City’s new zoning code ruffles American Legion Post’s feathers [Tulsa World, Okla.]

Dec. 21-- Doug Dodd isn't out to trash the city's new form-based zoning code. He could simply do without it -- at least when it comes to American Legion Post I.

Dodd, an Air Force veteran and attorney, is a member of the post and is representing the group in its effort to extricate itself from one of the new code's more controversial provisions: the requirement that structures that are substantially damaged or destroyed in a natural disaster or fire be rebuilt according to the standards of the form-based code, even if those structures had been built under the more common land use-based code.

"We don't want to have to spend twice or three times as much money to build a different type of building than we had," Dodd said.

He added, "My problem with this is I'm sure we have insurance to build it back as it is, but I guarantee you we don't have it to rebuild it in a new form."

The form-based code was approved by the City Council earlier this year. It creates a separate zoning code that can be implemented in any area of the city through a regulating plan and subsequent rezoning to a form-based code district.

Unlike the land use-based zoning code, which focuses on the separation of land uses and accommodates the automobile, the form-based code discourages on-site parking and calls for the creation of a dense, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood such as those found in urban communities.

So far it has been applied to only a small section of the Pearl District, which includes the American Legion building at 1120 E. Eighth St.

The structure has an entrance that does not face the street, fenced-in parking on either side and a cemetery in the back -- not exactly the type of urban setting envisioned in the form-based code.

Dodd said the hall wasn't constructed to encourage pedestrian traffic.

"In our case, we use our parking lot because we have a lot of people driving to the legion," he said.

Jamie Jamieson, a Pearl District property owner and advocate of the form-based code, said the reconstruction provision could be rectified easily.

Another section of the zoning code "deals with catastrophic situations, so we didn't need to include it in the form-based code," Jamieson said. "Where the new code is silent, just resort to the (other section of the) code."

That section, Jamieson noted, allows people whose property has been substantially damaged or destroyed to rebuild the structure in its original form with Board of Adjustment approval.

"In instances such as a catastrophic loss of property, everybody should have equal rights," Jamieson said. "So deferring to the current zoning code is the obvious thing to do, and as it was always intended to do."

Dodd isn't so sure.

"The problem I have with that is it puts our property in a default position of nonconformance," he said. "We have been there since the '20s. ... All of a sudden you have to get permission for something you have been doing for 75 or 80 years."

The issue could be resolved soon. City councilors have asked the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission to examine the matter and report back by Jan. 12.

The timing is important. Planning officials have already begun discussing the possibility of applying the form-based code to the entire Pearl District.

Kevin Canfield 918-581-8313

[email protected]

___

(c)2011 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.)

Visit Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) at www.tulsaworld.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services