page 66) offer households a wide choice of residential location and educational opportunity,
ranging from small rural districts to small urban districts to large urban districts.
The Oklahoma City Public School District has made large strides in recent years through the
resurgence of neighborhood schools, the development of magnet schools, and increasing
enrollments.
School architecture and landscapes provide visual interest and variety within neighborhoods.
Private schools contribute to stability in the central city, in terms of both their physical condition
and their ability to help attract middle class families to older neighborhoods.
Cooperative relationships exist among the City and various school districts.
Public schools, colleges, and vo-tech schools all support our city’s economic development
potential by providing an educated, skilled labor force.
School buildings and grounds provide opportunities for locating a variety of neighborhood and
social programs.
67

Directions
Initiate more support for education of residents of all ages.
Place a particular emphasis on improving educational quality in, and public perception of, the
Oklahoma City Public School District.
Develop intergovernmental agreements and cooperative relationships with local school districts
and other educational institutions to address a broad range of common planning concerns.
Strengthen neighborhood schools in all districts as local neighborhood centers, providing
community-related programs.
Implement the education component of the City’s empowerment zone application and work
toward expanding this component in all areas of the city in need of redevelopment.
Pursue co-location, or the sharing of sites, when planning for new schools and parks.
Expand the City’s role in providing interaction and cooperation between city agencies, school
districts and business.
Actions
City-School Agreements
The City should develop intergovermental agreements and cooperative relationships with local
school districts and other educational institutions to address a broad range of common planning
concerns.
Provide projections of the amount and location of anticipated growth to the school districts to
enable the acquisition of school sites in advance of need, at lower cost, and at locations closer to
new housing areas.
Establish a process for consulting with school districts regarding school closings or offering
properties for reuse.
Establish a framework for the City and schools to develop, fund, and operate joint school-park
and school-neighborhood facilities.
The City and higher education and vocational-technical institutions could undertake joint
planning efforts to ensure that major facility improvements and expansions meet the needs of the
institutions and support the continued vitality of surrounding neighborhoods.
Relationship with City Public School Districts
Emphasize the Oklahoma City Public School District in City efforts to support education.
Explore means and methods to market and promote the City’s school systems.
68

Seek means to contribute to maintenance and construction of school facilities. Possible actions
might include
• establishing local tax assessment or other revenue districts for schools,
• continue encouraging development and reinvestment to increase the I-89 tax base through
programs like the Empowerment Zone and municipal capital improvements,
• prioritizing municipal improvements to reinforce major school initiatives such as magnet,
charter, and federal grant recipient schools,
• providing recreational, fire safety, and other joint-school programs which can benefit youth,
especially those from lower income households, and
• identifying alternative means of financing school construction and improvements. If City
funding sources such as a temporary sales tax are proposed, suitable management and
oversight structures involving the City and the schools should be developed.
Consider cost sharing with the Oklahoma City public schools using federal grants, volunteers,
and other means to help maintain joint-use facilities.
Continue efforts to institute programs outlined in the education component of City’s
Empowerment Zone (EZ) including:
• providing educational programs and activities to help EZ residents secure better jobs, decent
housing, and affordable healthcare,
• modifying EZ area schools for after-hours and weekend programs,
• providing day-care facilities before and after regular school hours and on Saturdays to help
residents gain employment and job training, and
• establishing a School-and-Neighborhood Council at each school.
Work to expand the scope of the education component of the City”s Empowerment Zone (EZ)
application to include all areas of the City based on a detailed analysis of the needs and
opportunities of additional areas and on the availability of funding.
Expand the use of Metro Transit for school bus routes in the Oklahoma City district, when
feasible, including free bus passes to students to encourage them to use buses at other times.
Continue the school guard crossing program currently operated by the City and I-89.
Neighborhood and Community Programs
Work with school districts to promote the use of school facilities for adult education, community
programs, and neighborhood and public meetings.
Continue and expand existing public and private programs with Oklahoma City schools targeting
benefits to children of lower and moderate income households.
Continue joint police and school programs to address gangs and other law enforcement problems
associated with schools.
69

Continue public safety educational programs provided by fire and police personnel.
Establish more partnerships to improve neighborhood environments near schools through
landscaping, code enforcement, sidewalk improvements, and other efforts.
Work with appropriate agencies to develop and implement additional programs through the
schools and higher education agencies to help immigrant adults learn English and to help all
adults improve reading and job skills.
70

Historic
Preservation

OKLAHOMA CITY HISTORIC DISTRICTS
Existing and Potential HP Districts

Most Oklahoma City residents know the basics of our city’s history—a quiet railroad station
on the morning of April 22, 1889, a bustling tent city of several thousand by nightfall. We know too
of our city’s dramatic and successful effort to become the capitol city after statehood in 1907. Many
citizens also know of significant properties across the city and the story behind their construction or
demolition. Downtown Oklahoma City also has many wonderful buildings which are representative
of particular historic architectural styles or periods. We have a significant collection of historic
commercial structures and landmark buildings, including the Skirvin Hotel, the First National
Building, the Braniff Building, and the Colcord Building. Oklahoma City has real strengths in
historic preservation in the residential properties found in many of our neighborhoods. Thousands of
homes that were built during the rapid growth of the 1910s and 1920s, still stand today. Large and
small well-constructed houses of masonry and/or wood line many of our city’s streets.
Residential neighborhoods have distinguished themselves as historic districts and are
experiencing their first population growth since the 1950s. Commercial districts such as
Stockyards City, Capitol Hill, and Automobile Alley, guided by Main Street Programs, have
benefited from a significant increase in reinvestment due largely to the practices of historic
preservation as implemented by local design review bodies. The map on the facing page shows
existing and potential historic districts in Oklahoma City.
The value of historic buildings has been recognized and appreciated during the planning and
construction of the Metropolitan Area Projects, several of which are based in historic districts or
centered around historic buildings. The cultural community has also demonstrated the value of
adaptive use by renovating the historic Center Theatre as the centerpiece of its new art museum.
And all around the Murrah Memorial, historic structures have been rehabilitated using federal design
guidelines.
Historic preservation is about educating a property owner on the appropriate solutions for
repairing intact historic fabric and altering his/her building to accommodate the modern function.
Historic preservation is used as a tool for the revitalization of Oklahoma City’s older districts.
Additionally, historic preservation is about teaching our children about their heritage. Like most
disciplines, preservation practice has matured. Initially, towns like Williamsburg were frozen in
time or reconstructed for educational purposes to offer a setting in which visitors could imagine
living in another place and time without any visual reference to modern life. The National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, legislated programs for preserving our heritage and defined a
new direction based on the idea that historic places enrich our quality of life and provide a sense of
stability for communities. The Preservation Act advises us to retain significant historic fabric as a
living part of our daily life. Historic preservation allows us to live in a community with visual
reminders of our past. It offers us a sense that our values expressed in the built environment are part
of a continuum influenced by those who have gone before us and provide the foundation for future
development.
71

Appreciation of Historical Resources
Story telling is one of the significant cultural functions of any society. In contrast to constructing
memorials intended to honor persons or events, preserving significant features of the structures and
areas where history-changing events occurred keeps our stories alive, giving them a context,
confirming their value and clarifying their relevance. Physical evidence of the past keeps these
stories accurate and allows us to re-evaluate events from our diverse and changing perspectives.
By giving ourselves and future generations opportunities to experience those stories in place, we
provide a solid, positive image of who we are. Perhaps as important, we provide a place for healing
the wounds of history as well. Historic preservation gives a sense of maturity within a context of
change.
One of the first steps in any preservation program is to identify historic properties. Historians work
with community groups to examine the historic significance of a property, based on established
criteria. This historic information is used in the evaluation of the historic integrity of a property.
Historic integrity refers to the ability of a historic property to convey its significance. For example,
a Craftsman bungalow that has been severely renovated with new features from a different historic
period would no longer be an authentic example of the original architectural style, and therefore, the
property would have lost its historic integrity. This process of identifying and evaluating properties
is the basis for recording our stories and preserving the fabric that verifies them.
Directions
Continue Oklahoma City’s participation in the State Historic Preservation Office’s
Certified Local Governments (CLG) Program.
Document and designate Oklahoma City’s architectural heritage.
Preserve Oklahoma City’s stories, telling these stories in exciting ways that promote interest in
them and make them accessible.
Actions
Identify buildings, places, and structures of historical or architectural significance for historical
designation and documentation.
Work with citizens and preservation professionals to identify culturally and historically
significant properties that are endangered.
Give immediate attention to the historic designation and documentation of key buildings
warranting preservation. Reevaluate priorities on an annual basis.
72

Promotion of Historic Neighborhoods
The preservation of historic areas can be secured only through their continued promotion,
revitalization and appropriate rehabilitation. Homeowners in HP (Historic Preservation) or
HL (Historic Landmark) zoned areas have organized, prepared the necessary documentation, formed
a consensus, and lobbied to establish protection for the historic integrity of their districts and the
personal investment necessary in rehabilitating their homes. To help insure this protection, all
property owners and potential owners must have an understanding of ordinance requirements,
procedures for obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness and resources for technical information
concerning appropriate rehabilitation techniques. Materials and tradespersons must be accessible,
available, and affordable in order to repair and maintain significant historic features, reconstruct
missing features based on documentation and create new elements that are compatible with the
historic character of the districts. Property owners must have a clear understanding of incentive
programs requiring local and/or federal design review to avoid costly mistakes and to encourage
potential home ownership.
Directions
Promote awareness of incentive programs for historic neighborhoods.
Promote awareness of the goals and purposes of preservation, as well as current preservation
technology, HP and HL zoning requirements and the benefits to homeowners and property
owners of adhering to those requirements.
Identify and promote the unique historic character of each district and the charm of living in
historic areas.
Actions
Develop an informational clearinghouse for historic preservation and revitalization issues.
Hire additional staff members, as needed for the City’s historic preservation programs and create
a City/neighborhood liaison position.
Create promotional documents called HP Living which include guidelines (do’s and don’ts) with
an emphasis on the unique character defining features of individual districts.
Sponsor special events showcasing particular areas, house styles and rehabilitation techniques.
Develop or facilitate programs that encourage residents of all income levels to purchase or
rehabilitate homes in existing and potential HP/HL areas. The following incentives could be
investigated:
• tax incentives,
• down payment programs/low interest loan programs,
• graded property taxes,
• Community Development Block Grants,
• TEA 21 (transportation grant funds),
73

• private investment pools,
• subsidies for craftpersons practicing traditional building techniques,
• Housing Replacement Tax Increment District, and
• Community Housing Development Organization activities.
Development and Revitalization in Historic Areas
Regulations addressing development in historic areas must serve a dual purpose—preserving the
historic character of each district while facilitating change that is necessary for growth. Generally,
retaining the original function of a building is preferable for preserving the historic character of a
building because this usually requires minimal change to the significant features of the property
and/or district. Most residential buildings that retain their historic integrity should continue to be
used for their original purpose. Changes to the property for the purpose of retaining the residential
use in an environment of change due to adjacent new development or traffic conditions must be
accommodated with sensitivity. However, in some circumstances, a change in use may be
appropriate when fewer changes to the significant historic features of the building are required.
Additionally, there are vacant lots within and at the edges of historic districts. The Secretary of the
Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation advises that any new construction must respect the historic
character of a district by creating compatible new features/structures that are differentiated from the
historic fabric. In addition to new construction, adaptive use needs to be promoted as a means of
providing creative opportunities for facilitating appropriate mixed use, new residential and new
commercial development.
Directions
Promote the revitalization of historic areas by encouraging appropriate infill development.
Encourage appropriate mixed-use development for historic properties.
Encourage appropriate new uses that require minimal change to the significant historic features
of a property.
Retain the vitality of existing residential uses at the edges of residential historic districts by
accommodating location-specific property alterations that respond to new development and
changing traffic patterns at the perimeter of the districts.
Actions
Develop design guidelines for individual neighborhoods based on the unique, character-defining
features of each district within a framework of basic guidelines adopted by the City.
Encourage conversion of unused parts (or all) of historic non-residential buildings for residential
use, in order to extend economic vitality of properties and to increase housing stock.
Consider limited conversion of selected residential buildings to commercial uses including home
businesses and conversion of residences facing busy thoroughfares.
74

Develop vacant parcels with appropriate infill construction that is consistent with the character
of the district and differentiated from the historic fabric. This development is subject to existing
historic preservation design review.
Review traffic patterns and related environment with the intent of finding and implementing
solutions to changing transportation needs while retaining the unique character of each historic
districts.
Work with building code officials to identify and implement alternate regulations with the intent
of preserving historic structures while achieving the intent and purposes of current and future
codes affecting life/safety issues.
Work with City officials to insure that any infrastructure improvements that effect the character
of the district respond to existing design guidelines.
Non-Residential Buildings and Districts
The character of a great city is, to many, defined by its commercial districts, particularly its
downtown. Although half of Oklahoma City’s downtown core was demolished in the 1970s,
significant buildings remain. Recent capital expenditures in the downtown core and Bricktown have
already resulted in a noticeable increase in economic activity there.
Neighborhood commercial districts are part of the identity of, and provide amenities for, their nearby
residential areas. Three historic commercial districts (Stockyards City, Automobile Alley, and
Capitol Hill) have established Main Street programs, utilizing organization, historic design
guidelines, economic restructuring, and promotion activities.
Government facilities are important visual elements in the cityscape. Included are facilities of the
city, county, state, and federal governments, as well as schools. They include such diverse elements
as parks, bridges, schools, dams, airports, and water works, as well as public buildings. Many of
these facilities retain their historic integrity.
Directions
Document and preserve significant historic non-residential buildings and districts.
Use incentives, as well as regulations to facilitate preservation.
Actions
Inventory and establish design review for significant commercial, public, and educational
buildings and districts.
Prioritize those historic properties based on significance, integrity and endangerment.
Develop local tax incentives, including business improvement districts, tax increment financing,
and rebates specifically designed to serve historic preservation goals. Promote federal historic
tax credits.
75

Encourage listings in the National Register of Historic Places, including government buildings,
for recognition and for availability of federal tax credits for income-producing properties.
Maintain the historic integrity of historic government facilities. Establish and/or implement an
appropriate design review process.
Encourage participation in the Oklahoma Main Street Program.
Develop incentives and marketing strategies to promote economic activity in historic
commercial districts and buildings. Continue to promote Bricktown and the downtown core.
Encourage the development of neighborhood cultural districts.
Allocate capital funds to renew infrastructure and other works to facilitate revitalization of
historic commercial districts.
Examine and adopt as appropriate alternate building codes for historic structures. Investigate
established codes developed by other cities to supplement existing codes.
Stabilize historic dilapidated buildings as an alternative to demolition.
Zone districts and high-priority individual properties to require design review based on
established preservation practice.
76

Culture

Oklahoma City is uniquely positioned as the cultural center of the metropolitan region and
has a significant advantage over surrounding communities in the number and strength of cultural
events, facilities and organizations. Cultural activity is a vital asset to economic development;
revitalization of neighborhoods and to the overall quality of life for citizens in our community. City
plans and programs should support and encourage public/private (non-profit and business)
partnerships and community efforts that are visionary, high quality and built upon the diverse
cultural assets of our city and the broadly shared values upholding the worth of those assets.
Citizens have expressed a desire and expectation for more quality cultural programs. Persons
who create and develop cultural programs and events share these same desires, and through the
recent community-wide cultural planning process have identified goals and partnerships that will be
required to meet these expectations.
< In the written and phone surveys conducted by the City to gauge citizen desire in planning for
the future, 73.3% of citizens expressed a very strong desire to see more cultural offerings, and
65.8% also expressed a desire for more arts education opportunities for their children.
< An extensive cultural planning process sponsored by the Allied Arts Foundation, Arts Council of
Oklahoma City and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce has established a need
for a public/private partnership in cultural development.
< In the voter survey conducted by Tom Kielhorn Associates for the Cultural Plan Steering
Committee, 84% of the individuals surveyed said they participated directly in a cultural activity.
< The need to address access and equity issues is key to the development of cultural activity in
Oklahoma City. The City has already identified this as a key issue and can play an integral role
to assure citizens that diverse cultural programs are available from and for all ethnic groups in
our community.
< Recognizing their cultural assets (including ethnic diversity) as an important part of their efforts,
citizens= groups are revitalizing older commercial areas.
< The MAPS effort is a clear indication that the community is willing to invest in itself when
presented with a quality program and plan.
< Arts education is already having a positive outcome on neighborhood involvement, student
learning and school image. The effects of this positive influence at Wilson and Cleveland
Elementary and Classen School for Advanced Studies are visible.
< Cultural organizations now recognize that a public/private effort is required to raise cultural
activity to a competitive level in order to compete with other cities for business and convention
business.
< Preliminary economic survey results show that annual attendance for cultural events and
activities in Oklahoma City exceeds 2.4 million people. Over 9,000 individuals volunteer
114,400 hours annually to cultural organizations in our community.
77

OKLAHOMA CITY
Cultural Resources
Downtown/Bricktown Area
Civic Center Music Hall
Stage Center Theater
Bricktown Ballpark
Canal
Myriad Convention Center
Myriad Gardens
Arts Council
Library/Learning Center (to be constructed)
Indian Cultural center (proposed)
Art Museum (proposed for Centre Theatre site)
Fairgrounds
State Fairgrounds
Arenas and Exhibit Areas
Oklahoma City Art Museum
City Arts Center
Northeast Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City Zoo
Kirkpatrick Center and Omniplex
Cowboy Hall of Fame
Remington Park
Firefighters Museum
Softball Hall of Fame
Other Locations
Lyric Theater 4444 N. Classen Blvd
Jewel Box Theater 3700 N. Walker Ave
Enterprise Square (Oklahoma Christian University)
State History Museum (State Capitol area)
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City Community College
Oklahoma Christian University
University of Central Oklahoma
Rose State University
Paseo Cultural District
78

Assets
Oklahoma City’s cultural assets provide a strong foundation for a public/private partnership that will
enhance cultural activity in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City is the cultural center of central Oklahoma, with facilities, events and programs
attracting people from throughout the region and beyond. The map on page 78 shows the wide
range of cultural facilities available in Oklahoma City.
Arts and culture play a vital role in bringing businesses and tourists to Oklahoma City.
Three major concentrations of cultural facilities—downtown/Bricktown, the Fairgrounds, and
the museums/racetrack/zoo area, have had major facility improvements since the last plan
update.
Publicly owned cultural facilities include the Civic Center Music Hall, the new Ballpark, Zoo,
Fairgrounds, recreation centers, State history museum, Myriad Gardens, libraries, school
auditoriums and park amphitheaters.
Privately owned or operated facilities have and continue to provide the focus for cultural activity
which include the Oklahoma City Art Museum, City Art Center, Omniplex, Enterprise Square,
Arts Council Complex, Stage Center, Jewel Box Theater and amphitheater, and the future
facility for the Lyric Theatre.
Additionally, college and university facilities including Oklahoma City University,
Oklahoma City Community College, Rose State College, Southern Nazarene University, and
Oklahoma Christian University are centers for community cultural activity.
Neighborhood and business groups provide cultural identity to commercial areas (including
ethnic diversity), and support programs to honor Oklahoma City’s history by preserving
significant sites and buildings.
The City government’s current level of service includes support for community events and
facilities; basic arts and cultural programs in community centers for children and seniors; work
with Downtown Now to coordinate services and knowledge of events; recognition of the need
for public art; and support of partnership programs such as Play in the Park.
The Greater Oklahoma City Cultural Plan provides a framework for a public/private partnership
that outlines goals developed with input from cultural organizations, artists, citizens and
community volunteer leadership.
Oklahoma City has an outstanding “human capital” of artists and artisans, and cultural
organizational leadership, both staff and volunteer leaders. Plus, a more recent development of
collaboration and citizen cooperation and trust are additional resources for the region’s
development.
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Directions
Increase public awareness and support for cultural activity and improve public and private
cultural facilities to
• enrich the quality of life for Oklahoma City residents,
• promote tourism and strengthen business recruitment, and
• support community growth and redevelopment.
Enhance the visual appeal of cultural facilities and sites by addressing aesthetic issues including
design, beautification, and public art.
Preserve community history, architecture and neighborhood integrity.
Recognize and promote the community’s unique cultural assets and rich ethnic identity.
Expand the role of City government to become a partner in the design and development of
cultural activity in our community.
Actions
Cultural Awareness
Seek to develop public/private partnerships to support and stabilize cultural programs.
Encourage the Convention and Visitors Bureau to include in materials distributed to visitors
more in-depth information on the variety of cultural offerings in Oklahoma City.
Provide leadership and resources to support an environment that promotes appreciation and
understanding of Oklahoma City’s diverse cultural resources.
Develop a consistent and effective city-wide standard for design of directional signage to direct
traffic to public and private cultural facilities.
Investment in Cultural Assets
Participate with the non-profit cultural community in an effort to develop a “revenue stream” to
support and stabilize cultural programs.
Commit to financial support of arts education in our public schools.
Cultural Districts
Establish neighborhood cultural districts throughout the city to unite and celebrate
Oklahoma City”s unique character and culturally diverse neighborhoods. These cultural districts
should be keyed to predominant cultural activities and/or ethnic identity. Possible districts
include:
• downtown Capitol Hill (Latino ethnic area and country-western music),
• Deep Deuce (African-American history and jazz),
• NW 23rd and Classen (Asian ethnic identity),
• Paseo (arts and Spanish architecture), and
• Stockyards City (western).
80

Establish a Cultural District Designation and develop criteria for applying this designation to
neighborhood cultural districts.
• Establish design review for major cultural districts, including signage, materials, and
landscaping.
• Encourage pedestrian-oriented design within cultural districts.
• Dedicate tax revenue from designated cultural districts for improvements and maintenance
within the district.
Recognize and enhance the downtown core as the cultural heart of the city.
Create incentives for new cultural facilities to locate in existing districts to help the districts to
reach a critical mass necessary for stimulating additional development.
Identify cultural districts and facilities by installing markers or banners to identify each district,
install directional signage to the districts (and individual facilities), and encourage the naming of
these districts on maps of the City.
City Involvement and Investment
Establish a public/private task force to assess current and future cultural facility needs.
Provide leadership to establish and maintain communication among the 23 school districts in
order to develop more arts education opportunities for the children in our community.
Develop aesthetic standards for new cultural, public, and sports facilities which recognize the
role of public facilities in expressing the community’s artistic and cultural values. Involve the
public in the design of new public structures.
Develop integrated approach and working relationship within City departments to address issues
of community design and appearance.
Develop a comprehensive approach within the City’s programs and operations to coordinate the
cultural activities that the City is currently undertaking. The City’s current approach is
piecemeal and a comprehensive and cohesive environment needs to be established for the City to
undertake a leadership role in cultural development.
• Establish a dedicated City staff position with appropriate qualifications to serve as a liaison
between the City and private organizations involved in developing and carrying out cultural
programs.
• Include cultural research and information gathering in existing city process or systems for
gathering community information.
81

Historic Preservation
Designate public, cultural, and education buildings as Landmarks.
• List those public buildings on the National Register of Historic Places which are eligible and
are not already listed.
• Provide local design review of those public buildings by zoning them “Historical Landmark”
or placing within design review districts; this would include historic school facilities.
• Create local tax credit programs for rehabilitation of historic buildings.
Public Art
Increase public art, which is still minimal in Oklahoma City. This art is not limited to sculpture,
but could include murals, plazas, and horticultural landscapes. This could be a primary focus of
the Oklahoma City Arts Commission.
Develop a consistent source for funding public art projects. Consider a policy for setting aside a
portion of the cost of constructing public buildings for public art.
Develop provisions for maintaining public art pieces.
82

Community
Appearance

Surveys of Oklahoma City residents conducted early in the plan process noted a general
disquiet about the appearance of the city. This was a hot button issue for many residents who
expressed dismay with the attractiveness of the downtown, of neighborhoods, of streets, of
commercial areas. Less than one-fourth of those surveyed rated appearances in the city as excellent
or good. Too many would seem to agree that the city’s appearance suffers in comparison to Tulsa,
Wichita, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, and San Antonio.
The people greatly impact a city’s appearance positively through beautification efforts and
negatively through thoughtless, careless acts of littering and neglect of property maintenance. In
turn, a city’s appearance affects its people. Pride of place can affect one’s outlook on life and how
one relates to people from other places. Community appearance whether attractive, unremarkable or
poor, burns an enduring image in the minds of people who visit or travel through the city. For
visitors, the image forms much of their opinion of the city.
The city’s appearance is important in attracting new industry or bolstering the tourist trade.
When appearance is poor, efforts to attract industry and tourism may be unsuccessful. But when
there is pride in a community’s appearance these efforts are bolstered by a confidence that can win
the day.
Assets
A vast geographic area with a landscape that varies from wooded rolling hills to large lakes to
level prairie with long vistas and tree-studded streams.
Tremendous tourism potential due to the city’s position as a crossroads of the nation with
highways entering from all directions and the recent development of major attractions.
A growing awareness by the citizenry of the importance of appearance and image of the city and
a growing commitment to strong efforts for improvement
Ample sunshine and generally warm temperatures throughout the year
Pockets of interesting architectural styles in commercial and residential areas
Open space with available land for beatification and preservation
The MAPS Program Improvements including the ballpark, canal, and Bricktown
The State Capitol
The Health Science Center
On-going Main Street Programs
Historical Neighborhoods
School of Science and Mathematics Campus
Public Parks
Attractions such as the Oklahoma City Zoo, the Myriad Botanical Gardens, and museums
83

Liabilities
An unclear sense of identity because of a brief history that began with overnight development at
a location not clearly in any one identifiable region of the country.
A history of not maintaining property and careless disposal of trash
Unsightly sign clutter greeting highway travelers and city motorists
Unsightly industrial storage yards at highly visible locations along gateways (highways entering
the city)
Landfills, ever increasing in height, which dominate in select areas
Large metal structures which are deteriorated and/or lack attractive exterior finish materials at
highly visible locations along city gateways
Poor appearance along arterial streets due to the buildup of trash and weeds and the absence of
streetscape improvements such as landscaping and well-maintained sidewalks
Abandoned signs and signs in disrepair which mar the view along streets and highways
Poor maintenance and upkeep of structures and property in both urban and rural neighborhoods
A substantial number of vacant buildings and properties, particularly in older areas of the city,
which are unsightly due to neglected maintenance
Climate that limits some types of landscaping
Lighting on interstate highways that is out of scale with surroundings and distractive both to
drivers and nearby residents
No requirements for continual upkeep of landscaping and replacement of dead plant material
Need for stronger requirements to preserve trees and vegetative cover during development.
New frontier political mentality that landowner can do anything they want with property they
own
Tendency to place all parking in front of commercial retail buildings
Carelessness and thoughtlessness on the part of the public and some motorists who throw items
from vehicles, dump trash in rural areas, and fail to cover loads in the back of trucks
Weak landscaping requirements in city regulations and no landscaping requirements for
industrial buildings
84

Directions
Improve the appearance of public facilities with capital expenditures for beautifying municipal
buildings and open spaces, transit stations, bus storage lots, bridge designs, fire and police
stations, drainage ways, airports, recreational facilities, public events venues, utility facilities,
city equipment storage yards and maintenance facilities. The City should set an example of
methods to improve public appearance.
Improve design of city constructed projects, bridges, roadways to enhance aesthetics,
landscaping by requiring design review by a citizen/professional committee for aesthetics of all
public projects.
Make landscaping requirements for public and private improvements on going with requirements
for maintenance, watering and replanting of dead plant material.
Improve the appearance of new private development through enhanced standards for
landscaping, signage, and project and building design.
Expand ordinance requirements and develop City programs to promote the preservation of trees
and vegetative cover during development.
Create a comprehensive Beautification Master Plan for the City of Oklahoma City.
Improve the appearance along city gateways by restricting sign clutter and strong continual
enforcement of specific development and construction standards for new private development
along these highly visible corridors.
Expand on the impact of MAPS and riverfront investments by improving the appearance of
major thoroughfares into downtown Oklahoma City and along the North Canadian River with
concentrated clean-up, streetscape and landscape beautification efforts.
Improve the appearance of older neighborhoods and commercial areas by preparing
neighborhood appearance master plans and encouraging a style of redevelopment that supports
the character and charm of the traditional city.
Promote pedestrian travel throughout the city by building sidewalks and trails.
Encourage the protection of the city’s natural assets including open vistas, views of streams and
rivers, wooded areas, scenic terrain, wildlife habitat, creeks and wetlands. Enhance the popular
image of the prairie as a unique place of beauty.
Improve the appearance of areas throughout the city by enforcing laws against littering and
working with community and neighborhood groups on cleanup and fix up efforts.
Make providing resources to take care of more established neighborhoods a top priority of City
programs and budgets and emphasize revitalization.
85

Actions
City Gateways
Establish capital programs for corridor landscaping and streetscape beautification of established
boulevards throughout the city and along selected roadways leading into downtown/Bricktown,
the Capitol Area, fairgrounds, northeast tourist attractions and Capitol Hill, and from the airport,
and also for future roadwork and extensions. Look at alternative ways to water using water
wells or tertiary treated water.
Implement a Viewscape Masterplan for interstate corridors in Oklahoma City. (This is a
metropolitan effort to improve the appearance of 90 miles of interstate corridors by improving
landscaping, codes, and policies.)
Adopt standards for the appearance of commercial and industrial structures along designated
gateways by indicating approved construction materials and suggesting preferred design
treatments for building surfaces visible from the gateways.
Develop appropriate sign standards for signs along new interstate highway segments.
Make retaining and sound-buffering walls along expressways more attractive by promoting
textured finishes and screening the walls with spreading vines, trees, and shrubbery.
Neighborhood Appearance
Actions to improve the appearance of the city’s neighborhoods and business areas are included in the
Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Element of the Plan. The following actions from that
element have particular relevance to community appearance are repeated here for emphasis:
Strengthen the enforcement of property maintenance codes.
Repair or replace streets and sidewalks in poor condition, construct new sidewalks where not
now present, provide additional street lighting, preserve existing trees and plant new trees where
needed, and improve neighborhood parks and recreation programs.
Improve the appearance of neighborhoods and the condition of housing through concentrated
code enforcement efforts.
Provide assistance to residents for housing and neighborhood improvements including training in
property maintenance skills where needed.
Identify and encourage neighborhood designs which promote participation of neighborhood
residents in outside activities and increase residents’ perception of comfort and safety and
emphasize the relationship of the house to the street.
Review Building Code requirements for rehabilitating older structures to promote rehabilitation
efforts while providing adequate protections for public safety.
Review appearance problems in rural areas and change City codes and enforcement practices as
appropriate to address the specific needs and characteristics of rural areas.
86

Seek changes in state legislation to enhance the City’s ability to maintain and improve its
neighborhoods including:
• Laws which would speed up the demolition process for long-time boarded properties that can
not be rehabilitated and
• Laws which would strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or
sell neglected, boarded-up properties.
Develop land use and development regulations and encourage development practices that
minimize adverse impacts of commercial development on adjoining residential areas and
enhance positive impacts of commercial development on adjacent properties.
Work with business owners to provide building, street, and parking improvements to maintain
and enhance the viability of neighborhood commercial areas.
Also change code enforcement policy to pro-active enforcement rather than reactive from
personal complaint basis.
Trash, Litter Control, and Enforcement
Place an increased emphasis on the enforcement of laws against littering. Impose fines against
littering in a uniform and consistent manner to build in citizens a perception that littering does
carry a definite risk. Develop a co-coordinated community service program to pick up trash and
place litter violators on pick up crews.
Increasing the reporting of littering incidents and emphasize the issuance of citations and create
and fund special enforcement teams of litter (trash) cops and encourage citizens to report
littering.
Support and enhance educational programs and advertising campaigns to build awareness among
the public of the problems associated with littering and a commitment among citizens to stop
littering. This education should begin at the elementary level and continue through high school
and adult education.
Continue and expand voluntary litter cleanup programs such as adopt-a-street, adopt-a-park and
neighborhood cleanup days.
Investigate methods for faster and direct communication to litter (trash) cops through high
technology.
Develop a cohesive strategy to deal with solid waste disposal including urban, rural, city, county,
and all government levels.
Streetscapes
Encourage community and neighborhood groups to participate in existing programs to adopt a
section of public area to landscape, mow and edge, and generally beautify and keep clean.
Establish capital programs for enhancing the appearance of major street intersections throughout
the developed city with landscaping and sidewalks.
87

Adopt and enforce an ordinance that increases required landscaping for new commercial and
industrial facilities alongside highways and arterial streets, including along street frontages, at
entrances, and alongside visible storage yards and above-ground parking areas. The landscaping
should include indigenous materials native to the area. A program of on-going maintenance of
the landscaping and the timely replacement of dead and dying trees and shrubs should be
provided.
Maintain streetscapes by mowing grass and weeds, and regular street sweeping.
Sign Regulations
Review the City’s sign regulations and adopt changes as needed to improve the appearance and
effectiveness of signage throughout the City. The following proposals are among the topics that
should be addressed in this review.
• Cover the poles on pole signs.
• Adopt limits on the size of signs that meet the advertising needs of merchants while
maintaining the attractiveness of the community.
• Limit the percentage of commercial window area that can be covered with business signage.
• Limit temporary signs and banners to 21 days.
Initiate an enhanced and proactive enforcement of the City’s sign regulations to curtail the
placement of illegal signs and to ensure that signs are adequately maintained and also that
unused, unsightly and broken business signs are removed.
Eliminate vehicles and trailers with names on them parked in front of parking lots and right of
way.
Enforce removal of campaign and other illegal signs, prohibit the use of adhesive signs and
support the city’s sign removal sweeps.
Public Facilities
Develop comprehensive design guidelines for all elements of City capital projects to include
streetscapes, sidewalks along both sides of all streets and bridges, variations in paving materials,
street furniture and amenities, bus stops, street lighting, traffic signals and signage, landscaping
installation and maintenance, and attractive bridge design.
Develop a program to beautify the exterior of public parking garages using vegetation such as
spreading vines, trees, and shrubbery and encouraging more attractive facade treatments.
Enhance public bus stops and bus shelters with trash containers and landscaping. Provide
adequate trash containers on buses.
88

Private Development
Enhance the appearance of older metal buildings and other large structures (including grain
elevators) by painting with a palette of earth tones or other pleasing colors, retrofitting with more
attractive exterior finishes, or by extensive landscaping of trees between buildings and streets.
Review parking regulations and design standards and adopt changes as needed to improve the
appearance of the city’s business areas. Excessive parking requirements and the need for
increased landscaping in parking lots are two concerns that should be addressed in such a
review.
Require hard surfaces for paving for church and business parking lots in the Downtown,
Traditional Neighborhoods, and Urban Growth Areas as designated on the OKC Plan
Development Areas map.
Require landfills to be aesthetically pleasing by contouring the tops and sides into natural shapes
with some areas of lesser height and grass landscaping required.
Change regulations to encourage less parking in front of commercial buildings and more in back
or on sides.
Change regulations to reduce the number of parking spaces by allowing part of the land
necessary to meet the required number to be landscaped instead.
Natural Assets
Identify areas having natural beauty that are deserving of preservation.
Continue planting of native plant material, grasses and wildflowers and seasonal color beds in
profusion along gateway highways, in thoroughfare medians, and along the rights-of-way of
arterial streets.
Explore the possibility of City acquisition of property to preserve special and unique natural
assets for public use.
Immediately identity the areas of natural beauty visual from the gateways and develop policies
to preserve naturally beautiful areas along the gateways.
Develop and implement a tree preservation ordinance consistent with the Tree Master Plan
(page 19).
Beautification Plans
Work with civic, business, neighborhood, City, and state organizations to develop and
implement a Comprehensive Beautification Master Plan for the city (see page 91) in which all
entities take part and have ownership.
Work with building and property owners, businesses, and community groups to create and carry
out a downtown appearance improvement plan focusing on property maintenance, streetscaping,
increased open space, improved public spaces and litter control.
89

Promote the formation of Downtown appearance improvement plans such as Business
Improvement Districts and Tax Increment Finance Districts that would gather moneys and
organize resources for improving the appearance of the downtown, Bricktown, Capitol Hill, and
other commercial centers around the city.
Support beautification efforts being promoted by civic groups in order to accomplish/implement
beautification plans.
Encourage displaying the City’s architectural or aesthetic heritage by incorporating icons or
symbols of the City’s past, intensive landscaping with indigenous materials and tasteful public
art or graphics.
90

Beautification Master Plan
A comprehensive beautification master plan is essential as a blueprint for all future efforts
to improve the appearance of Oklahoma City. The following elements are key:
• The city needs a vision.
• Our city’s personality and pride should be projected through a positive image.
• The image goes beyond Interstates, gateways and landscaping.
• Land managers (state, county, city) must be involved.
• The process needs a champion to lead it.
• Financial resources must be committed.
In February 1999 the Beautification Coalition, a group of community leaders actively
developing programs to beautify the Oklahoma City region, voted to support the master
plan concept. A master plan for highway viewscapes is in progress. While this step is a
positive one, we need to build upon it and go on to the bigger picture. The Master Plan
should include a comprehensive image related to gateways, Interstates and boulevards,
revitalization, litter and urban blight control, design elements, plant materials, trails, code
and zoning concerns, etc.
The Mayor and other public officials have stated that improving community appearance is
essential to economic development and the overall quality of life in our area.
Mayor Humphreys is the obvious leader to champion such a plan and to find funding for the
implementation of it, even if it must wait for a new bond issue or sales tax vote. There is
also the possibility of securing federal TEA-21 financing, which would tie in nicely with
future Interstate projects such as I-40.
The plan alone, because of its scope, the size of Oklahoma City and the need for quality,
should be a City project supported by various interested civic groups such as the
Beautification Coalition and a Mayor’s committee. The City of Oklahoma City could request
proposals from local landscape design firms partnered with experienced national groups.
In order to make a significant improvement in community appearance, City, State, and
other governmental officials need to work closely with the private sector to implement a
comprehensive strategy for beautification.
91

Economic
Development

Oil production, agriculture, transportation, and state government provided the economic
foundation for Oklahoma City throughout the twentieth century. Following World War II, air travel,
military operations, and manufacturing provided a growing share of total employment. In the last
decade, firms such as General Motors, AT&T, Seagate, and America Online with the expanded use
of automated manufacturing and telecommunications have introduced a “high-tech” dimension to
the local employment market. Most recently, cultural and recreational facilities as well as medical
and educational institutions have been recognized for their potential in expanding the economy.
Over time, certain concentrated areas of employment have become critically important to the
local economy. These areas are shown on the map below and briefly described in the table which
follows.
Downtown Oklahoma City serves as a center for financial, office, and government employment
and is a focus for cultural and people-oriented activities.
MAJOR EMPLOYMENT CENTERS
The Capitol/Medical Center contains the State Capitol and five major medical institutions.
Two major employers in close proximity, Tinker Air Force Base and General Motors, have a
combined total of over 25,000 employees which is approximately 5% of total metro area
employment.
93

Will Rogers Airport and the accompanying Federal Aviation Administration not only provide
significant employment opportunities but function as a center of transportation services and
freight movement.
The I-40 Industrial Area centered near Interstate 40 and County Line Road contains several
major industrial employers: AT&T, Firestone, Seagate, and CMI Corporation.
The Memorial Road/Broadway Extension area in Oklahoma City and Edmond has experienced
rapid growth in the past five years. This area contains a mix of commercial and industrial uses
and is anchored on the west by Quail Springs Mall, a regional shopping center.
The Northwest Expressway corridor is an area of intense commercial and office development.
This area is anchored on the east by Penn Square Mall, a regional shopping center and includes
the Integris Baptist Medical Center at Northwest Expressway/NW 50th/Lake Hefner Parkway.
The I-240 corridor from I-35 to I-44 is an area of intensive commercial development. It is
anchored on the east by Crossroads Mall, a regional shopping center.
Despite the trend toward greater economic diversity in Oklahoma City and in the state,
economic health in the region has fluctuated dramatically from decade to decade. This pattern is due
both to the cyclical nature of agriculture and to the heavy reliance on the energy industry for jobs,
capital formation, and tax revenue. Future economic development efforts, therefore, must continue
to broaden the base of economic activities and avoid dependance on a few sectors for viability and
growth.
Both the public and private sectors need to be actively involved in efforts to develop and
enhance the local economy. Private sector actions are needed to interpret market conditions and to
initiate investment decisions. The public sector assists by maintaining and monitoring economic
data and by providing infrastructure, supportive regulations, and other public programs to encourage
economic development. By balancing private sector needs and the public interest, a dynamic
economy can be maintained for present and future generations.
Directions
Work with other metro cities, area chambers of commerce, business district groups, the State and
other entities to promote job and income growth throughout the Oklahoma City region.
Within the context of cooperative regional economic development efforts, place special
emphasis on the redevelopment of Downtown Oklahoma City and the surrounding core areas by
encouraging reuse of larger vacant sites and buildings convenient to the central city and
promoting reuse of brown field locations.
Increase worker productivity, versatility, and wages by improving education at all levels.
Support economic development efforts by improving the overall quality of life in the
Oklahoma City region by improving community appearance and public safety, expanding
recreational and cultural opportunities, and promoting patterns of growth and development
which make efficient use of existing investments in public services and infrastructure.
Maintain the ability to respond to future business development needs through supportive
planning policies and targeted capital improvements while protecting existing residential and
commercial areas and recognizing the City’s limited fiscal resources.
94

Actions
Public-Private Initiatives
< Coordinate City economic development efforts carried out under this Plan with the economic
development efforts of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce as outlined in
Forward Oklahoma City—The New Agenda (1996-2000) and Forward Oklahoma City II
(2001-2005) to grow the economy and improve the overall quality of life in Oklahoma City.
Form partnerships combining City departments, trusts, and authorities with local firms, area
chambers of commerce, and the State to jointly pursue economic development initiatives
including
• land acquisition and infrastructure improvements,
• establishing technology transfer programs,
• creating and implementing Business Improvement Districts, Tax Increment Finance districts,
tax abatement incentives, and other methods for financing economic development and
redevelopment efforts.
Seek additional resources to fund an aggressive, ongoing economic development effort.
Work with chambers of commerce, universities and vo-techs, and financial institutions to assist
existing businesses in expanding their operations and entrepreneurs in starting new businesses.
Programs to support these businesses include assistance with developing business plans,
providing marketing and site selection data, advising business owners about governmental and
other programs, providing small business loans, and developing business incubators for small
business startups.
Emphasize technology-based enterprises in industrial recruitment and business development
efforts.
Identify and pursue industrial development opportunities in freight movement and other sectors
created by the designation of I-35 as a NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
corridor.
Encourage the development of a Regional Growth Dynamics Study that highlights the airport as
the economic development hub of Central Oklahoma.
Promote the availability and further enhancement of natural resources (water) especially along
the banks of the Canadian River.
95

Planning and Capital Improvements
Identify key areas for new and expanding employers needing larger tracts (30+ acres). Areas to
be considered include
• Will Rogers World Airport and vicinity,
• along the North Canadian River from Sooner Rd to MacArthur Blvd,
• along I-240 between Tinker Air Force Base and Crossroads Mall,
• along Broadway Extension from I-44 north to the Edmond-Oklahoma City corporate limits,
• along I-40 between Mustang Road and May Avenue,
• along I-35 between NE 23rd St and the Oklahoma City-Edmond corporate limits, and
• along I-44 between the Broadway Extension and I-35.
Create a Technology Park/Research and Development zoning classification. The development
regulations for this zoning classifications should provide for specialized communications
technology, underground utilities, enhanced landscaping including berms and trees, and other
amenities including sidewalks and trails.
Direct additional infrastructure improvements for economic development including water and
sanitary sewer lines, roads, traffic signals, transit, telecommunications facilities, and other
private utilities to locations within the Urban Growth area. Establish priorities within the City’s
capital improvements program which support this policy.
Education Initiatives
Within existing educational programs emphasize technology training, especially in the fields
such as aerospace, vehicle assembly, bio-medicine, heavy equipment production, and
communications which already have a strong presence within the Oklahoma City area economy.
Continue and expand workforce development programs offering job-training, transportation
access, and child care for lower-income residents, especially those in the Enterprise Community
area to promote increased job participation and higher incomes among these residents.
Center City Redevelopment
Encourage redevelopment, revitalization, and enhancement of all areas inside the “loop” (area
bounded by I-44 on the north and west, I-240 on the south, and I-35 on the east) including
“downtown” housing.
Promote the reuse of larger vacant sites convenient to the central city including brown field
locations as business locations through appropriate land use decisions and supportive
infrastructure improvements.
Identify key sites for business development within the central city and prepare profiles on their
conditions and assets.
Promote the formation of Business Improvement Districts and Tax Increment Financing areas as
a means of financing Center City redevelopment.
96

Environmental
Concerns

From an environmental perspective, Oklahoma City has several special qualities.
Oklahoma City is positioned along two unique physiographic areas called the Cross Timbers and the
Reddish Prairies. These features contain distinct land forms and vegetation types that mark an
important biological transition between the eastern woodlands and western plains. The city also
falls within the basin of three major river systems; the North Canadian, Canadian, and Cimarron.
Finally, eastern Oklahoma City lies atop the Central Oklahoma Aquifer, an important and sensitive
drinking water source for the metropolitan area, that contains numerous public water supply wells.
The Central Oklahoma Aquifer is commonly known as the Garber-Wellington from the Garber
Sandstone and Wellington rock formations.
Together, these environmental resources provide substantial opportunities to enhance our
quality of life while posing significant challenges to the City and development community in
safeguarding their qualities.
Assets and Concerns
Air Quality
Air pollution has been shown to be a major contributor to environmental health problems in the
United States. In addition, air quality can be a major factor in limiting or promoting area economic
growth.
Air quality within buildings is increasingly becoming a health concern as well. Creating “tighter”
buildings for energy efficiency may result in trapping irritants and allergic materials inside buildings
producing what has become known as the “sick building” syndrome.
The Oklahoma City metropolitan area is currently designated as “attainment” with regard to air
quality by the Environmental Protection Agency. Areas can be designated as attainment or nonattainment
based on National Ambient Air Quality Standards for six criterial pollutants that include
carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), ozone (O 3 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), and two
levels of particulate matter (PM). The benefits of “attainment” include a reduced risk for air
pollution related health conditions and the designation can be used for industrial recruitment and
other promotions.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently implemented higher air quality standards which
place the Oklahoma City metropolitan area precariously close to falling out of attainment for
ozone (O 3 ). Losing attainment status would require the implementation of a mitigation plan that
could include stricter vehicle inspections, fuel pump vapor recovery equipment, and the use of
reformulated fuels. These higher air quality standards are currently being challenged in the courts
and by members of Congress.
97

Water Resources
Drinking water in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area is supplied from both surface and ground
water sources. Oklahoma City relies on surface sources that include Lake Hefner, Lake Overholser,
and Lake Stanley Draper within Oklahoma City as well as Lake Canton and Lake Atoka and the
McGee Creek Reservoir located outside the metro area. Reservoirs for other metropolitan area
communities include Lake Thunderbird, Lake Wes Watkins, and Lake Arcadia.
The primary ground water source for other cities within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area is the
Central Oklahoma Aquifer (shown below). Some metropolitan communities have their well fields
located within the corporate limits of Oklahoma City and, thus do not have the authority to regulate
land uses that may effect their water supply. Additional aquifers in the Oklahoma City metropolitan
area are alluvial and terrace aquifers related to the Cimarron and North Canadian Rivers. The
watersheds for these reservoirs and aquifer recharge zones are environmentally sensitive areas that
require special protection from intensive urban development to avoid contamination.
Groundwater Resources in the Oklahoma City Area
Solid Waste Management
The Oklahoma City Water and Wastewater Utilities Department provides Total Trash Service for its
urban customers, which includes weekly trash collection, curbside recycling, collection of yard
wastes and bulky trash. Trash collection services are also provided for approximately 10,300 rural
households.
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In addition, the Solid Waste Management Division (of the Water and Wastewater Department) and
the Public Works Department are responsible for various environmental services including
hazardous waste disposal days, street sweeping, and clean-up of trash illegally dumped along rightsof-way.
Private solid waste disposal facilities in Oklahoma City include:
BFI Oklahoma Landfill
East Oak Landfill
Newcastle Landfill
OLS Inc. Midwest Landfill
Southeast Landfill Authority
Directions
7600 SW 15th Street
3000 Mosley Road
1741 N. Portland Ave in Newcastle
9400 SE 49th Street
7001 S. Bryant Avenue (I-240 & S. Bryant)
A safe and healthy environment is one of the most important legacies that we can provide to future
generations. The President’s Council on Sustainable Communities believes that communities should
exist in harmony with the natural environment. Growth and development should be based on the
ability of the area to maintain high environmental quality.
Planning and design can help Oklahoma City move toward this vision by promoting development in
areas that make efficient use of existing infrastructure, energy, materials, and land, as well as
minimizing adverse environmental impacts. Numerous communities have already demonstrated the
benefits of this approach in terms of reduced development costs, lower maintenance costs for
residents and an improved environment.
Actions
Air Quality
Reduce air emissions by promoting the use of alternative modes of transportation and alternative
fuels.
Develop incentives for improving air quality that may include expanded use of free bus days,
ride sharing programs, and increased housing density.
Increase tree planting and urban landscaping especially along highways and section line roads to
improve air quality.
Maintain existing and create new green spaces and green belts.
Water Quality and Drainage
Discourage development in environmentally sensitive areas of the city and avoid development
that would seriously impact sensitive areas such as watersheds of public water supply reservoirs.
Protect riparian buffer areas along lakes and streams from being destroyed as well as reestablish
those buffers that have been damaged to reduce risks related to flooding, control erosion,
improve water quality, increase wildlife habitat acreage, and provide additional land for
recreation.
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Limit and reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers in recharge areas and sensitive watersheds.
Promote retention of natural watercourses rather than channelization, protect wetlands and build
detention facilities to reduce flooding.
Discourage development within 100-year flood plains as determined by approved development
and drainage plans. Alteration in stream courses may be necessary in some cases with a
resulting change in the designated flood plain, however such changes should be limited so as to
maintain drainageways in as natural a condition as possible.
Seek the introduction and adoption of strong State legislation to protect ground and surface
water from animal wastes associated with Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) .
Require industrial plants located above the Central Oklahoma Aquifer to remove pollutants from
wastewater discharges.
Prohibit industrial development with a high potential for polluting groundwater resources from
occurring within the recharge area of the Central Oklahoma Aquifer.
Establish overlay zoning regulations for the protection of public water supply wells (ie. well
head protection).
Solid Waste
Regulate the construction and operation of landfills and other waste disposal facilities to protect
public health and safety, protect water supplies, and maintain community appearance.
Promote recycling and develop incentives to reduce solid waste, especially yard waste.
Incentives may include “pay as you throw” and different sized trash container options, and the
promotion of mulching.
Locate landfills in non-urban sites and limit landfills in height to prevent “waste mountains”
from dominating the landscape.
Establish a central collection site supported by satellite collection sites throughout the city for
collecting hazardous waste. Such sites should operate 7 days a week.
Expand the current recycling program to include curbside collection of grass clippings, tree
limbs, and other yard waste.
Consider a program for collecting and composting materials as an alternative to landfilling.
Provide quarterly pickup and grinding on site of dead trees and branches.
Establish an educational program on recycling throughout the city. Such a program should
include the schools, literature through the mail, and retail business sales.
Sod all landfill sites.
Work and coordinate with County Trash Cops.
Expand the recycling program to include apartment projects.
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Brownfield Redevelopment
Establish ongoing forums to bring together lending institutions, insurance companies, real estate
developers, business, environmentalist, and community groups, federal agencies, and locally
elected officials to identify barriers to brownfield redevelopment; provide potential solutions;
and, identify potential properties for redevelopment.
Aggressively seek the reduction of unnecessary federal and state environmental regulations that
serve as a barrier to brownfield redevelopment.
Aggressively seek the adoption of federal and state banking regulations that encourage banks
and other lending institutions to lend to redevelopers of brownfields.
General Environmental
Adopt zoning and subdivision regulations and building permitting requirements that provide
incentives to promote efficient land use patterns and encourage mixed use and infill
development.
Develop land use policies that promote higher density development and enable a wider range of
transportation alternatives, including mass transit, walking and bicycle paths.
Aggressively seek funding through State and Federal programs to cleanup and redevelop
“brownfields”, and land with potential contamination problems.
Support on-going Department of Environmental Quality programs to mitigate contaminated sites
that include Voluntary Cleanup and Superfund Programs.
Conduct energy audits on all City owned facilities and implement indicated building
improvements through capital improvements programs to increase energy efficiency.
Develop performance standards and best management practices in conjunction with the
Department of Environmental Quality in relation to mitigating point and non-point source
pollution and maintaining ground water quality.
Promote and encourage voluntary restrictions on development of critical private and public
green spaces, especially those existing in urban areas. Maintain as green belts or parks.
Develop and implement incentives which encourage businesses and residents to locate within
currently developed urban areas, especially into the inner city area.
Create more parks, expand and refurbish existing parks, and preserve green space. Encourage
green space in new residential, industrial and commercial developments.
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Regional
Context

The Oklahoma City region is a complex mosaic of overlapping governmental units. The
Oklahoma City metropolitan area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau encompasses six counties
and 70 municipalities. In addition, the Oklahoma City corporate limits include portions of some 30
school districts. While the individual interests of these governmental units may often conflict, all
residents of the Oklahoma City region share, for better or worse, a common identity and future.
And yet, competition often seems to be the prevailing dynamic in the relationship among the
region=s cities, counties, school districts, and other governmental units. Cities and counties compete
with each other to capture the newest and biggest retail businesses and industrial facilities to beef up
their sales and property tax collections. The added revenues are quickly used up in meeting the costs
of providing a full range of public services—police and fire protection, water supply, sewage
treatment, and road construction and maintenance, to ever growing populations and developed areas.
Despite the many impulses toward competition, the case for regional cooperation is
compelling. Nationally-renowned urban affairs writer Neal Peirce, in his book Citistates, notes that
regions—not cities, counties, or states, have become the primary units which compete in the global
economy. Residents of the region are not only citizens Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman, Moore,
Midwest City, etc. We are all citizens of the Central Oklahoma Region.
No longer may outlying metro communities claim to be isolated from housing, poverty,
joblessness, and educational problems in the central city. Not only do these problems affect the
entire region’s global competitiveness, but many of these “urban” ills are cropping up in the suburbs
as well.
The City and its municipal authorities cooperate with other jurisdictions in many ways,
including the provision of facilities and services which benefit the region such as water, the zoo, arts
and cultural facilities, roadway improvements, airports, and more. Joint efforts with the Association
of Central Oklahoma Governments, suburbs, and county governments have helped address many
regional issues, such as 911 phone service.
The City’s experience serving 600-plus square miles for more than thirty years gives it
unique abilities and perspectives in dealing with issues over a large and varied area. The City can
lend the benefits of this experience to region-wide multi-jurisdictional agencies. Oklahoma City’s
current status as water supplier for much of the region, may make it the logical choice to be the
regional water source.
Much potential remains for growth in the city and for cooperative ways to achieve mutually
beneficial development patterns with adjacent communities. The plans of all cities in the region
should reflect interdependent cooperation by addressing region-wide issues and relationships with
other cities. Opportunities exist for joint services. Some communities may find a specialized
service niche to fill for other municipalities, such as electricity utility service, code enforcement,
animal control, or construction inspection. Prospects are promising for the reduction of competition
and for the positive evolution of cooperative arrangements while cities retain unique identities as
separate units.
103

OKLAHOMA CITY AREA
New Housing Construction, 1990-1997
SINGLE FAMILY CONSTRUCTION, 1980-1997
Oklahoma City and Other Metro Cities
MULTI-FAMILY CONSTRUCTION, 1980-1997
Oklahoma City and Other Metro Cities
Sources:
Central Oklahoma Homebuilders Association
And City of Oklahoma City Planning Department
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Current Situation
The map on page 108 shows the location of new housing construction in the Oklahoma City
region during the period 1990-1997. The North/Northwest OKC-Edmond area has experienced
the highest concentration of new housing over this period. A second concentration has occurred
in the South OKC-Moore- Norman area. Oklahoma City’s share of all new hosing construction
in the region has increased from 46 percent in 1990 to 55 percent in 1997. This increase has
corresponded with a resurgence in multi-family construction and is due in large part to
Oklahoma City’s predominant share (70-80 percent) of multi-family construction.
Oklahoma City’s share of metro employment has declined from 70 percent in 1990 to 68 percent
in 1995.
Oklahoma City
Employment
Metro Total
1990 302,800 430,600
1995 325,900 476,500
Sources:
US Bureau of Labor Statistics for Metro Totals;
Association of Central Oklahoma Governments
for Oklahoma City employment
Oklahoma City is the major center for retail sales in the region, although its position in the
region has declined somewhat in recent years as shown in the graphs below. In 1990, the City
had 62 percent of metro area sales subject to sales tax. Also in 1990, City businesses generated
$10,160 in sales per capita, which was 1.92 times the $5,328 per capita generated in all other
metro cities. By 1997, the City’s share of metro sales had declined to just under 60 percent and
the City’s per capita of $12,525 had fallen to 1.77 times the $7,095 per capita for other cities.
SALES SUBJECT TO SALES TAX
SALES PER CAPITA
Sources:
ORIGINS, Oklahoma Department of Commerce and
Center of Economic and Management Research, Oklahoma University
Cooperative intergovernmental arrangements started years ago with the Association of Central
Oklahoma Governments (ACOG), other communities, fire departments, and Oklahoma County
and yet sprawl, competition, and political fragmentation endure.
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The City has several key public trusts which address regional water and wastewater matters,
public transit, air traffic, the zoo, the fairgrounds, and financing for other regional facilities such
as hospitals and museums.
Directions
Explore the benefits of more regional intergovernmental cooperation and structures within which
cooperation can occur to address regional challenges.
Pursue opportunities for mutual services with county, school, and other municipal jurisdictions.
Promote people’s awareness and support of their common bond as city-regional citizens.
Work cooperatively with other municipalities to adopt and implement policies which support
sound regional policies and promote efficient public services.
Actions
Maintaining Oklahoma City’s Viability within the Region
Encourage expansion of the Oklahoma City area economy and examine prospects of regional tax
base sharing so that cities can improve the delivery of regional services and infrastructure.
Pursue methods for allocating to non-Oklahoma City residents their share of the cost of key
regional services and facilities provided by Oklahoma City including downtown cultural and
entertainment facilities and maintenance of major traffic arteries.
Intergovernmental Cooperation
Work closely with ACOG and all nearby municipalities to identify regional issues warranting
more cooperation such as environmental protection, quality and capacity of transportation
systems, municipal services, cultural facilities, and educational quality.
Initiate discussions to identify services which can be more efficiently and effectively provided
through a coordinated, unified regional approach working with municipal and county
governments to develop the structure, operating arrangements, and finance mechanisms
necessary to make shared approaches work. Initial candidates for this evaluation could include
• water utility service and wastewater treatment,
• solid waste management, especially the siting and development of landfills,
• emergency medical response or ambulance services,
• public transit, and
• fire protection services.
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Municipal Boundaries and Regional Growth Patterns
Continue to follow adopted City policies regarding mutually agreeable annexations and
deannexations when supported by adequate planning studies, but discourage piecemeal,
small-scale boundary changes with no significant benefit to the City.
Work cooperatively with other municipalities to provide for more effective roadway
maintenance and enforcement of traffic regulations by consolidating portions of boundary street
rights-of-way within one jurisdiction.
107

Implementation

Implementation is the process of putting a plan into action. Planning policies are expanded
in scope and specific actions are detailed for accomplishing Plan goals.
Implementation efforts include specific projects referenced in the Plan and undertaken within
a specified time frame upon completion and approval of the Plan. These efforts are outlined in the
next section. Other implementation efforts are accomplished as part of on-going planning programs
and are outlined in a following section. Figure 1 on the facing page indicates lead agencies,
planning projects, and schedule for implementing the Plan.
Plan Implementation Projects
This outline of implementation projects and of related planning policies is not intended to be an
exclusive listing. As planning efforts move from the Plan Update to specific implementation
actions, other implementation projects may be identified. Similarly, as specific projects are started,
other Plan policies not listed below may be included as relevant.
Budgetary requirements/implications are shown for projects which would require additional
expenditures within the City’s budget over and above current levels. These budget figures are
preliminary estimates only.
Budgetary requirements are not shown when the project would be an extension of a department’s
ongoing functions, although this may require some shift among current work tasks. Nor are specific
requirements shown for projects which specifically call for identifying new sources of revenue. It is
assumed that there would be no impact on existing budgets, since the new revenues would cover
program costs.
Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations; Revisions to Zoning Map
Review the City’s Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations and Zoning Map and adopt
changes as indicated to implement plan policies.
Schedule: three year project beginning in FY 2000-2001
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Planning Department
Also involving: development professionals, neighborhood and business groups, and other
City departments
Review/Approval by: Planning Commission and City Council
Budgetary requirements/implications: up to $300,000 for consultant services over three years
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Plan policies:
• Incorporate the 0.33 dwelling units per acre density standard for rural residential
development into the zoning district structure. (Land Use and Design)
• Incorporate the 0.85 dwelling units per acre density standard for the acreage residential
development into the zoning district structure and preserving open areas. (Land Use and
Design)
• Incorporate the 8 dwelling units per acre density standard for the Urban Growth Area into
the zoning district structure and encouraging concurrent, up-front zoning of all parts of a
proposed development. (Land Use and Design)
• Establish special zoning regulations to encourage intensified development of major
corridors. (Land Use and Design)
• Develop incentives to encourage buildings six stories and higher to be constructed in
downtown. (Land Use and Design)
• Create a revitalization zoning district including a design review process to guide
redevelopment and infill development in designated areas. (Land Use and Design)
• Create a Research and Development/Technology Park zoning district to promote high tech,
low intensity industrial development in a park-like setting. (Land Use and Design and
Economic Development)
• Increase landscaping requirements and establish standards for landscaping. (Land Use and
Design; Community Appearance)
• Develop standards for locating special needs housing including housing for the elderly,
handicapped, mentally ill, and drug dependent. (Land Use and Design)
• Establish requirements for street connections between subdivisions. (Land Use and Design)
• Establish design principles for streets, sidewalks, and trees. (Land Use and Design)
• Create a Cultural District designation and develop and implement appropriate regulations.
(Culture)
• Promote the development of walking and biking trails within new developments.
(Transportation)
• Protect flood plains and preserve stream courses in as natural condition as possible.
(Land Use and Design; Environmental Concerns)
• Establish overlay zoning regulations for the protection of public water supply wells.
(Environmental Concerns)
City Budget
Review OKC Plan recommendations for budgetary requirements and impacts and determine
priorities for funding indicated cost increases within the City=s overall budgetary priorities.
Budgetary commitments and limited funding resources may restrict the City=s ability to address
recommendations contained in this plan.
Schedule: begin with preparations for the FY 2000-2001 Budget and continue as an on-going
activity with subsequent budgets.
Coordinated by: Office of Management and Budget, Finance Department
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Also involved: Planning Department, other City departments; Boards and Trusts, citizens,
neighborhood groups, and representatives of industry groups likely to be affected
Review/Approval: City Council
Plan policies:
The following list includes Plan recommendations calling for new City programs, a significant
increase in existing programs, or a search for new sources of revenue.
• Review the City’s Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations and Zoning Map and
adopt changes as indicated to implement plan policies. (Implementation)
• Strengthen code enforcement throughout the City and move toward a pro-active rather than
complaint driven program (Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization; Community
Appearance)
• Identify additional funding sources for parks operation and maintenance and take needed
measures to put these funding sources in place. (Parks and Open Space)
• Conduct appearance plans for gateways/corridors, Downtown, and city-wide to develop
policies and programs for improving the City’s appearance. (Community Appearance)
• Appoint a special group to identify additional source for funding maintenance and
construction of school facilities and recommend actions to secure the funding. (Education)
• Implement and, if possible, expand the education component of the City’s Empowerment
Zone application. (Education)
• Establish process to allow tax revenues from Cultural Districts to be dedicated for
improvements and maintenance within the districts. (Culture)
• Seek funding to increase Metro Transit’s fleet to 150 vehicles and aggressively explore the
possibilities of developing rail and/or light rail transit in Oklahoma City. (Transportation)
• Provide timely and more frequent bus service with 15 minute headways. Increase service
and add extended Saturday and Sunday service. (Transportation)
• Identify and implement a source of local funds to use as leverage for Federal funds.
(Transportation)
• Seek a permanent funding source to cover the costs for repair and replacement of police
equipment. (Public Services)
• Develop and implement “311” phone number for non-emergency (requests for information)
calls from citizens and develop a comprehensive education program for all citizens on how
to properly use both “911” and “311” systems. (Public Services)
• Increase the number of animal control officers to more effectively control the large number
of stray animals in Oklahoma City. (Public Services)
• Hire additional staff members, as needed for the City’s historic preservation programs and
create a City/neighborhood liaison position. (Historic Preservation)
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Capital Improvements Program (CIP) and Bond Issues
Develop, adopt, and implement a process for evaluating projects included within proposed
Capital Improvements Programs and bond issues in relation to plan policies. An initial outline
of a CIP/Bond Issue process is included in the section on on-going planning programs.
Schedule: Develop the process during FY 2000-2001. The adopted process would then be used
for reviewing proposed projects beginning in FY 2001-2002 and in following years.
Coordinated by: Office of Management and Budget, Finance Department and
Planning Department, City of Oklahoma City
Also involved: other City departments; Oklahoma City Bond Advisory Committee; Boards and
Trusts
Review/Approval: Planning Commission and City Council
Plan policies:
• Provide infrastructure improvements and expanded public services to designated corridors to
attract and support higher levels of development. (Land Use and Design)
• Replace water and sewer lines in older neighborhoods which are deteriorating and which are
inadequate in capacity. (Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization)
• Work with business owners to provide building, street, and parking improvements to
maintain and enhance the viability of neighborhood commercial areas. (Housing and
Neighborhood Revitalization)
• Provide transportation linkages, trails, and other connections between commercial areas in
older neighborhoods and MAPS projects and between commercial areas and adjoining
residential neighborhoods to stimulate commercial redevelopment. (Housing and
Neighborhood Revitalization)
• Continue to pursue a balanced transportation system for Oklahoma City that provides a wide
range of transportation alternatives. (Transportation; Environmental Concerns)
• Provide funding through the CIP process for acquiring and developing parks. (Parks and
Open Space)
• Establish priorities within the City’s budgeting and CIP processes which respond to
anticipated growth and development in conformance with City plan, which support the
preservation and redevelopment of currently developed areas, and which maintain quality
services while appropriately balancing citizens’ expectations for services with the City’s
limited resources. (Public Services)
• Improve neighborhood environments near schools through sidewalk and other
improvements. (Education)
• Consider a policy of setting aside a portion of the cost of constructing public buildings for
public art. (Culture)
• Establish capital programs for landscaping and beautification of established boulevards
throughout the city and selected roadways leading into downtown, into Capitol Hill, and
from the airport. (Community Appearance)
• Establish capital programs for enhancing the appearance of major street intersections
throughout the developed city by installing street furniture, landscaping, sidewalks, and other
improvements. (Community Appearance)
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• Develop comprehensive design guidelines for City capital proje2cts to enhance the
appearance of these projects. (Community Appearance)
• Establish CIP priorities which direct additional infrastructure improvements for economic
development to locations within the City’s Urban Growth, Traditional Neighborhoods, and
Downtown development areas. (Economic Development)
Sign Regulations
Complete the process of determining compliance with existing sign regulations through
enhanced enforcement and educating businesses as to sign requirements which was ongoing at
the time of the Plan Update. Follow this effort with a determination by an appointed study group
as to whether changes are needed in the sign regulations.
Schedule: all efforts to be completed during FY 2001-2002
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Planning Department for enhanced enforcement and
education program; determination as to whether changes are needed in sign regulations will be
carried out by a study group to be appointed by City Council
Also involving: development professionals; neighborhood and business groups; individuals and
groups concerned with community appearance
Review/Approval by: Planning Commission and City Council (for any revisions to sign
regulations)
Plan policies:
• Enhance community appearance while maintaining the economic viability of businesses.
(Land Use and Design; Community Appearance)
Street Standards
Review the City’s Functional Classification Plan and design standards for streets and adopt
changes as indicated to implement plan policies.
Schedule: one year project beginning in FY 2001-2002; to start after street design standards are
determined as part of the review of the Subdivision Regulations.
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Public Works/Traffic Management
Also involving: Planning Department, development professionals
Review/Approval by: Traffic Commission and Planning Commission
Plan policies:
• Incorporate design principles for streets developed during the review of the Subdivision
Regulations into the City’s construction and classification standards for streets. (Land Use
and Design; Transportation)
113

Drainage Regulations
Review the City’s drainage regulations and design standards for drainage improvements and
adopt changes as indicated to implement plan policies.
Schedule: one year project beginning in FY 2001-2002
Coordinated by: Public Works/Storm Drainage, City of Oklahoma City
Also involving: Planning Department, development professionals
Review/Approval by: Planning Commission and City Council
Plan policies:
• Protect flood plains and preserve stream courses in as natural condition as possible. (Land
Use and Design; Environmental Concerns)
Regional Mobility Corridor Plan
This plan would be a major component of the City’s Transit Plan
Evaluate major activity corridors as identified on the Land Use Plan map for designation as
Regional Mobility Corridors and develop plans and supporting development regulations for
selected corridors.
Schedule: one year project beginning in FY 2001-2002
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Planning and Transit Services Departments
Also involving: development professionals; neighborhood and business groups; individuals and
groups concerned with transportation systems
Review/Approval by: Planning Commission and Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking
Authority (COTPA) Board; City Council
Budgetary requirements/implications: up to $100,000 for consultant services; federal
transportation grants could cover all or part of this cost
Plan policies:
• Adopt land use policies tailored for each designated corridor that protect existing centers,
allow sufficient space for major development, provide attractive designs, and mitigate
impacts within the corridor and on adjacent areas. (Land Use and Design)
• Seek intensification along designated corridors in conjunction with programmed street and
transit improvements designed to increase volumes and facilitate both vehicular and
pedestrian movements. (Land Use and Design)
• Adopt special zoning districts for designated corridors that allow multiple types of uses by
right, high-rise buildings, and higher densities for housing; that reduce or eliminate parking
requirements for intensive development; and that require attractive appearances and
transition and buffering treatments to minimize adverse impacts on adjoining areas. (Land
Use and Design)
• Identify regional mobility corridors and develop supportive transit and land use strategies for
each. (Transportation)
114

Parks Plan
As this plan element was being drafted, the Parks Department was negotiating a Scope of Services
Agreement with the consultant selected to work on the Parks Plan.
Conduct a Parks Plan and incorporate plan policies related to parks and open space into the
Parks Plan.
Schedule: beginning in FY 2000-2001; to be completed during FY 2001-2002
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Parks Department
Also involving: Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust, Planning Department, citizens and
community groups interested in parks, recreational, and open space issues
Review/Approval by: Planning Commission, Parks Commission, and Oklahoma City Water
Utilities Trust for policies related to designated watersheds, reservoirs, and reservations
Budgetary requirements/implications: up to $100,000 for consultant services; funds are
available in FY 1999-2000 Budget
Plan policies:
• Identify programs for acquiring and maintaining parks in newly developing areas and
incorporate into Subdivision Regulations, budget, and capital improvements program (CIP).
(Parks and Open Space)
• Identify additional funding sources for parks operation and maintenance and take needed
measures to put these funding sources in place. (Parks and Open Space)
• Identify unneeded park properties and developing plans for disposition and/or reuse of these
properties. (Parks and Open Space)
• Develop and implement a program for developing and operating joint school-parks facilities.
(Parks and Open Space; Education)
Building Codes
Review the City’s Building Codes and adopt changes as needed to implement plan policies.
Schedule: one year project beginning in FY 2001-2002
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Public Works/Development Center
Also involving: Fire Department; Planning Department; Neighborhood Services Department;
individuals and businesses engaged in rehabilitating older structures; neighborhood and business
groups
Review/Approval by: Board of Building Code Appeals and City Council
Plan policies:
• Evaluate existing requirements for rehabilitating older structures to promote rehabilitation
efforts while providing adequate protections for public safety. (Housing and Neighborhood
Revitalization)
115

Code Enforcement
Evaluate the City’s city-wide code enforcement program and institute changes as needed to
implement plan policies.
Schedule: continual program with initial steps taken in FY 1999-2000
Coordinated by: City departments with code enforcement responsibilities including Planning,
Neighborhood Enhancement, and Public Works
Also involving: Municipal Counselor’s Office; Municipal Courts; Action Center; neighborhood,
business, and community groups
Review/Approval by: City Council for additional personnel and other budgetary resources
Budgetary requirements/implications: $60,000 per added position in personnel and equipment
costs to support an expanded level of code enforcement (There were 34 inspector positions in the
FY 1999-2000 Budget in the Planning and Neighborhood Services departments.)
Plan policies:
• Strengthen code enforcement throughout the City and move toward a pro-active rather than
complaint driven program (Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization; Community
Appearance)
The need for upgraded code enforcement was continually expressed by a broad range of citizen
groups throughout the Plan update process. Although stronger code enforcement can be an
invaluable tool in maintaining quality in most neighborhoods, it is not a “magic bullet” for solving
all neighborhood problems throughout the city. Some neighborhoods will need organizational and
financial assistance to halt decline, before stronger code enforcement can be effective in stabilizing
conditions.
Community Appearance
Carry out planning projects related to improving community appearance including
• Gateway/Corridor Appearance Plan (A Viewscape Plan for expressway entrances into
Oklahoma City was underway as this element was being drafted.)
• Downtown Appearance Plan
• City-wide Appearance Plan
• landscaping requirements
• changes to sign regulations
• stepped-up code enforcement
• design guidelines for City capital projects and projects and buildings along gateways and
within areas covered by appearance plans
Schedule: Planning efforts should begin in FY 2000-2001 and be carried out over several years.
The Gateway/Corridor Appearance Plan should be the first plan to be carried out, followed by
the Downtown Appearance Plan. The City-wide Appearance Plan can then incorporate the first
two planning efforts.
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Coordinated by: Community Appearance Coalition and City of Oklahoma City Planning
Department
Also involving: other City departments; development professionals; neighborhood and business
groups; individuals and groups concerned with community appearance
Review/Approval by: Planning Commission and City Council
Budgetary requirements/implications: up to $100,000 for consultant services for each planning
effort (Gateways, Downtown, City-wide); public-private sharing of costs may be a possibility
Plan policies:
• Conduct appearance plans for gateways/corridors, Downtown, and city-wide to develop
policies and programs for improving the City’s appearance. (Community Appearance)
• Increase landscaping requirements and establish standards for landscaping. (Land Use and
Design; Community Appearance)
• Strengthen code enforcement throughout the City and move toward a pro-active rather than
complaint driven program. (Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization; Community
Appearance)
• Adopt standards for the appearance of commercial and industrial structures along designated
gateways. (Community Appearance)
• Develop comprehensive design guidelines for all elements of City capital projects.
(Community Appearance)
• Review appearance problems in rural areas and change City codes and enforcement practices
as appropriate to address the specific needs and characteristics of rural areas. (Community
Appearance)
Public Services
Explore regional cooperation in providing public services.
Schedule: Initial contacts with ACOG and other service providers should begin during
FY 2000-2001. Discussions would continue during subsequent years with regionalization of
selected public services dependent on a satisfactory resolution of details.
Coordinated by: Initial contacts would be made by City departments involved in delivering
services
Also involved: ACOG; other cities and service providers
Review/Approval: City Council to authorize City participation in newly-created regional
organizations or to expand the services of an existing City department or agency to provide
region-wide services, and to fund the City’s share of a regional organization’s expenses.
Budgetary requirements/implications: There is a possibility that regionalizing services could
lead to cost savings. Expanding existing City operations to serve the region would lead to
increased costs, but would provide additional revenues for enterprise services.
Plan policies:
Policy statements supporting this action are contained in the Public Services and Regional
Context elements.
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Education
Establish cooperative planning programs involving the City of Oklahoma City and area school
districts.
Schedule: begin in FY 2000-2001; once established the cooperative planning programs would
be ongoing
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Planning Department
Also involved: professional staff with school districts
Economic Development
Identify key sites for business development within the central city and prepare profiles on their
conditions and assets.
Schedule: begin and complete during FY 2001-2002
Coordinated by: City of Oklahoma City Planning Department
Also involved: Chambers of Commerce, downtown building and property owners, downtown
business groups
Environmental Concerns
Identify sensitive environmental areas, indicate these areas on plan maps, and adopt changes as
needed in City policies and regulations to protect these areas.
Schedule: Identify sensitive areas during FY 2001-2002. Develop and adopt plan amendments
and changes to regulations during FY 2002-2003.
Coordinated by: Planning Department, City of Oklahoma City
Also involved: Public Works Department, development professionals, and citizens concerned
with environmental protection of sensitive areas
Review/Approval: Planning Commission and City Council
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Plan Monitoring
Devise a system of benchmarks to measure the success of OKC Plan Update policies during the
plans implementation phase. For example, compare future urban densities with current urban
density to measure the success of efforts to promote more efficient growth patterns. (See
Plan Monitoring, page 123 for more details.)
Schedule: Develop benchmarks and begin comparisons during FY 2000-2001. Once developed
the benchmarks would be monitored on an ongoing basis.
Coordinated by: Planning Department, City of Oklahoma City
Also involved: The results and conclusions from comparing actual conditions against the
benchmarks would be reported to the Planning Commission and Council on an annual basis.
This report would also be distributed to the public.
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A Planning Program for Oklahoma City
The OKC Plan will be implemented and monitored through a wide range of planning programs
carried out by the Planning Commission and staff of the City of Oklahoma City. Figure 2, page 120
illustrates the inter-relationships of these planning activities. The next section outlines basic
planning activities which are carried out to accomplish the goals and policies of the OKC Plan.
Plan Monitoring
A program for the continuous monitoring of geographic-based data keyed to planning issues and
policies will assist public officials in making decisions which are consistent with the OKC Plan.
This program will also help keep the Plan current in its assumptions.
A Plan Monitoring program would track the performance of selected measures of community
conditions including population, housing quality, and construction activity. These measures could
then be compared with established targets.
If actual conditions fall short of or exceed projected conditions, the policy implications should be
discussed. Any new policies and strategies which result should be incorporated into the OKC Plan
through appropriate Plan amendments. This approach will make the Plan a more effective
management and decision-making tool and will be preferable to the approach of updating the Plan
only at specified intervals.
Plan Amendments
Plan amendments allow the Planning Commission and City Council to respond to changing
conditions affecting growth and development in Oklahoma City. Amendments allow the Plan to
remain an effective and reasonable guide for decision-making by citizens and public officials.
All Plan amendments will follow the following process:
1. Requests for amendment may be made by the Planning Commission or City Council or by a
property owner. If approval of a particular request for rezoning or platting would represent a
major deviation from plan policies, Planning staff might recommend that the Commission
consider a plan amendment. If a plan amendment is requested by a property owner, the property
owner should state in writing how conditions have changed in the area of the request since
applicable planning policies were approved, what changes in land use and/or development area
designations are being requested, and how the City of Oklahoma City and its citizens would
benefit from the proposed changes. The request for rezoning or plat approval may be processed
by the Planning Commission concurrently with consideration of the plan amendment.
2. The request is presented to Planning Commission which determines whether to proceed with a
Plan Amendment Study. If the Planning Commission decides to proceed with a Plan
Amendment Study, then the Study is scheduled as an agenda item at a regular Commission
meeting.
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3. Planning staff conducts a Plan Amendment Study and prepares a report for the Planning
Commission on its findings. The report will address whether conditions have changed in the
area of the request, what changes in land use and/or development area designations are
appropriate, and how the City of Oklahoma City and its citizens would benefit from
recommended changes.
4. If Planning Commission determines that amending the plan may be warranted, the Commission
will set a date for a public hearing on the plan amendment. The Commission will also determine
what changes in plan designation or policies are to be considered and the area to be considered
for the proposed changes. Planning staff will then proceed with notice for the public hearing as
required by law or as determined by Planning Commission’s adopted procedures.
5. At the public hearing, the Planning Commission will receive public comment on the proposed
plan amendment, reach its decision, and direct staff to incorporate the decision with appropriate
changes to plan maps and/or text.
Annual Plan Review
The Planning Commission will conduct an annual review of the OKC Plan. This review would
incorporate the Plan Amendments approved during the preceding year into the published Plan
documents. Further amendments to the Plan could be developed and adopted during the review.
This review will be summarized in an annual report on the OKC Plan from the Planning
Commission to the City Council and the citizens of Oklahoma City. This report will present a yearly
snapshot of conditions in Oklahoma City and summarize significant planning accomplishments and
concerns. The report could also identify issues to be studied by the Planning Commission and by
City staff over the following year.
Possible topics which could be included in the Annual Report are:
• Growth and Development in Oklahoma City
• Statistical Report on Oklahoma City including population, housing, economic, and
socio-demographic data
• Economic Development and Community Finance
• Planning Administration
• Development Regulation and Policies
• Status of Neighborhoods
• Transportation Planning
• Planning Program: Progress Report and Proposed Work Program
Capital Improvements Program (CIP)
The City of Oklahoma City adopts five-year CIP plans, which are reviewed and amended biennially
(every two years). Projects to be included within CIP Plans should be reviewed according to the
process outlined below:
1. The City Council and City Manager will develop CIP policies to direct the selection, funding,
and construction of capital improvements to insure that CIP projects conform to Council
priorities and advance the goals and policies of the OKC Plan.
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2. Based on the Council=s CIP policies, City departments will submit proposed CIP projects to the
City=s Office of Management and Budget. Information on CIP projects submitted by the
departments should include the location and description of proposed improvements and cost
estimates. In addition, departments should detail how the proposed improvements conform to
CIP priorities, OKC Plan policies, and recommendations within departmental/agency plans.
(See Functional Plans, page 127.)
3. The Office of Management and Budget will review departmental submissions, determine
potential funding sources for CIP projects, and compile the proposed projects into a unified CIP
proposal.
4. The CIP proposal will then be presented to the Planning Commission for review as mandated by
state statute (O.S. Title 11 §47-109). The Planning Department will review the proposed CIP for
conformance to OKC Plan policies and include its findings in a staff report to the Planning
Commission.
5. The CIP proposal will then be forwarded to the City Council along with the Planning
Commission’s recommendation. City Council will have the final consideration of the proposed
Capital Improvements Program.
Bond Issues
Projects to be included within CIP Plans should be reviewed according to the process outlined
below:
1. Based on the Council’s CIP priorities, OKC Plan policies, and recommendations within
departmental/agency plans, City departments will submit proposed bond issue projects to the
City’s Office of Management and Budget. Information on bond issue projects submitted by the
departments should include the location and description of proposed improvements and cost
estimates. In addition, for projects not included within the current CIP Plan, departments should
detail how the proposed improvements conform to CIP priorities, OKC Plan policies, and
recommendations within departmental/agency plans. (See Functional Plans, page 127.)
2. The Office of Management and Budget will review departmental submissions and compile the
proposed projects into a unified bond issue proposal.
3. The bond issue proposal will then be presented to the Planning Commission for review as
mandated by state statute (O.S. Title 11 §47-109). The Planning Department will review the
proposed bond issue projects for conformance to OKC Plan policies and include its findings in a
staff report to the Planning Commission. Projects included within the currently approved CIP
Plan will be deemed to conform to the OKC Plan based on the prior CIP review.
4. The bond issue proposal will then be forwarded to the City Council along with the Planning
Commission’s recommendation. City Council will have the final consideration of the proposed
bond issue.
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Functional Plans
City departments and agencies regularly adopt work programs, design standards, and plans for
facility improvements. All of these plans should conform to and be closely integrated with the
policies of the OKC Plan. Examples of functional plans include (but are not limited to) the
following:
• Fire Station Location Study,
• establishing Police divisions and building briefing stations,
• locating and building libraries,
• plans for water and sewer treatment facilities,
• Parks Plan, and
• Functional Classification and Streets plans.
The recommendations included in these plans be evaluated for conformance to the OKC Plan. In
addition, portions of these plans may need to be incorporated into the OKC Plan as plan
amendments.
Regional Transportation Planning
Transportation planning and programs in the Oklahoma City area are carried out within a regional
context. Agencies involved in regional transportation planning include area municipalities, counties,
the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and the Association of Central Oklahoma
Governments. Regional transportation projects and programs should be effectively coordinated with
the OKC Plan goals and policies, the City's Capital Improvements Program, and the Major Streets
and Highways Plan.
Neighborhood Planning Assistance
The City staff will continue to provide technical assistance to neighborhood groups upon request.
Ways of responding to neighborhood needs include assisting in the development of self-help
programs for neighborhood preservation and rehabilitation, providing socio-demographic
information to neighborhood groups, and carrying out neighborhood land use and transportation
studies.
Development Review
City staff will continue to review development proposals for conformance to the OKC Plan and
report its findings to the Planning Commission and City Council.
Future Updates of the OKC Plan
The OKC Plan should be updated at ten-year intervals with a formal process including citizen
involvement and an in-depth inventory and policy review. Figure 3, page 124 shows how future
Plan Updates will be integrated with the ongoing schedule of planning programs in Oklahoma City.
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