District Two Meeting. Subject: Turkey as we know it vs Simon

Jeannie Cue held a District Two forum this evening at Zarrow Library. The meeting, restricted to District Two residents, was well attended with over 40 folks packing the small conference room.

Picture by Scott More. (Sorry for the glare of my sunburned head in the pic. Cropping is not a sin.)

Dwayne Wilkerson from INCOG explained their  role in the preliminary work in a commercial project such as this, and seemed a little uncomfortable with the questions being passed his way. He mentioned that this property was discussed as being rezoned in 1974, but Kaye Price pointed out that that was for Low Impact development, which an outlet mall is definitely not. (Gotta love Kaye Price!) Wilkerson declined answering most of the questions from the audience, saying Clay Bird handled economic development and was not in attendance. 

A good deal of concussion was about the traffic. 81st Street at HWY 75 is a perfect example of what 61st Streets will be like. This intersection is just insane, gridlocked all weekend and at rush hour. 1000 cars squeezing under a two lane underpass. The mess at the mall could and will be worse. Widening the bridge and road in front of the mall hardly helps. Widening 61st Street and Elwood would seem an answer, but that carves a lot of our wilderness and trails away. Plus, 4-laning Elwood could be a 150 million dollar project, according to Jeannie Cue.

Clay Bird did arrive later and spent about 20 minutes imparting the virtues of  Simon Properties, saying that they are experts in their field and were "extremely sophisticated with their site selection", which turned my stomach. Quite a bit of his discussion was about Simon getting Tax increment financing or TIF, and Kaye Price took him to task. Kaye was a crusader for Tulsa Hills, and the TIF that Tulsa Hills received was crucial to the area being built. Tulsa Hills was an economic boon to the west side. But she hammered home the question--WHY would we want to give Simon a TIF for infrastructure improvements so Simon could pad their pockets. And why would we want to put more retail space here when we already HAD Tulsa Hills? The EAST SIDE of Tulsa needs an economic boost an outlet mall could provide--a good point in my way of thinking.

I do not know Clay Bird. He seems like a nice guy, but did way too much Simon cheer-leading for my tastes.

Lou Reynolds was next--a Tulsa attorney representing Simon Properties. He had several artists renditions of the proposed mall. Several of the pictures shown were much like the ones that have been circulating. 

Makes me wanna polish up my credit cards & go shopping--NOT!

Then he passed around some lovely pictures of the retaining wall Simon proposes.

Here's another picture. These are pictures that these savvy shoppers with dreams of endless bargains will see. They'll wonder why in the world us trail runners and mountain bikers are raising a stink.

Remember the picture Colin posted from the western leg of the Snake Trail? Here is what we'll get to see.



This is supposed to be the wall as viewed from about halfway down the pipeline trail. It's cute how road bikes are leisurely pedaling up what is a steep incline on a dirt road. And no helmets!! This is their idea of camouflage the wall. Perfectly spaced large trees near the top and hundreds of saplings in between whatever existing trees they decide to leave for us. Give it 40-50 years, and it'll look great. I'll be dead by then.

Get real. Here is what their retaining wall will look like.

Picture from Colin Tawney

Except it will be MUCH TALLER. Lou Reynolds described the wall as being 30 feet in height. At one point, I think he mentioned that a part of it might be 50 feet. I had my hand in the air for about 15 minutes, and was ignored. Eventually, Jeanie reminded Lou that there were people on the other side of the room, and he called on Russell and I. I asked him to at least be truthful as to how tall the wall was proposed to be. In a more detailed plan of the site, the bottom and top elevation of the wall was listed in several places around the east and north sides of the parking lot. 

I've circled one area where it clearly states the wall will be 70 feet tall. Reynolds first said he had not seen that, then said it would be terraced, and landscaped. I have blogged on this drawing before. I do not see how a 70' wall that tapers down to 50 feet--all within 200 feet of the Westside YMCA boundary will not be a visible eyesore to the kid's camp. Runoff water, litter control, light and noise pollution were never addressed. 

The Tulsa World published this story, and they were very sympathetic to those opposing the Turkey Mountain mall mess.