Residents To Plan City's Future

Tulsa city leaders are inviting residents to help plan the future of the city. Mayor Kathy Taylor kicked-off a two-year plan to update the city's comprehensive plan on Tuesday night.

News On 6 anchor Jennifer Loren reports if you want to see change in the City of Tulsa, this may be the best way to get involved.

To say Tulsa has changed since the 1970's may be the understatement of the year, but that's when Tulsa's current comprehensive plan was written in 1978.

At a party to kick-off a two year project that will ultimately create a new comprehensive plan, city leaders and everyday people from the community shared ideas for Tulsa's future with a sense of excitement.

"This plan is really going to guide the physical development of our city," said Mayor Taylor.

The plan is called "PLANiTULSA" and Mayor Taylor says everyone is invited to give the city their input on what they'd like to see Tulsa evolve to be over the next 30 years.

"We'll be engaging high school students. We'll be engaging parts of our community that traditionally have not been involved in this process," said Mayor Tulsa.

The man behind the plan is John Fregonese. He'll take all of that input and guide Tulsans through the planning process.

"We then put all that into the computer and build models of the future and have people come and decide which future they like," said Fregonese.

Already he plans to look at Tulsa's in-fill developments, where new homes or buildings are built in old areas. He says other successful cities Tulsa's size have more of it, but it must be done correctly.

"And that's why it's important to have a plan, to decide where it's appropriate, where it's not, put it in the plan and not fight over every single one," said Fregonese.

For some young Tulsans looking to the future "PLANiTULSA" is music to their ears.

"It sounds like a great idea. It seems very inclusive. I think it draws from Tulsa's diversity," said Tulsa resident Aaron Christiansen.

You can tell the city what you'd like to see in Tulsa's future. They'll hold several workshops this fall, before that though they'll conduct dozens of in-depth interviews with Tulsa citizens and 2,000 surveys from people across the city.