Natural beauty

Tulsans make the case to protect Turkey Mountain

(page 2 of 4)

1. Simon doesn’t have Tulsa’s best interests in mind. 

Kaye Price represents the West of River Tenants and Homeowners (W.O.R.T.H.) and lobbied for nearby Tulsa Hills’ tax increment financing (TIF) district. Price said Simon—the owner of Woodland Hills Mall—was fiercely opposed to that development. 

“Simon Properties stated that we would cannibalize them, as did Promenade,” Price said. “Both malls were vehemently against Tulsa Hills’ development. … Simon now wants to jump on a successful bandwagon. … They screamed and hollered and bellowed about not letting Tulsa Hills have a tax increment financing district, and now they want one in the very location? How dare they?”

Price’s next point has been on many of our minds since August. 

2. Right development, wrong location.

“East Tulsa is dying,” she said. “They very badly need this. If Simon has the best interests of the citizens and the city of Tulsa in mind, and if they’re such wonderful neighbors with deep pockets like you keep talking about, then let them put this with a TIF—because the figure I’ve heard is $30 million. That is $30 million that the citizens of Tulsa will pay for. I for one can’t justify paying $30 million for infrastructure and then allowing this company to come in and destroy this beautiful mountain that all of us don’t want destroyed. And for what purpose? We don’t need this catalyst. We already had it, it’s called Tulsa Hills and The Walk. So Simon, how dare you come back to my area and tell me that now you want onboard. ... And then you asked us to foot the $30 million bill for the infrastructure? No. Take it to east Tulsa. The infrastructure is there. If there’s not enough infrastructure for you to build it there, then you can get a small TIF for what you need. But building six-lane bridges? I don’t know how you’re going to bring that down to a two-lane county road. It’s the right thing in the wrong place. Put this somewhere else.”

Bird said he’s committed to securing at least one outlet mall development within the city limits (one of the three is proposed in Catoosa). 

“My job is to try to work with both of them and try to make each project work if at all possible, and that’s what I intend to do,” he said. “I mean, ‘How dare Simon come in?’ Well, I want Simon here. I want Simon. I want them to bring those stores here, I want you all to go out and spend money there, buy lots of new shirts, new dresses, … because that’s going to put more cops on the street, it’s going to help fix the streets, it’s going to do all of that.”

Bird said the proposed development is far enough away from what he considers to be Turkey Mountain that the mall wouldn’t really affect the wilderness area. Though he conceded that the mall traffic would squeeze an area widely known to be under-equipped for its existing traffic counts, he said—repeatedly and to vocal disapproval from the crowd—he hopes to find a solution that serves both Simon and Turkey Mountain. Bird even suggested the development might somehow be good for Turkey Mountain. 

“Why not put up a parking structure and include that?” he said. “… And maybe it’s a parking structure with a rock climbing wall, … and guys, I’m not the bad guy here, I’m trying to—no I’m not the bad guy. Dude, I’m not the bad guy. But if we don’t try to come up with something that will work for everyone—that could be a win-win—then I don’t know what to do beyond that, other than we just tell them, just go on down the road, we don’t want it here. [loud cheering and applause] … If that’s really what most people want, and if that’s the way the City Council feels, that’s the way that it’ll be resolved. This is a public process.”