Topic: Safety

Establish new incentives and raise awareness of existing incentives that stimulate the preservation and rehabilitation of historic resources. Incentives could include:

• Preservation easements, low-interest or forgivable rehabilitation loans, and Tax Increment Financing Districts for historic buildings, sites, and districts.
• Tools and practices for public/private partnerships to ensure the preservation and retention of top-priority historic resources whose deterioration or demolition would present an irreparable and highly significant loss to the City and beyond.
• Existing city, state, and federal tools and incentives for rehabilitation, including state and federal tax credits for certified rehabilitation.
• Expedited review process for projects involving infill sites.

Support and incentivize the adaptive use of existing buildings, infill development, and brownfield development.

Modify codes and/or regulations to create opportunities for more income diversity and mixed-income neighborhoods by allowing a variety of housing ownership and leasing arrangements, diverse housing sizes and types – including accessory dwelling units, carriage homes, lofts, live-work spaces, cottages, and manufactured/modular housing. Modifications should allow an increase the variety of ownership opportunities to include condominiums, ownership cooperatives (such as mutual housing associations, limited equity cooperatives, etc.) by identifying and removing regulatory barriers. Recommend improvements to protections for owners, developers, and lenders.
Priority should be given to projects that achieve efficiencies described elsewhere in planokc, such as dwelling units that are located to have easy access to each other and to other daily needs including jobs, recreation, and schools.

Maximize the use of all appropriate state, federal, local, and private funding for the development, preservation, and rehabilitation of housing affordable to a variety of income groups, including those that integrate low-income housing units in otherwise market-rate housing developments and support the creation and/or expansion of mixed-income communities.

Integrate housing rehabilitation programs with neighborhood revitalization programs. These programs should include assistance to property owners to renovate the existing housing stock with improvements that reduce utility and maintenance costs for owners and occupants, conserve energy, conserve water, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Establish new or expand existing financing methods and/or mechanisms available to new and redevelopment mixed-income projects in urban areas. These could include: direct investment of public housing funds, tax-increment financing, bonds, revolving loans, housing program funds and/or other proven public-private partnership models.

Create and/or enhance Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs) to increase their capacity to provide mixed-income housing, especially in targeted infill areas.

Reuse brownfield, greyfield, and other vacant building sites to provide new opportunities for mixed-used and mixed-income housing.

Prevent concentration of low-income populations by providing housing opportunities for all income groups in targeted redevelopment areas of the city with a particular focus on mixed-income projects, especially on those projects that have a public funding component.

In conjunction with City regulatory changes, such as significant modifications to zoning ordinances, building codes, or subdivision regulations, assess the effects of the proposed modifications on housing development costs and overall housing affordability, considering the balance between housing affordability and other objectives such as environmental quality, urban design quality, maintenance of neighborhood character and protection of public health, safety and welfare. This assessment should be integrated into the code amendment process, identify barriers to housing affordability, and include recommended mitigation.

Add legislative priorities for state laws to:

• Strengthen the City’s ability to obtain specific performance of property owners cited for code violations.
• Speed up the demolition process for long-time boarded properties that cannot be rehabilitated.
• Strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.
• Expedite the clearing of properties involved in probate.

Strategically use subsidized housing programs along with other City services and programs to revitalize targeted areas of the city.

Support infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites by:

• Allowing densities sufficient to incentivize infill in older areas
• Focusing resources on target neighborhoods to build positive momentum
• Evaluating and adjusting zoning in areas where infill is desired
• Reducing permit fees and processing time for infill development proposals
• Waiving the requirement for traffic impact analyses for infill development proposals
• Establishing an Abandoned Buildings Program and enhancing it over time by:
  • Seeking changes in City ordinance and State statute where necessary to allow for cost recovery of police and fire services costs caused by vacant buildings
  • Using revenue collected beyond Vacant and Abandoned Buildings program administration cost for neighborhood improvements
  • Submitting land bank legislation to the State Legislature and establishing a land bank authorized to acquire, rehabilitate, and dispose of abandoned properties
• Offering temporary or short term catalyzing incentives for the first “infillers” in target neighborhoods. Incentives may include small grants and/or low interest loans from a revolving loan fund or for property improvements.
• Evaluating the possibility of basing property taxes on only land value and not improvements, thereby encouraging high intensity use of well-positioned land and discouraging underutilization and long–term vacancy.

Mitigate negative impacts of compactness by:

• Updating nuisance code to better address noise, smell, vibration, property maintenance, panhandling, animal control, delivery hours limits, and other possible negative effects.
• Updating the sign ordinance to reduce visual clutter.

Prioritize and concentrate development where facilities, infrastructure, and services have capacity and in areas where the Police and Fire Departments are best able to respond. Guide the location and timing of development through the proactive and strategic installation of infrastructure.

Create and implement small area plans for neighborhoods or districts with special strategic importance or complications related to development or redevelopment.

Identify priority areas where the City can maximize private investment by providing public infrastructure and amenities including:

• Transit;
• Parks, trails, sidewalks;
• Streets;
• Arts and cultural facilities.

Encourage redevelopment and infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas.

Catalyze infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas by:

• Investing in infrastructure improvements;
• Improving multi-modal transportation networks;
• Improving parks and open spaces;
• Improving schools and other civic resources;
• Exploring innovative methods such as:
  • A public-private partnership to purchase problem properties in target areas and build or rehabilitate homes while improving infrastructure and amenities
  • An infill house plan program similar to Sacramento or Milwaukee
• Identifying and removing barriers to rehabilitation and/or replacement of residential buildings.
• Establishing a position in the City to facilitate medium- and large-scale redevelopment projects through the development process by guiding interactions with City departments, allied agencies, and utility companies.

Encourage the adaptive reuse of underutilized structures and the revitalization of older, economically distressed neighborhoods.

Maintain the traditional grid street pattern where it currently exists, reconnect it where possible, and keep alleys open and functioning. When improving older streets in neighborhoods, maintain original street widths and curb radii.

Improve the functionality and efficiency of the street network by:

• Providing direct connections from residential developments to nearby places and to each other.
• Providing street and sidewalk stubs to adjacent vacant land in anticipation of future development.
• Connecting new development to existing street and sidewalk stubs, and to existing trail, open space, and bicycle networks.
• Reducing block sizes and use of dead-end streets.
• Maintaining the existing street grid to preserve connectivity and mobility options.

Revise subdivision regulations to include connectivity standards and guidelines that require greater street connectivity, and provide allowances for pedestrian and bicycle connections when street connectivity cannot be made.

Change subdivision regulations to determine the number of entries into a residential development based on number of lots in order to improve connectivity of the roadway network and emergency response.

Maintain existing alleys or construct new alleys where feasible to provide trash collection service and parking behind primary buildings and minimize curb cuts along the primary street frontage.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Evaluate development proposals to assess design components that contribute to or detract from safety and analyze emergency response capacity and capability.

Prioritize opportunities to restore and reconnect the street grid.

Establish access management requirements that limit driveways on arterials and collectors and increase connections between uses to improve safety and traffic efficiency.

Limit driveways on arterials and collectors and increase connections between uses to improve safety and traffic efficiency.

Share parking among contiguous developments.

Ensure proper access to and between subdivisions in order to offer a choice in routes for residents, multiple access points for emergency responders, and to reduce vehicle congestion at arterial intersections. Contiguous developments should share access whenever feasible.

Regional-, community-, and neighborhood-scale retail developments should provide an internal vehicle and pedestrian circulation system between new and existing centers and individual stores that draws on the following principles:

• Concentrate access for new retail development at shared primary entrance points. Primary entrance points should be aligned with access points immediately across intersecting roads. Limit curb cuts on primary highways and arterials.
• Provide pedestrian circulation, including sidewalks and median breaks along interior and exterior fronting roads and within parking lots.
• Encourage coordinated development of retail centers in order to facilitate internal pedestrian and vehicle circulation and optimal center performance.

Encourage unified planning for all adjoining land owned or controlled by a project’s developer to ensure proper circulation and land use relationships.

Create and implement a citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan that addresses riders of all levels.

Incorporate preventive health care and wellness education into public schools, recreation centers, senior centers, and technical/trade schools.

Enhance the safety and walkability of the sidewalk network through:

• Establishing a citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan that includes an inventory of sidewalk locations and conditions, and priorities for enhancement.
• Implementing sidewalk improvements through future bond issues, CIP projects or other sources of funding as prioritized in the citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan.
• Maintaining currency of the citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan.
• Explore the feasibility of the City assuming responsibility for sidewalk maintenance.

Establish requirements for providing alternate pedestrian routes when construction activity prohibits use of existing facilities.

Reverse the detrimental impact of vacant and abandoned buildings through the following efforts:

• Develop an Abandoned Buildings program geared toward a significant reduction in vacancies by creating incentives and/or penalties that discourage prolonged building abandonment and help the City to recoup the costs associated with vacated buildings. Use fees generated by this program to help fund redevelopment of abandoned buildings.
• Assess the feasibility of potential reuse options for dilapidated or abandoned buildings. Define and establish criteria to help identify buildings that are too far gone and/or too costly to feasibly rehabilitate, and consider a coordinated demolition program for those buildings.
• Seek changes in state legislation to enhance the City’s ability to maintain and improve its neighborhoods including:
  • Laws which would speed up the demolition process for long-term dilapidated or abandoned properties that cannot be rehabilitated, and
  • Laws which would strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.

Enhance effective policing by:

• Developing and/or enhancing community policing programs, which involve residents and businesses in crime prevention strategies.
• Increasing business presence and participation in community policing.
• Improving public outreach.
• Increasing opportunities for the Oklahoma City Police Department community relations officers to interact with community organizations, neighborhoods groups, schools, recreational and/or athletic programs. This interaction should include increasing resources to allow real-time communication of safety concerns with these organizations.

Seek funding, sponsors, and partnerships to enhance and expand the following crime prevention strategies:

• Education and job training for at-risk youth.
• Community involvement programs such as Light Up The Night, Neighbors Night Out, and other similar activities and programs designed to strengthen neighborhoods.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Create partnerships and programs involving civic groups, business organizations, governmental entities, coalitions, and non-profits to develop or enhance the following:

• School reading programs;
• Elementary school intramural sports leagues;
• Rehabilitation of school infrastructure and replacement of school equipment (athletic facilities, media center materials, computers, etc.);
• After-school programs that focus on mentoring or conflict resolution;
• Rehabilitation of City parks;
• Community involvement opportunities associated with public schools; and,
• Other projects or programs that improve neighborhood safety by working with children.

Establish a Crime-Free Multifamily Housing Program designed to keep multifamily housing developments safe from crime and perceptions of crime by:

• Supporting partnerships between the police, property managers, property owners, and tenants.
• Providing training to managers and owners about screening applicants, fire safety, fair housing, and other components of ‘active property management’.
• Providing a security assessment based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• Conducting safety meetings with residents/tenants.

Establish criteria for locating, designing, and improving public and private parks to enhance safety and security, including:
Locating new parks in areas that are highly visible and accessible from surrounding residential streets and utilize trails to increase activity and visibility in parks.
Utilizing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles, which includes controlled access, visibility, lighting, etc. for new parks and retrofitting/redesign of existing parks.

Improve safety of users of the parks and trails system by:

• Providing good lighting, emergency call boxes, and regular police patrols along the trail system.
• Providing shelter structures along the trail networks and determining the appropriate spacing for such structures. Structures could be relatively small to keep costs down but should be sturdy and easy to maintain.

Improve the functionality and efficiency of the street network by:

• Providing direct connections from residential developments to nearby places and to each other.
• Providing street and sidewalk stubs to adjacent vacant land in anticipation of future development.
• Connecting new development to existing street and sidewalk stubs, and to existing trail, open space, and bicycle networks.
• Reducing block sizes and use of dead-end streets.
• Maintaining the existing street grid to preserve connectivity and mobility options.

Revise subdivision regulations to include connectivity standards and guidelines that require greater street connectivity, and provide allowances for pedestrian and bicycle connections when street connectivity cannot be made.

Establish a process for existing neighborhoods to request traffic calming, including how to evaluate the request, select the appropriate type of calming treatment, and fund recommendations.

Require sidewalks on both sides of all streets in urban LUTAs and in the Rural Residential LUTA for subdivisions with densities greater than 1 unit per acre.

Reverse the detrimental impact of vacant and abandoned buildings through the following efforts:

• Develop an Abandoned Buildings program geared toward a significant reduction in vacancies by creating incentives and/or penalties that discourage prolonged building abandonment and help the City to recoup the costs associated with vacated buildings. Use fees generated by this program to help fund redevelopment of abandoned buildings.
• Assess the feasibility of potential reuse options for dilapidated or abandoned buildings. Define and establish criteria to help identify buildings that are too far gone and/or too costly to feasibly rehabilitate, and consider a coordinated demolition program for those buildings.
• Seek changes in state legislation to enhance the City’s ability to maintain and improve its neighborhoods including:
  • Laws which would speed up the demolition process for long-term dilapidated or abandoned properties that cannot be rehabilitated, and
  • Laws which would strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Create regulations/standards/guidelines that focus on design and/or compatibility principles which are sensitive to the surrounding urban form, especially in areas that are stable or improving and whose character is well-established. These provisions should also help ensure compatibility between lower- and higher- intensity land uses.

Improve parking provisions in neighborhoods that are near vibrant commercial corridors/areas by improving parking and corridor design, non-vehicular networks, transit, and signage.

Establish a Crime-Free Multifamily Housing Program designed to keep multifamily housing developments safe from crime and perceptions of crime by:

• Supporting partnerships between the police, property managers, property owners, and tenants.
• Providing training to managers and owners about screening applicants, fire safety, fair housing, and other components of ‘active property management’.
• Providing a security assessment based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• Conducting safety meetings with residents/tenants.

Ensure that safety is factored into the design of neighborhoods through the following policies:

• Incorporate development standards and guidelines into the Subdivision Regulations that integrate the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and increase safety and social interaction.
• Create a pre-development checklist with criteria to evaluate how safety is designed into a project.
• Establish a pre-development process wherein safety is considered in the design of projects.
• Involve the Fire and Police Departments in reviewing proposed development and redevelopment to provide input on any safety-related design concerns.

Evaluate public facilities and public property for unsafe conditions such as poor lighting (quality and quantity); blind spots; poor maintenance conditions; and other unsafe conditions. Prioritize improvements to these facilities and properties based on the following criteria: a) Proximity and condition of nearby neighborhoods; and b) Cost/benefit associated with mitigating the unsafe condition and maintaining the improvement.

Establish criteria for locating, designing, and improving public and private parks to enhance safety and security, including:
Locating new parks in areas that are highly visible and accessible from surrounding residential streets and utilize trails to increase activity and visibility in parks.
Utilizing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles, which includes controlled access, visibility, lighting, etc. for new parks and retrofitting/redesign of existing parks.

Improve safety of users of the parks and trails system by:

• Providing good lighting, emergency call boxes, and regular police patrols along the trail system.
• Providing shelter structures along the trail networks and determining the appropriate spacing for such structures. Structures could be relatively small to keep costs down but should be sturdy and easy to maintain.

Utilize existing natural streams as amenities in public parks, and regularly monitor and maintain stream banks for safety of park users.

Revise subdivision regulations to require development adjacent to parks and public open spaces to maintain open sight lines to parks and public open space.  Reduce/limit residential rear yards, fences, walls, and physical and visual enclosures around park and public open space perimeters.  Encourage designs that allow homes to face into parks or where side yards are located near parks.

Incorporate Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles into city-wide design standards for development and redevelopment of public and private projects. CPTED principles include: 1) Territorially – physically define spaces as public or private and the appropriate use is obvious even to outside observers; 2) Access Control – deny access to soft targets; 3) Natural Surveillance – make it easy to observe all users of/in a particular territory/space; 4) Maintenance and Management – ensure equipment is functioning (lights, gates, etc.), landscape is kept neat especially to preserve surveillance.

Maximize fire safety through actions such as:
Modifying regulations and guidelines to prevent subdivisions with a single point of access – except those with fewer than 10 homes.
Developing a vegetation management program targeting the wildland/urban interface, including rights-of-way in rural areas, and incorporating recommendations from the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise Communities initiative.
Requiring residential sprinklers for developments located in Rural Land Use Typologies.
Requiring exceptional, effective, and easy access to sites augmented by a thorough system of connections within and between developments.

Evaluate development proposals to assess design components that contribute to or detract from safety and analyze emergency response capacity and capability.

Ensure resources and funds remain dedicated to crime prevention programs, including but not limited to: block watches; graffiti removal; education and outreach associated with elder fraud, identity theft, and sexual predators; safe driver programs for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles; after-school and youth diversion programs that provide recreational and educational support (tutoring, homework help, etc.); and other crime prevention programs. Ensure planokc is maintained to support and reflect the City’s priorities to provide a safe and secure community.

Reinforce existing partnerships and create new partnerships with allied agencies and non-profits to intervene early and often with at-risk youth redirecting them from participation in criminal activities to educational opportunities, job training, community service projects, neighborhood and business improvement programs, and other community building projects and/or programs.

Adopt design standards to enable emergency management resources to be highly effective, such as resilient buildings, interconnected transportation networks, and other design considerations that help ensure community safety and recovery.

Reduce crime and improve feelings of safety through long term efforts such as:

• Improving design regulations to maximize crime prevention through appropriate urban design,
• Developing community-based activities, programs, and facilities that reduce crime and develop life skills, such as after school and youth diversion programs and facilities for recreation and educational support (e.g., tutoring, homework help, etc.),
• Encouraging more compact development to increase effectiveness of individual officers by ensuring less travel time and more engagement,
• Implementing a “good landlord” program,
• Exploring enhancements to police operations such as:
  • Committing to a certain number of officers per capita and/or per square mile of urbanized area,
  • Increasing patrols (automobile, bicycle, or on foot) in targeted areas,
  • Evaluating needs on a regular basis for increasing the number of key positions, such as detectives, to meet demands,
  • Coordinating neighborhood improvement efforts (such as the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and the Vacant and Abandoned Buildings program) with policing efforts, and
  • Supporting efforts to obtain more effective criminal justice law, such as stricter gang laws.

Catalyze infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas by:

• Investing in infrastructure improvements;
• Improving multi-modal transportation networks;
• Improving parks and open spaces;
• Improving schools and other civic resources;
• Exploring innovative methods such as:
  • A public-private partnership to purchase problem properties in target areas and build or rehabilitate homes while improving infrastructure and amenities
  • An infill house plan program similar to Sacramento or Milwaukee
• Identifying and removing barriers to rehabilitation and/or replacement of residential buildings.
• Establishing a position in the City to facilitate medium- and large-scale redevelopment projects through the development process by guiding interactions with City departments, allied agencies, and utility companies.

Encourage the adaptive reuse of underutilized structures and the revitalization of older, economically distressed neighborhoods.

Reverse the detrimental impact of vacant and abandoned buildings through the following efforts:

• Develop an Abandoned Buildings program geared toward a significant reduction in vacancies by creating incentives and/or penalties that discourage prolonged building abandonment and help the City to recoup the costs associated with vacated buildings. Use fees generated by this program to help fund redevelopment of abandoned buildings.
• Assess the feasibility of potential reuse options for dilapidated or abandoned buildings. Define and establish criteria to help identify buildings that are too far gone and/or too costly to feasibly rehabilitate, and consider a coordinated demolition program for those buildings.
• Seek changes in state legislation to enhance the City’s ability to maintain and improve its neighborhoods including:
  • Laws which would speed up the demolition process for long-term dilapidated or abandoned properties that cannot be rehabilitated, and
  • Laws which would strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.

Modify codes and/or regulations to create opportunities for more income diversity and mixed-income neighborhoods by allowing a variety of housing ownership and leasing arrangements, diverse housing sizes and types – including accessory dwelling units, carriage homes, lofts, live-work spaces, cottages, and manufactured/modular housing. Modifications should allow an increase the variety of ownership opportunities to include condominiums, ownership cooperatives (such as mutual housing associations, limited equity cooperatives, etc.) by identifying and removing regulatory barriers. Recommend improvements to protections for owners, developers, and lenders.
Priority should be given to projects that achieve efficiencies described elsewhere in planokc, such as dwelling units that are located to have easy access to each other and to other daily needs including jobs, recreation, and schools.

Maximize the use of all appropriate state, federal, local, and private funding for the development, preservation, and rehabilitation of housing affordable to a variety of income groups, including those that integrate low-income housing units in otherwise market-rate housing developments and support the creation and/or expansion of mixed-income communities.

Prioritize neighborhoods for revitalization and re-investment in order to reverse the decline associated with poor maintenance of public infrastructure and other property by using the following objective criteria:

• Low economic opportunity;
• Low educational attainment;
• Poor health outcomes;
• Poor housing environments;
• Low neighborhood quality; and,
• Existing capacity to support the revitalization efforts; and other important indicators.

Increase the City’s capacity to participate in targeted programs that strengthen neighborhood infrastructure and other assets.

Increase and/or re-assign City staff to support targeted neighborhoods and coalitions.

Integrate housing rehabilitation programs with neighborhood revitalization programs. These programs should include assistance to property owners to renovate the existing housing stock with improvements that reduce utility and maintenance costs for owners and occupants, conserve energy, conserve water, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Identify, evaluate, and mitigate challenges associated with neighborhoods where housing values are rising quickly in response to public investment.

Establish new or expand existing financing methods and/or mechanisms available to new and redevelopment mixed-income projects in urban areas. These could include: direct investment of public housing funds, tax-increment financing, bonds, revolving loans, housing program funds and/or other proven public-private partnership models.

Create and/or enhance Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs) to increase their capacity to provide mixed-income housing, especially in targeted infill areas.

Reuse brownfield, greyfield, and other vacant building sites to provide new opportunities for mixed-used and mixed-income housing.

Catalyze the rehabilitation of abandoned structures by amending codes to facilitate the adaptive reuse of existing buildings for residential use.

Develop a City program to rehabilitate or redevelop dilapidated properties, including a land bank to receive donated properties from property owners who can no longer maintain their properties.

Prevent concentration of low-income populations by providing housing opportunities for all income groups in targeted redevelopment areas of the city with a particular focus on mixed-income projects, especially on those projects that have a public funding component.

Create places and opportunities for neighborhood events that allow neighbors to interact.

Add legislative priorities for state laws to:

• Strengthen the City’s ability to obtain specific performance of property owners cited for code violations.
• Speed up the demolition process for long-time boarded properties that cannot be rehabilitated.
• Strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.
• Expedite the clearing of properties involved in probate.

Strengthen existing businesses and business districts within and adjacent to established residential areas. Promote the development of new businesses to provide additional jobs and higher income opportunities for nearby residents.

Strategically use subsidized housing programs along with other City services and programs to revitalize targeted areas of the city.

Quickly repair damage caused by vandalism, including graffiti, to minimize negative impacts on neighborhoods. Coordinate the efforts of existing programs, such as the Police Department’s Removal Unit, the Public Works Department’s Removal Unit, and Oklahoma County’s “SHINE” program to increase responses in targeted areas and expand the area which can be covered. Increase participation by the business community, such as donations of paint and time.

Establish a working partnership between the City, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Putnam City Schools, Western Heights Schools, and other metro area school districts and educational entities to help school districts complete a variety of non-educational (or indirectly educational) functions such as planning for and siting new schools, working on shared use issues, and redeveloping closed schools. The partnership should coordinate efforts to seek funding and appropriate resources to accomplish the following:

• Establish multiuse recreational and exercise facilities in schoolyards to increase opportunities for physical activity and strengthen the relationship between schools and neighborhoods.
• Establish a program to increase the number of community members and schools that make effective use of Senate Bill 1882 (effective 11/1/2012) allowing shared use of school facilities for recreational purposes.

Study the impact of vacant parcels on places and special districts, and determine how best to mitigate any negative impacts.

Rather than rely solely on federal CDBG funding, seek other sources to continue to support the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and Neighborhood Stabilization Program in order to enhance their ability to reverse decline and create valuable places.

Create and implement small area plans for neighborhoods or districts with special strategic importance or complications related to development or redevelopment.

Encourage redevelopment and infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas.

Catalyze infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas by:

• Investing in infrastructure improvements;
• Improving multi-modal transportation networks;
• Improving parks and open spaces;
• Improving schools and other civic resources;
• Exploring innovative methods such as:
  • A public-private partnership to purchase problem properties in target areas and build or rehabilitate homes while improving infrastructure and amenities
  • An infill house plan program similar to Sacramento or Milwaukee
• Identifying and removing barriers to rehabilitation and/or replacement of residential buildings.
• Establishing a position in the City to facilitate medium- and large-scale redevelopment projects through the development process by guiding interactions with City departments, allied agencies, and utility companies.

Encourage the adaptive reuse of underutilized structures and the revitalization of older, economically distressed neighborhoods.

Prioritize maintaining the strength of existing commercial nodes and corridors over providing new areas for commercial development.

Continue promoting the re-use, redevelopment, and revitalization of low-performing or declining commercial areas.

Support diversity and integration of housing unit types and sizes in all land use typology areas in order to meet the diverse needs of households of different sizes, generational needs, incomes, and preferences. New residential subdivisions should achieve a mixture of housing types within a unified development.

Enhance existing development standards and establish design guidelines for areas outside of the City’s existing Design Review Overlay Districts. Development standards and design guidelines could include the following provisions:

• Minimize views and prominence of parking lots in relation to structures on a site.
• Sense of proportion (street width to building height, human scale)
• Pedestrian orientation of structures and architectural detailing/fenestration
• Terminated vistas
• Reduce the predominance of residential garages in the design of the front facades of single-family residences.
• Inclusion of front porches into the design of residential structures.
• Internal orientation of parking facilities and garages in multi-family developments.
• Improved pedestrian safety and enhanced pedestrian access through parking lots.

Enhance the City’s Landscape Ordinance by accomplishing the following objectives:

• Add guidelines and recommendations for landscape design that minimizes the need for supplemental irrigation.
• Clarify responsibilities and standards for landscape maintenance, including within public rights-of-way.
• Incentivize the use of drought-tolerant and native plants.
• Restrict the use of turf grass to the greatest extent feasible.
• Evaluate existing landscape standards for parking lots and consider making revisions that would result in more landscape buffering on parking lot fringes and more internal landscaping.
• Evaluate existing landscape standards to determine whether new standards should be adopted to help screen or buffer parking structures.
• Evaluate existing landscape standards in comparison to best practices and peer cities to determine whether minimum site landscaping standards should be revised and/or restructured to result in increased landscaping.

Develop and adopt new standards/guidelines that result in improvements to parking structure design including the following potential measures:

• Design parking structures to be architecturally integrated with adjoining primary structure(s).
• Include integrated storefronts or other active uses on the ground floors of parking structures that are adjacent to public sidewalks and other pedestrian plazas.
• Enhanced exterior façades of structures by integrating architectural features and materials that complement the character of the surrounding area, or screening with vegetation.

Consider the adoption of improved requirements to screen parked vehicles from view with enhanced landscaping, berming, low screen walls, and existing or proposed buildings, or some combination of those elements.

Develop a Master Streetscape Program to improve the appearance along major arterial streets. The program should outline methods for establishing a uniform streetscape appearance (with distinctive designs for individual streets or classifications of streets) through appropriate tree placement, species, and spacing, and coordinating the location of street trees in proximity to utilities, sidewalks, street lights and structures, and appropriate sidewalk designs. Differentiation in streetscape designs could be designated by street typology, designated areas, or other factors.

Using performance standards related to flow quantity, quality, and pattern, modify development regulations, codes, and policies to support the use of green infrastructure/low impact development techniques to mimic natural systems for developments within aquifer recharge zones with moderate or high vulnerability or in areas where streams and riparian areas have been channelized or developed (primarily in the Downtown, UH, and UM LUTAs). Low impact development techniques include but are not limited to:

• Onsite treating or filtering of stormwater contaminants.
• Discharging run-off as sheet-flow after passing through grassy or vegetated open space areas, rather than discharging run-off through concentrated outfalls.
• Creating attractive open space amenities that double as stormwater detention, retention, and / or filtering systems.
• Utilizing pervious pavement, pavers, or asphalt in appropriate locations (i.e. sidewalks, parking spaces, trails, patios, etc.).
• Utilizing planters (at grade or raised), vegetated landscape strips adjacent to roads and parking areas, and alternative curbing designs (allowing stormwater to easily move from impervious areas to pervious areas), to encourage stormwater infiltration and temporary detention.
• Rain Gardens
• Bioswales
• Green streets and alleys
• Green roofs
• Rooftop collection
• Underground detention
• Increased tree canopy preservation/tree planting
• Land/open space conservation
• Cluster development

Revise development regulations to require the following factors to be addressed in development and redevelopment proposals:

• Preservation of existing natural resources, such as wooded areas, habitat areas, and floodplains.
• Utilization of natural treatments and methods to stabilize or rehabilitate stream and river banks as a means to preserve downstream habitats.
• Integration of a variety of native or compatible non-native, non-invasive plant species.
• Mitigation of impacts of development on habitat, wildlife corridors, riparian and littoral areas, and water quality, through actions such as restoration or re-vegetation of disturbed natural areas and replacement of trees/habitat on-site or off-site.
• Management of invasive plant and animal species.
• Management and maintenance of natural areas, common areas and drainage areas.
• Impact on surface and groundwater supply.
• Impact on water quality caused by land uses and activities.
• Impacts on floodplains, riparian and littoral areas and wetlands and areas with significant landforms.

Revise the landscape ordinance to include the following:

• Define terms such as invasive species, exotic/non-native species, and native/indigenous species
• Require removal of invasive species from existing sites, and prohibit such species from being planted or maintained in new development.
• Provide a reference list of native plants and drought-tolerant plants.
• Provide incentives for using native and drought-tolerant plants and disincentives for using high-water plants and turf grass.
• Establish requirements for using design practices that minimize the need for supplemental irrigation.

Establish an Urban Forestry Program and City Urban Forester position to achieve the following:

• Measure and monitor tree canopy coverage and habitat on a regular basis so that any policies, programs, and regulations may be adjusted accordingly as situations change. Establish a process to maintain current data.
• Develop and maintain regulations, policies, processes, and programs that focus on protection and preservation of native trees.
• Provide assistance with proper tree selection, location, and maintenance to prevent power outages, reduce property damage, and coordinate emergency response during natural disaster events (excessive snow and ice, tornadoes, etc.), address the urban heat island effect, and reduce energy costs, etc.
• Establish programs such as tree give-aways, neighborhood planting programs, and education workshops.
• Provide resources to the public about tree selection, management, and care.
• Seek grant funding for community tree planting to improve City parks, publicly maintained rights-of-way and other areas of the city.
• Inventory the City’s street trees and develop a tree replacement program.
• Partner with volunteer and nonprofit organizations to recruit volunteers for tree planting and maintenance and to coordinate community-wide tree planting efforts.

Pursue methods to reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect on Oklahoma City by:

• Establishing a minimum canopy coverage requirement over paved surfaces such as parking lots.
• Instating a “continuous canopy” requirement for new streets and street reconstruction projects.
• Promoting the use of building and roofing materials that reduce heat island effects.

Modify development and subdivision regulations, and City policies to minimize alteration of natural landforms and native vegetation and maximize retention of distinctive natural features for public and private projects.

Improve parking provisions in neighborhoods that are near vibrant commercial corridors/areas by improving parking and corridor design, non-vehicular networks, transit, and signage.

Amend the landscape ordinance to increase the number of trees and landscaped islands required in parking lots.

Provide incentives for developers to build parking garages in high density areas. Include design requirements for projects receiving incentives.

Enhance existing development standards and establish design guidelines for areas outside of the City’s existing Design Review Overlay Districts. Development standards and design guidelines could include the following provisions:

• Minimize views and prominence of parking lots in relation to structures on a site.
• Sense of proportion (street width to building height, human scale)
• Pedestrian orientation of structures and architectural detailing/fenestration
• Terminated vistas
• Reduce the predominance of residential garages in the design of the front facades of single-family residences.
• Inclusion of front porches into the design of residential structures.
• Internal orientation of parking facilities and garages in multi-family developments.
• Improved pedestrian safety and enhanced pedestrian access through parking lots.

Establish a list of preferred and discouraged building materials for all zoning districts.

Develop distinctive standards for different types and categories of walls and fences, emphasizing durability, aesthetics, and visual continuity in materials and design with particular consideration of zoning classification.

Initiate new efforts to reduce sign clutter and improve the aesthetics of signs, while allowing for adequate and visible business identification by the following potential measures:

• Restrict new billboards and eliminate or reduce the number of existing billboards.
• Require non-conforming signs to be removed or be brought into compliance with existing regulations within a specific timeframe.
• Consider new standards in the Sign Ordinance to improve limits on the size, height, and number of signs.
• Improve proactive enforcement of the City’s sign regulations to curtail the placement of illegal signs and ensure adequate maintenance of signs.

Reverse the detrimental impact of vacant and abandoned buildings through the following efforts:

• Develop an Abandoned Buildings program geared toward a significant reduction in vacancies by creating incentives and/or penalties that discourage prolonged building abandonment and help the City to recoup the costs associated with vacated buildings. Use fees generated by this program to help fund redevelopment of abandoned buildings.
• Assess the feasibility of potential reuse options for dilapidated or abandoned buildings. Define and establish criteria to help identify buildings that are too far gone and/or too costly to feasibly rehabilitate, and consider a coordinated demolition program for those buildings.
• Seek changes in state legislation to enhance the City’s ability to maintain and improve its neighborhoods including:
  • Laws which would speed up the demolition process for long-term dilapidated or abandoned properties that cannot be rehabilitated, and
  • Laws which would strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.

Initiate efforts to educate the public regarding programs that provide assistance for neighborhood clean-up efforts. Such efforts could include the following:

• Provide assistance to residents to make housing and neighborhood improvements and provide training in property maintenance skills.
• Develop and organize volunteer programs (such as adopt-a-street, adopt-a-park, and neighborhood clean-up days) and/or coordinate efforts to obtain grant funding to establish community clean-up programs in neighborhoods where inadequate property maintenance is prevalent.
• Publicize Bulk Waste Days and/or explore the possibility of adding more days/increased frequency.
• Develop a list of outside funding sources that could be used for property maintenance and make this information available to all citizens, especially those in targeted low-income areas.
• Establish public educational programs and advertising campaigns to discourage littering. Education should begin at the elementary level and continue through the adult level.

Intensify code enforcement in areas where specific and/or chronic violations have detrimental impacts on community appearance. Such efforts could include:

• Implement stricter enforcement of property maintenance regulations and consider more significant penalties for violations.
• Increase emphasis on the enforcement of littering laws. Impose fines against littering in a uniform and consistent manner to reinforce a public perception that littering does carry a definite risk.
• Immediately report and ensure expedient removal of graffiti that is visible from interstate highways and other important/designated viewshed corridors.

Revise ordinances for design districts and design review procedures to ensure consistency in the treatment of historic properties, including the assessment of demolition proposals, the identification of historic or significant properties, and the consideration of the impact that the alteration or demolition of individual properties has on the context and continuity of the surrounding environment.

Incorporate natural features (such as ponds, lakes, streams, rock outcroppings, stands of mature trees, and/or sizable individual trees) into the design of all residential, commercial, and industrial projects rather than eliminating, hiding, or limiting access to those features.

Establish streetscape standards requiring attractive entry features and the provision of accessible common open space in new neighborhoods.

Enhance the City’s Landscape Ordinance by accomplishing the following objectives:

• Add guidelines and recommendations for landscape design that minimizes the need for supplemental irrigation.
• Clarify responsibilities and standards for landscape maintenance, including within public rights-of-way.
• Incentivize the use of drought-tolerant and native plants.
• Restrict the use of turf grass to the greatest extent feasible.
• Evaluate existing landscape standards for parking lots and consider making revisions that would result in more landscape buffering on parking lot fringes and more internal landscaping.
• Evaluate existing landscape standards to determine whether new standards should be adopted to help screen or buffer parking structures.
• Evaluate existing landscape standards in comparison to best practices and peer cities to determine whether minimum site landscaping standards should be revised and/or restructured to result in increased landscaping.

Define responsibilities and assurances for maintaining, repairing, or replacing community walls and fences. Consider creating programs for routine and consistent maintenance of fencing along arterial roadways that could include fencing assessment districts, long-term bonds, or assigned HOA maintenance of community fencing.

Establish a funded beautification program and source of funding to provide facade and landscaping enhancements along targeted industrial corridors.

Establish policy or adopt ordinance language to ensure that City-owned or controlled historic buildings are appropriately recognized, maintained and repaired, or rehabilitated. Potential methods to be considered could include:

• Attach a preservation restriction or easement to historic properties that are surplused by the City.
• Assess the historic status of City-owned or controlled properties in order to follow through with formal HP/HL zoning, National Register listing, or other historic designation as appropriate.
• Incorporate early and substantive review of city improvement projects to assess potential impacts on historic buildings, and adopt alternatives that minimize or eliminate the impacts when necessary.

Improve landscape design, installation, and landscape maintenance compliance through the following actions:

• Produce informational materials and work with local media to publicize the benefits of limiting turf areas (e.g. reduced water use, less mowing) and highlight the positive effects on property values and aesthetics that result from proper installation and maintenance of landscaping.
• Develop a program, including informational outreach, to inform property owners of their responsibilities to maintain right-of-way areas, the procedures for enforcement, and the applicable fines.
• Identify specific corridors with the worst landscape maintenance conditions and initiate coordinated clean-up programs in those locations.
• Install demonstration gardens/landscapes in select civic/public locations to provide practical examples of how to integrate drought tolerant and low maintenance plants in commercial and residential installations.
• Improve efficiency and effectiveness of the process for reporting, citing, and proactive enforcement violations for maintenance and compliance with landscape requirements.
• Explore the establishment of landscape improvement/maintenance districts where property owners are assessed a pro-rata share of the costs to properly and uniformly maintain landscaping within the district boundaries.

Enhance effective policing by:

• Developing and/or enhancing community policing programs, which involve residents and businesses in crime prevention strategies.
• Increasing business presence and participation in community policing.
• Improving public outreach.
• Increasing opportunities for the Oklahoma City Police Department community relations officers to interact with community organizations, neighborhoods groups, schools, recreational and/or athletic programs. This interaction should include increasing resources to allow real-time communication of safety concerns with these organizations.

Establish a program or series of programs that significantly improve the quality, appearance, and perception of rental housing throughout the city. Program components should include: 1) owner, manager, and tenant education; 2) code enforcement and inspections; 3) design standards/considerations that promote safety; 4) high attention to property maintenance; and 5) other relevant best practices.

Seek funding, sponsors, and partnerships to enhance and expand the following crime prevention strategies:

• Education and job training for at-risk youth.
• Community involvement programs such as Light Up The Night, Neighbors Night Out, and other similar activities and programs designed to strengthen neighborhoods.

Reuse brownfield, greyfield, and other vacant building sites to provide new opportunities for mixed-used and mixed-income housing.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Catalyze the rehabilitation of abandoned structures by amending codes to facilitate the adaptive reuse of existing buildings for residential use.

Develop a City program to rehabilitate or redevelop dilapidated properties, including a land bank to receive donated properties from property owners who can no longer maintain their properties.

In conjunction with City regulatory changes, such as significant modifications to zoning ordinances, building codes, or subdivision regulations, assess the effects of the proposed modifications on housing development costs and overall housing affordability, considering the balance between housing affordability and other objectives such as environmental quality, urban design quality, maintenance of neighborhood character and protection of public health, safety and welfare. This assessment should be integrated into the code amendment process, identify barriers to housing affordability, and include recommended mitigation.

Add legislative priorities for state laws to:

• Strengthen the City’s ability to obtain specific performance of property owners cited for code violations.
• Speed up the demolition process for long-time boarded properties that cannot be rehabilitated.
• Strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.
• Expedite the clearing of properties involved in probate.

Quickly repair damage caused by vandalism, including graffiti, to minimize negative impacts on neighborhoods. Coordinate the efforts of existing programs, such as the Police Department’s Removal Unit, the Public Works Department’s Removal Unit, and Oklahoma County’s “SHINE” program to increase responses in targeted areas and expand the area which can be covered. Increase participation by the business community, such as donations of paint and time.

Establish a Crime-Free Multifamily Housing Program designed to keep multifamily housing developments safe from crime and perceptions of crime by:

• Supporting partnerships between the police, property managers, property owners, and tenants.
• Providing training to managers and owners about screening applicants, fire safety, fair housing, and other components of ‘active property management’.
• Providing a security assessment based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• Conducting safety meetings with residents/tenants.

Increase proactive code enforcement efforts, including litter control, and graffiti clean-up in targeted areas (e.g., SNI areas, and special districts).

Create a standards for trails based on industry standards, “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” principles, expected use, and surrounding land uses.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Evaluate public facilities and public property for unsafe conditions such as poor lighting (quality and quantity); blind spots; poor maintenance conditions; and other unsafe conditions. Prioritize improvements to these facilities and properties based on the following criteria: a) Proximity and condition of nearby neighborhoods; and b) Cost/benefit associated with mitigating the unsafe condition and maintaining the improvement.

Establish criteria for locating, designing, and improving public and private parks to enhance safety and security, including:
Locating new parks in areas that are highly visible and accessible from surrounding residential streets and utilize trails to increase activity and visibility in parks.
Utilizing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles, which includes controlled access, visibility, lighting, etc. for new parks and retrofitting/redesign of existing parks.

Improve safety of users of the parks and trails system by:

• Providing good lighting, emergency call boxes, and regular police patrols along the trail system.
• Providing shelter structures along the trail networks and determining the appropriate spacing for such structures. Structures could be relatively small to keep costs down but should be sturdy and easy to maintain.

Utilize existing natural streams as amenities in public parks, and regularly monitor and maintain stream banks for safety of park users.

Protect the health of park visitors by utilizing the most environmentally friendly least toxic means available of reducing weeds and other pests to acceptable levels.

Revise subdivision regulations to require development adjacent to parks and public open spaces to maintain open sight lines to parks and public open space.  Reduce/limit residential rear yards, fences, walls, and physical and visual enclosures around park and public open space perimeters.  Encourage designs that allow homes to face into parks or where side yards are located near parks.

Incorporate Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles into city-wide design standards for development and redevelopment of public and private projects. CPTED principles include: 1) Territorially – physically define spaces as public or private and the appropriate use is obvious even to outside observers; 2) Access Control – deny access to soft targets; 3) Natural Surveillance – make it easy to observe all users of/in a particular territory/space; 4) Maintenance and Management – ensure equipment is functioning (lights, gates, etc.), landscape is kept neat especially to preserve surveillance.

Ensure resources and funds remain dedicated to crime prevention programs, including but not limited to: block watches; graffiti removal; education and outreach associated with elder fraud, identity theft, and sexual predators; safe driver programs for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles; after-school and youth diversion programs that provide recreational and educational support (tutoring, homework help, etc.); and other crime prevention programs. Ensure planokc is maintained to support and reflect the City’s priorities to provide a safe and secure community.

Support and incentivize the adaptive use of existing buildings, infill development, and brownfield development.

Establish a program or series of programs that significantly improve the quality, appearance, and perception of rental housing throughout the city. Program components should include: 1) owner, manager, and tenant education; 2) code enforcement and inspections; 3) design standards/considerations that promote safety; 4) high attention to property maintenance; and 5) other relevant best practices.

Provide tools and incentives for targeted housing and neighborhood revitalization through programs such as a housing trust fund, land bank, abatement of permit and connection fees, employer assisted housing, inclusionary housing development, tax abatements, credits or deductions, abatement of permit and connection fees, and an expedited review and approval processes.

Integrate housing rehabilitation programs with neighborhood revitalization programs. These programs should include assistance to property owners to renovate the existing housing stock with improvements that reduce utility and maintenance costs for owners and occupants, conserve energy, conserve water, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Identify, evaluate, and mitigate challenges associated with neighborhoods where housing values are rising quickly in response to public investment.

Establish new or expand existing financing methods and/or mechanisms available to new and redevelopment mixed-income projects in urban areas. These could include: direct investment of public housing funds, tax-increment financing, bonds, revolving loans, housing program funds and/or other proven public-private partnership models.

Create and/or enhance Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs) to increase their capacity to provide mixed-income housing, especially in targeted infill areas.

Catalyze the rehabilitation of abandoned structures by amending codes to facilitate the adaptive reuse of existing buildings for residential use.

Develop a City program to rehabilitate or redevelop dilapidated properties, including a land bank to receive donated properties from property owners who can no longer maintain their properties.

Create regulations/standards/guidelines that focus on design and/or compatibility principles which are sensitive to the surrounding urban form, especially in areas that are stable or improving and whose character is well-established. These provisions should also help ensure compatibility between lower- and higher- intensity land uses.

In conjunction with City regulatory changes, such as significant modifications to zoning ordinances, building codes, or subdivision regulations, assess the effects of the proposed modifications on housing development costs and overall housing affordability, considering the balance between housing affordability and other objectives such as environmental quality, urban design quality, maintenance of neighborhood character and protection of public health, safety and welfare. This assessment should be integrated into the code amendment process, identify barriers to housing affordability, and include recommended mitigation.

Add legislative priorities for state laws to:

• Strengthen the City’s ability to obtain specific performance of property owners cited for code violations.
• Speed up the demolition process for long-time boarded properties that cannot be rehabilitated.
• Strengthen the City’s ability to require property owners to rehabilitate or sell neglected, boarded-up properties.
• Expedite the clearing of properties involved in probate.

Improve parking provisions in neighborhoods that are near vibrant commercial corridors/areas by improving parking and corridor design, non-vehicular networks, transit, and signage.

Strengthen existing businesses and business districts within and adjacent to established residential areas. Promote the development of new businesses to provide additional jobs and higher income opportunities for nearby residents.

Strategically use subsidized housing programs along with other City services and programs to revitalize targeted areas of the city.

Facilitate the development of housing in the Downtown, Bricktown, and Core to Shore areas in order to increase activity levels and demand for retail and amenities.

Increase land use diversity in Bricktown to attract and retain visitors and development momentum. Specifically, encourage more retail, office, and recreational uses rather than additional bars and restaurants, so that visitors of all ages and interests will be motivated to visit and stay longer.

Adopt new citywide site design and building regulations that ensure new developments meet basic functional and aesthetic minimums related to:

• Walkability and bike-ability
• Internal and external street connectivity
• Integration of uses
• Signage
• Building location
• Building appearance
• Open space (passive and active)

Support diverse and high-achieving student bodies through the creation of mixed-income neighborhoods that encourage parental and community involvement by:

• Integrating home sizes and types at neighborhood and block scales,
• Avoiding concentrations of low-income households by encouraging income diversity within neighborhoods and by spending City housing funds in a manner that does not concentrate low income households in one development or neighborhood, but instead creates opportunities for these households to live in income-diverse neighborhoods, and
• Encouraging school districts to open schools and school grounds after school hours to support community engagement and more convenient opportunities for active recreation.

Study the impact of vacant parcels on places and special districts, and determine how best to mitigate any negative impacts.

Support infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites by:

• Allowing densities sufficient to incentivize infill in older areas
• Focusing resources on target neighborhoods to build positive momentum
• Evaluating and adjusting zoning in areas where infill is desired
• Reducing permit fees and processing time for infill development proposals
• Waiving the requirement for traffic impact analyses for infill development proposals
• Establishing an Abandoned Buildings Program and enhancing it over time by:
  • Seeking changes in City ordinance and State statute where necessary to allow for cost recovery of police and fire services costs caused by vacant buildings
  • Using revenue collected beyond Vacant and Abandoned Buildings program administration cost for neighborhood improvements
  • Submitting land bank legislation to the State Legislature and establishing a land bank authorized to acquire, rehabilitate, and dispose of abandoned properties
• Offering temporary or short term catalyzing incentives for the first “infillers” in target neighborhoods. Incentives may include small grants and/or low interest loans from a revolving loan fund or for property improvements.
• Evaluating the possibility of basing property taxes on only land value and not improvements, thereby encouraging high intensity use of well-positioned land and discouraging underutilization and long–term vacancy.

Rather than rely solely on federal CDBG funding, seek other sources to continue to support the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and Neighborhood Stabilization Program in order to enhance their ability to reverse decline and create valuable places.

Increase the viability of townhomes and condominiums as housing products by:

• Adopting and supporting new local and state laws to increase consumer protection for condos and townhomes (e.g., better funding mechanisms and maintenance enforcement for common areas).
• Requiring developers to demonstrate sustainable funding levels for common area and facility maintenance costs.

Encourage redevelopment and infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas.

Catalyze infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas by:

• Investing in infrastructure improvements;
• Improving multi-modal transportation networks;
• Improving parks and open spaces;
• Improving schools and other civic resources;
• Exploring innovative methods such as:
  • A public-private partnership to purchase problem properties in target areas and build or rehabilitate homes while improving infrastructure and amenities
  • An infill house plan program similar to Sacramento or Milwaukee
• Identifying and removing barriers to rehabilitation and/or replacement of residential buildings.
• Establishing a position in the City to facilitate medium- and large-scale redevelopment projects through the development process by guiding interactions with City departments, allied agencies, and utility companies.

Encourage the adaptive reuse of underutilized structures and the revitalization of older, economically distressed neighborhoods.

Continue promoting the re-use, redevelopment, and revitalization of low-performing or declining commercial areas.

Support diversity and integration of housing unit types and sizes in all land use typology areas in order to meet the diverse needs of households of different sizes, generational needs, incomes, and preferences. New residential subdivisions should achieve a mixture of housing types within a unified development.

Amend the zoning ordinance to better accommodate the integration of various residential densities, building types, and styles.

Create design standards and guidelines for the design, materials, shared amenities, and accessibility of high density urban residential development. Standards and guidelines should promote privacy and livability in a high density, mixed-use environment.

Adopt subdivision regulations that ensure new neighborhoods meet the basic needs of residents while supporting an efficient development pattern. Regulations should cover:

• Open space (passive and active),
• Demonstration of sustainable funding levels for common area and facility maintenance costs,
• Walkability and bikeability,
• Internal and external street connectivity,
• Block length,
• Integration of uses,
• Integration of a variety of home sizes,
• Integration of a variety of unit types, and
• Preservation of Environmentally Sensitive Areas.

Regulations could be based on a point scale to allow flexibility, while still requiring basic minimum thresholds be met.
New regulations should remove the existing requirement for development in Rural LUTAs to connect to water and sewer systems and establish a minimum one-acre lot size for lots with on-site sewer treatment.

Enhance effective policing by:

• Developing and/or enhancing community policing programs, which involve residents and businesses in crime prevention strategies.
• Increasing business presence and participation in community policing.
• Improving public outreach.
• Increasing opportunities for the Oklahoma City Police Department community relations officers to interact with community organizations, neighborhoods groups, schools, recreational and/or athletic programs. This interaction should include increasing resources to allow real-time communication of safety concerns with these organizations.

Seek funding, sponsors, and partnerships to enhance and expand the following crime prevention strategies:

• Education and job training for at-risk youth.
• Community involvement programs such as Light Up The Night, Neighbors Night Out, and other similar activities and programs designed to strengthen neighborhoods.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Establish a Crime-Free Multifamily Housing Program designed to keep multifamily housing developments safe from crime and perceptions of crime by:

• Supporting partnerships between the police, property managers, property owners, and tenants.
• Providing training to managers and owners about screening applicants, fire safety, fair housing, and other components of ‘active property management’.
• Providing a security assessment based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• Conducting safety meetings with residents/tenants.

Establish criteria for locating, designing, and improving public and private parks to enhance safety and security, including:
Locating new parks in areas that are highly visible and accessible from surrounding residential streets and utilize trails to increase activity and visibility in parks.
Utilizing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles, which includes controlled access, visibility, lighting, etc. for new parks and retrofitting/redesign of existing parks.

Improve safety of users of the parks and trails system by:

• Providing good lighting, emergency call boxes, and regular police patrols along the trail system.
• Providing shelter structures along the trail networks and determining the appropriate spacing for such structures. Structures could be relatively small to keep costs down but should be sturdy and easy to maintain.

Incorporate Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles into city-wide design standards for development and redevelopment of public and private projects. CPTED principles include: 1) Territorially – physically define spaces as public or private and the appropriate use is obvious even to outside observers; 2) Access Control – deny access to soft targets; 3) Natural Surveillance – make it easy to observe all users of/in a particular territory/space; 4) Maintenance and Management – ensure equipment is functioning (lights, gates, etc.), landscape is kept neat especially to preserve surveillance.

Evaluate development proposals to assess design components that contribute to or detract from safety and analyze emergency response capacity and capability.

Ensure resources and funds remain dedicated to crime prevention programs, including but not limited to: block watches; graffiti removal; education and outreach associated with elder fraud, identity theft, and sexual predators; safe driver programs for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles; after-school and youth diversion programs that provide recreational and educational support (tutoring, homework help, etc.); and other crime prevention programs. Ensure planokc is maintained to support and reflect the City’s priorities to provide a safe and secure community.

Reinforce existing partnerships and create new partnerships with allied agencies and non-profits to intervene early and often with at-risk youth redirecting them from participation in criminal activities to educational opportunities, job training, community service projects, neighborhood and business improvement programs, and other community building projects and/or programs.

Adopt design standards to enable emergency management resources to be highly effective, such as resilient buildings, interconnected transportation networks, and other design considerations that help ensure community safety and recovery.

Develop methods for the City to aid school districts in bolstering student performance. Explore the following methods:

• A cooperative City and business-funded scholarship program for OKC residents in underperforming school districts following the same pattern as The Pittsburgh Promise, which offers post-secondary scholarships to academically qualified students who live in Pittsburgh and attend Pittsburgh public schools,
• Increased police presence for security and truancy prevention,
• City-funded after school facilities and programs,
• City-funded financial rewards to schools showing measurable improvement,
• City-funded financial or other rewards to high-performing teachers,
• City-funded teaching skills training.

Reduce crime and improve feelings of safety through long term efforts such as:

• Improving design regulations to maximize crime prevention through appropriate urban design,
• Developing community-based activities, programs, and facilities that reduce crime and develop life skills, such as after school and youth diversion programs and facilities for recreation and educational support (e.g., tutoring, homework help, etc.),
• Encouraging more compact development to increase effectiveness of individual officers by ensuring less travel time and more engagement,
• Implementing a “good landlord” program,
• Exploring enhancements to police operations such as:
  • Committing to a certain number of officers per capita and/or per square mile of urbanized area,
  • Increasing patrols (automobile, bicycle, or on foot) in targeted areas,
  • Evaluating needs on a regular basis for increasing the number of key positions, such as detectives, to meet demands,
  • Coordinating neighborhood improvement efforts (such as the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and the Vacant and Abandoned Buildings program) with policing efforts, and
  • Supporting efforts to obtain more effective criminal justice law, such as stricter gang laws.

Encourage redevelopment and infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas.

Catalyze infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas by:

• Investing in infrastructure improvements;
• Improving multi-modal transportation networks;
• Improving parks and open spaces;
• Improving schools and other civic resources;
• Exploring innovative methods such as:
  • A public-private partnership to purchase problem properties in target areas and build or rehabilitate homes while improving infrastructure and amenities
  • An infill house plan program similar to Sacramento or Milwaukee
• Identifying and removing barriers to rehabilitation and/or replacement of residential buildings.
• Establishing a position in the City to facilitate medium- and large-scale redevelopment projects through the development process by guiding interactions with City departments, allied agencies, and utility companies.

Encourage the adaptive reuse of underutilized structures and the revitalization of older, economically distressed neighborhoods.

Create a standards for trails based on industry standards, “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” principles, expected use, and surrounding land uses.

Establish access management requirements that limit driveways on arterials and collectors and increase connections between uses to improve safety and traffic efficiency.

Limit driveways on arterials and collectors and increase connections between uses to improve safety and traffic efficiency.

Ensure proper access to and between subdivisions in order to offer a choice in routes for residents, multiple access points for emergency responders, and to reduce vehicle congestion at arterial intersections. Contiguous developments should share access whenever feasible.

Establish a process for existing neighborhoods to request traffic calming, including how to evaluate the request, select the appropriate type of calming treatment, and fund recommendations.

Require sidewalks on both sides of all streets in urban LUTAs and in the Rural Residential LUTA for subdivisions with densities greater than 1 unit per acre.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Establish a Crime-Free Multifamily Housing Program designed to keep multifamily housing developments safe from crime and perceptions of crime by:

• Supporting partnerships between the police, property managers, property owners, and tenants.
• Providing training to managers and owners about screening applicants, fire safety, fair housing, and other components of ‘active property management’.
• Providing a security assessment based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• Conducting safety meetings with residents/tenants.

Ensure that safety is factored into the design of neighborhoods through the following policies:

• Incorporate development standards and guidelines into the Subdivision Regulations that integrate the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and increase safety and social interaction.
• Create a pre-development checklist with criteria to evaluate how safety is designed into a project.
• Establish a pre-development process wherein safety is considered in the design of projects.
• Involve the Fire and Police Departments in reviewing proposed development and redevelopment to provide input on any safety-related design concerns.

Establish criteria for locating, designing, and improving public and private parks to enhance safety and security, including:
Locating new parks in areas that are highly visible and accessible from surrounding residential streets and utilize trails to increase activity and visibility in parks.
Utilizing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles, which includes controlled access, visibility, lighting, etc. for new parks and retrofitting/redesign of existing parks.

Improve safety of users of the parks and trails system by:

• Providing good lighting, emergency call boxes, and regular police patrols along the trail system.
• Providing shelter structures along the trail networks and determining the appropriate spacing for such structures. Structures could be relatively small to keep costs down but should be sturdy and easy to maintain.

Incorporate Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles into city-wide design standards for development and redevelopment of public and private projects. CPTED principles include: 1) Territorially – physically define spaces as public or private and the appropriate use is obvious even to outside observers; 2) Access Control – deny access to soft targets; 3) Natural Surveillance – make it easy to observe all users of/in a particular territory/space; 4) Maintenance and Management – ensure equipment is functioning (lights, gates, etc.), landscape is kept neat especially to preserve surveillance.

Maximize fire safety through actions such as:
Modifying regulations and guidelines to prevent subdivisions with a single point of access – except those with fewer than 10 homes.
Developing a vegetation management program targeting the wildland/urban interface, including rights-of-way in rural areas, and incorporating recommendations from the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise Communities initiative.
Requiring residential sprinklers for developments located in Rural Land Use Typologies.
Requiring exceptional, effective, and easy access to sites augmented by a thorough system of connections within and between developments.

Evaluate development proposals to assess design components that contribute to or detract from safety and analyze emergency response capacity and capability.

Ensure that planokc is periodically updated to coordinate/correspond with the City’s Emergency Operation Plan and vice versa.

Adopt design standards to enable emergency management resources to be highly effective, such as resilient buildings, interconnected transportation networks, and other design considerations that help ensure community safety and recovery.

Encourage the integration and mixing of land uses in urban areas.

In order to promote compatibility between different uses, establish standards and guidelines that ensure all developments are pedestrian-friendly and human scale at street frontages and property lines.

Enhance effective policing by:

• Developing and/or enhancing community policing programs, which involve residents and businesses in crime prevention strategies.
• Increasing business presence and participation in community policing.
• Improving public outreach.
• Increasing opportunities for the Oklahoma City Police Department community relations officers to interact with community organizations, neighborhoods groups, schools, recreational and/or athletic programs. This interaction should include increasing resources to allow real-time communication of safety concerns with these organizations.

Seek funding, sponsors, and partnerships to enhance and expand the following crime prevention strategies:

• Education and job training for at-risk youth.
• Community involvement programs such as Light Up The Night, Neighbors Night Out, and other similar activities and programs designed to strengthen neighborhoods.

Target specific areas of the city for enhanced safety and proactive enforcement. Selection of target areas will be informed by the Intelligence Led Policing program, with coordinated involvement from Police, Code Enforcement, Public Works Department, Planning, and community-based organizations.

Create partnerships and programs involving civic groups, business organizations, governmental entities, coalitions, and non-profits to develop or enhance the following:

• School reading programs;
• Elementary school intramural sports leagues;
• Rehabilitation of school infrastructure and replacement of school equipment (athletic facilities, media center materials, computers, etc.);
• After-school programs that focus on mentoring or conflict resolution;
• Rehabilitation of City parks;
• Community involvement opportunities associated with public schools; and,
• Other projects or programs that improve neighborhood safety by working with children.

Quickly repair damage caused by vandalism, including graffiti, to minimize negative impacts on neighborhoods. Coordinate the efforts of existing programs, such as the Police Department’s Removal Unit, the Public Works Department’s Removal Unit, and Oklahoma County’s “SHINE” program to increase responses in targeted areas and expand the area which can be covered. Increase participation by the business community, such as donations of paint and time.

Establish a Crime-Free Multifamily Housing Program designed to keep multifamily housing developments safe from crime and perceptions of crime by:

• Supporting partnerships between the police, property managers, property owners, and tenants.
• Providing training to managers and owners about screening applicants, fire safety, fair housing, and other components of ‘active property management’.
• Providing a security assessment based on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
• Conducting safety meetings with residents/tenants.

Ensure resources and funds remain dedicated to crime prevention programs, including but not limited to: block watches; graffiti removal; education and outreach associated with elder fraud, identity theft, and sexual predators; safe driver programs for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles; after-school and youth diversion programs that provide recreational and educational support (tutoring, homework help, etc.); and other crime prevention programs. Ensure planokc is maintained to support and reflect the City’s priorities to provide a safe and secure community.

Reinforce existing partnerships and create new partnerships with allied agencies and non-profits to intervene early and often with at-risk youth redirecting them from participation in criminal activities to educational opportunities, job training, community service projects, neighborhood and business improvement programs, and other community building projects and/or programs.

Seek ways to improve efficiency of positions in the Police Department, such as directing responsibility for analyzing and proactively addressing crime from uniformed officers to trained analysts.

Reduce crime and improve feelings of safety through long term efforts such as:

• Improving design regulations to maximize crime prevention through appropriate urban design,
• Developing community-based activities, programs, and facilities that reduce crime and develop life skills, such as after school and youth diversion programs and facilities for recreation and educational support (e.g., tutoring, homework help, etc.),
• Encouraging more compact development to increase effectiveness of individual officers by ensuring less travel time and more engagement,
• Implementing a “good landlord” program,
• Exploring enhancements to police operations such as:
  • Committing to a certain number of officers per capita and/or per square mile of urbanized area,
  • Increasing patrols (automobile, bicycle, or on foot) in targeted areas,
  • Evaluating needs on a regular basis for increasing the number of key positions, such as detectives, to meet demands,
  • Coordinating neighborhood improvement efforts (such as the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and the Vacant and Abandoned Buildings program) with policing efforts, and
  • Supporting efforts to obtain more effective criminal justice law, such as stricter gang laws.

Revise subdivision regulations to include connectivity standards and guidelines that require greater street connectivity, and provide allowances for pedestrian and bicycle connections when street connectivity cannot be made.

Prioritize opportunities to restore and reconnect the street grid.

Change subdivision regulations to determine the number of entries into a residential development based on number of lots in order to improve connectivity of the roadway network and emergency response.

Support the creation of a regional transit authority and pursue the establishment of a dedicated funding source, such as sales tax or property tax to achieve long term transit service goals.

Maximize fire safety through actions such as:
Modifying regulations and guidelines to prevent subdivisions with a single point of access – except those with fewer than 10 homes.
Developing a vegetation management program targeting the wildland/urban interface, including rights-of-way in rural areas, and incorporating recommendations from the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise Communities initiative.
Requiring residential sprinklers for developments located in Rural Land Use Typologies.
Requiring exceptional, effective, and easy access to sites augmented by a thorough system of connections within and between developments.

Evaluate development proposals to assess design components that contribute to or detract from safety and analyze emergency response capacity and capability.

Adopt design standards to enable emergency management resources to be highly effective, such as resilient buildings, interconnected transportation networks, and other design considerations that help ensure community safety and recovery.

Require all new utility lines to be buried and bury existing utility lines when possible (e.g., when roads are widened).

Improve communication and public outreach about stray animals such as safe handling practices and who to call for help, including after-hours.

Enhance programs, such as Community Cats, Foster Program, and the Community Pets Spayed and Neutered Program designed to help rescued animals find permanent homes.

Coordinate the design, development, expansion, and/or investment in transportation projects with the Land Use Typology map.

Require the construction of new streets, streetscapes, and street widening projects to implement the design components of the assigned street typologies established in this plan.

Revise Subdivision Regulations and development standards to reflect the street typology standards.

When approving projects that improve the level of service for vehicular traffic, ensure they do not negatively impact the walkability or bikeability of the area.

Require sidewalks on both sides of all streets in urban LUTAs and in the Rural Residential LUTA for subdivisions with densities greater than 1 unit per acre.

Prioritize construction of pedestrian and bicycle facilities that improve connectivity and eliminate gaps in the transportation network.

Set level of service goals and adopt standards to improve the performance of pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities. Emphasize pedestrian, bicycle and transit infrastructure in street widening designs.

Increase the miles of bike lanes by:

• Including bicycle lanes in future road widening, reconstruction, and resurfacing projects; and
• Adding bicycle lanes to streets that have sufficient capacity.

Create and implement a citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan that addresses riders of all levels.

Enhance the safety and walkability of the sidewalk network through:

• Establishing a citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan that includes an inventory of sidewalk locations and conditions, and priorities for enhancement.
• Implementing sidewalk improvements through future bond issues, CIP projects or other sources of funding as prioritized in the citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan.
• Maintaining currency of the citywide bicycle and pedestrian master plan.
• Explore the feasibility of the City assuming responsibility for sidewalk maintenance.

Establish access management requirements that limit driveways on arterials and collectors and increase connections between uses to improve safety and traffic efficiency.

Limit driveways on arterials and collectors and increase connections between uses to improve safety and traffic efficiency.

Revise development standards to require sidewalks and transit stops along existing and planned transit routes.

Develop design standards for bus stops and transit stations that consider location, make connections to sidewalks and bicycle routes/trails, and provide safe, comfortable, and attractive waiting areas for riders.

Adopt subdivision regulations that ensure new neighborhoods meet the basic needs of residents while supporting an efficient development pattern. Regulations should cover:

• Open space (passive and active),
• Demonstration of sustainable funding levels for common area and facility maintenance costs,
• Walkability and bikeability,
• Internal and external street connectivity,
• Block length,
• Integration of uses,
• Integration of a variety of home sizes,
• Integration of a variety of unit types, and
• Preservation of Environmentally Sensitive Areas.

Regulations could be based on a point scale to allow flexibility, while still requiring basic minimum thresholds be met.
New regulations should remove the existing requirement for development in Rural LUTAs to connect to water and sewer systems and establish a minimum one-acre lot size for lots with on-site sewer treatment.

Identify priority areas where the City can maximize private investment by providing public infrastructure and amenities including:

• Transit;
• Parks, trails, sidewalks;
• Streets;
• Arts and cultural facilities.

Catalyze infill development on vacant, underutilized, and brownfield sites in urbanized areas by:

• Investing in infrastructure improvements;
• Improving multi-modal transportation networks;
• Improving parks and open spaces;
• Improving schools and other civic resources;
• Exploring innovative methods such as:
  • A public-private partnership to purchase problem properties in target areas and build or rehabilitate homes while improving infrastructure and amenities
  • An infill house plan program similar to Sacramento or Milwaukee
• Identifying and removing barriers to rehabilitation and/or replacement of residential buildings.
• Establishing a position in the City to facilitate medium- and large-scale redevelopment projects through the development process by guiding interactions with City departments, allied agencies, and utility companies.

Regional-, community-, and neighborhood-scale retail developments should provide an internal vehicle and pedestrian circulation system between new and existing centers and individual stores that draws on the following principles:

• Concentrate access for new retail development at shared primary entrance points. Primary entrance points should be aligned with access points immediately across intersecting roads. Limit curb cuts on primary highways and arterials.
• Provide pedestrian circulation, including sidewalks and median breaks along interior and exterior fronting roads and within parking lots.
• Encourage coordinated development of retail centers in order to facilitate internal pedestrian and vehicle circulation and optimal center performance.

Improve parking provisions in neighborhoods that are near vibrant commercial corridors/areas by improving parking and corridor design, non-vehicular networks, transit, and signage.

Establish development regulations that help improve air quality, including:

• Specifying construction controls that reduce airborne dust;
• Increasing landscaping and tree planting to absorb carbon dioxide and air pollutants; and
• Encouraging development patterns and densities that support alternative modes of transportation in the urban LUTAs.

Promote improved air quality and reduced ground-level ozone levels by developing a public education program that will inform residents about the air quality benefits of:

• Proper automobile maintenance
• Proper maintenance and use of gas-powered lawn and garden equipment
• Limiting car idling times
• Alternative fuels
• Alternative / active transportation modes (public transit, walking, biking, car-sharing, etc.)
• Reducing vehicle-miles traveled (VMT)
• Employer sponsored emission reduction programs (carpooling, work from home, telecommuting, etc.)
• Native landscaping (requiring less maintenance)
• Energy efficient housing / buildings