OKC Sprawl

There is something about the term urban sprawl that sounds country to me and Reba oughta do somthing about it.  Y'all agree?
Last night I attended an OKC Town Hall meeting hosted by new city councilman Ed Shadid on the topic of "Urban Sprawl".  Speakers included 8 leaders of city government--police, fire, planning, code, utilities, public works, transportation, architectural. 
Councilman Shadid was in my opinion the most articulate, clear and compelling speaker on the platform.  In summary I think he and other speakers said--
1) We have no long-term plan to deal with many of the issues facing us.  2) There are few if any good examples of how to deal with a city of our size
     (621 sq. miles). 
3)  Few benefit from sprawl but everyone pays.
4) Buying local helps a bunch since we are the only large city in the country
    primarily funded by sales tax.
5)  Pain is the primary inducement to change (he is a spine surgeon by
     trade).  We need to anticipate the pain and make the changes while we
     can.

It was inspiring to see the large room at the Marriott crammed full of concerned citizens and having to bring in more chairs--YEE HAW now that will bring out my hillbilly bones.
 Below are my notes from that meeting. 

621 sq miles

Global encouragement to limit sprawl.

No impact fees charged to developers by OKC--like edmond, Moore Public health bottom 7 in most major categories. Obesity is the riddle we need to solve.  31% obesity rate in OKC.  Related health costs out of control.  No real plan to keep us from going to $billion per year cost or $1900 per yr per citizen.

Only people's at periphery benefit but ALL pay.  No other examples to see what to expect.

15k linear miles in OKC.

World population growth chart discussing high fuel costs. 8k vehicles net per month added in China. 

Film--

We spend on average 25% of annual budget on vehicle second only to home.

5% at high income 40% at low.

China has 65k miles of interstates proposed.

Believes that development is away from suburbia and toward high density transit friendly housing.

Walking is the BIG alternative. 3mph traffic.

Blair humphreys architect OU--???

     5 parts--subdivisions, strip, civic inst., roads-- sprawl is NOT an accident.

Good for companies, government subsidies, FHA--

1956 highway system

$3.50 per gallon tax is what it would really take to cover the infrastructure costs.  Equates to $5,000 per year per car.

We need better neighborhoods--not urban vs sub.

Jim Couch city mgr.--

   3rd largest in country.  1959 OKC was 80 sq mi.  why?  Protect Tinker, Will Rogers, rivers,  with good zoning in 1960.  Intended to avoid hodge podge sprawl.  Don't know if we would have been better off or not.  Grew 14.6% in OKC 14.4 in metro area.  During 2009-2010. Tulsa metro grew at 9.9% with Tulsa losing population.

No easy or right answer.  

Public Health--Shadid

   Gallup-- healthy behavior index--176/187

   Prevention magazine--500/500 walkability

  Response time is essential to EMSA positive results.  very inefficient.  $31million per year much more than Tulsa.

22nd most dangerous city for pedestrians.  Gallup 141/187 for depression. Elderly unable to leave neighborhood w/o car.

Russell Klaus-- city planner

   Primary goal is quality of life.  Same number of OKC city employees now as 20 years ago.  There is no long tremendous plan to pay for infrastructure maintenance and repairs and new roads.  Concern is longer term for OKC.

Likely will not be able to meet Federal air quality standards.  10 most sprawled communities accident rate is 5 times more than the average.

Historical growth chart. See 1977 cost $663 vs 2009 $987

Planokc.org

Fire chief--Bryant

   Just under 80k calls per year.  Trending up at over 5% per year.

83% is medical emergency.

large % of populations access to medical care is 911.

Overall response time is 5:32.

Challenge is increase in volume with corresponding increased expectation.

Police chief-- Bill Citty

   Studies show need more officers--ESP for life threatening calls. 9:30 seconds response time with increasing call rate per capita.  In 1990 we had 1020 officers now we have 1040.

Violent crime is up but property crime is down--mainly due to gasoline drive offs and that has gone down from 1200 per day to 25.

Calls per officer up dramatically since 1988 372 to 526.  Part of our job is to make people feel safe by seeing us in their neighborhood.  Sales tax pays our salaries.

Rick Cain-- public transportation

  Hub and spoke system does not work well BETWEEN communities.  In an either/or situation with money.  Win or lose.  Huge cost to get to a satisfactory transit system.

Public works--

   Icy roads, intersections, channels, growth is very hard to manage.  To improve a road is $3.1 million per year.  Not just roads but includes trails and sidewalks.

Utilities director--

   Water, sewer and solid waste. Urban vs rural service concept.  150ft of pipe or $10k of cost associated with a lot.

Code enforcement--

  High grass, junk vehicles etc.  21 staff people for enforcement.  They pick up the small signs in rights of way.  51,600 complaints last year.  More complaints with absentee owners. 

Complaints growing at 15% per year.  We only can service about 24% of calls.

End--Shadid

   Only funded with sales tax.  Only state in country doing that.  Keep it local. 70% of money spent local stays local.

  Pain is what induces growth.  Recognize pain far enough in advance that you can do something about it.