A new vision for the Mother Road is in the works.
The Tulsa Planning Office is in the middle of an update to the city’s Route 66 master plan. The current plan was adopted in 2005.
"We have a multigenerational, multicultural audience to please now. There’s technological advances. And there’s already several projects on the ground that were a part of the package of that capital project investment that came from the project 15 years ago," said Tulsa Planning Office Senior Planner Paulina Baeza.
Priorities for the historic highway have changed after years of public investment.
"The past plan focused on capital project investment. The new plan will focus mostly on celebrating what’s on the ground and trying to encourage more private investment through promoting those projects that were implemented," Baeza said.
That includes crunching data and talking to people to identify areas best suited for sparking new development.
Preserve, revitalize, connect and celebrate Route 66 are the four goals of the master plan update. Baeza said connecting the historic highway with different forms of transportation is not as heavy a lift as it might sound, considering a bus rapid transit line is coming and shared bikes and scooters are zipping along.
"So, we’re at a time when people are actually using other modes of transportation. And, of course, the master plan is also going to look at highway access because Route 66 is famous for visitors driving by it," Baeza said.
A date for the master plan update to be finished has not been set. The Tulsa Planning Office will begin a series of public meetings early next year.
