Some commonly accepted Smart Growth Principles
- encourage mixed land use development
- Promote compact building designs
- Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
- Build walkable neighborhoods
- Foster unique, attractive communities with a sense of place
- Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
- Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities
- Provide a variety of transportation choices
- Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
- Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions
“In order to enhance the success of the principles we encourage the City of Tulsa to determine staffing requirements and create an orderly transition plan to bring all current and long term planning responsibilities in-house, replacing the present outdated model of contracting those services to INCOG.”
We must stand up to the special interest groups which have used their influence for decades to further their own for–profit ambitions. Political influence often comes at the expense of the City’s attempts to adopt more sustainable ways of doing business. We believe the City of Tulsa should engage qualified and experienced professionals as well as the public, through stakeholder workshops, in evaluating all major Capital Improvement Project expenditures with a cost to benefit analysis which delivers predictable Sustainable Return on Investment results.
Bottom up, not top down
Capital Improvement Projects submitted to the public for a vote should first undergo a rigorous risk analysis which prioritizes actions based upon a full accounting of both the sustainable economic and social benefits and costs from quantitative and qualitative assessments. A thorough Sustainable Return on Investment (SROI) analysis monetizes a broad range of value added infrastructure investments including health, the environment and other quality of life issues, productivity, and adherence to the so-called six livability principles. This enormously transparent approach to public investment promotes credibility and ensures the broadest and most comprehensive assessment and decision making.
A recent list of CIP projects presented to the TMAPC to determine that they were in accord with the Comp Plan appeared to include some highly questionable projects and excluded some most would have imagined as having a higher priority.
SROI would take the guesswork out of it, ensuring that all items making the final cut were objectively not subjectively determined to merit inclusion. SROI is our hope to stem the tide of increased maintenance costs and reduced quality of life investments. Every SROI investment incrementally improves our financial performance.
