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Routine Case Leads Tulsa Planning Commission to Debate Sidewalk Requirement for New Construction

File photo

A seemingly benign request to the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission this week touched off debate over regulations governing when sidewalks must be built.

Since May 2018, new construction -- even single-family homes -- must include a sidewalk. The commission routinely approves exemptions where otherwise there are no sidewalks and did so this week for a house at 37th Place and Rockford Avenue.

Commissioner Joshua Ritchey said this week’s request within a stone’s throw of Peoria Avenue is a little different.

"All of Peoria we’ve been steadily voting in for much of that to become mixed-use as the bus rapid transit corridor kind of takes shape," Ritchey said. "So, I’m a little concerned that all of these semi-major streets that were going to want to be walkable, bikeable, drivable, et cetera, that — we gotta start somewhere."

Commissioner Keith McArtor said the exception process is the wrong solution.

"We’re sending the wrong message, and if we continue to make exceptions, we’re just going to continue to have these kinds of requests over and over and over again, and before long, we’re going to have so many exceptions to the regulation, the regulation’s not going to make any sense at all," McArtor said.

Commissioner Ted Reeds said homeowners shouldn’t be responsible for adding sidewalks to the city.

"I realize we’d rather fill potholes than build a walkable city, but we need to start changing that. And to that end, they should be building the sidewalks, the city should," Reeds said.

Planning office officials said the city does not currently have a plan to bridge gaps between one-off segments of sidewalk. They are developing a proposal to collect fees-in-lieu for exemptions to the sidewalk requirement rather than send each case to TMAPC.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.