Urban Leaders fellows urge incremental zoning changes, faith‑based housing and more by‑right ADUs to close Tulsa’s housing gap

Two fellows with the Urban Leaders fellowship presented a data‑driven set of housing policy recommendations Wednesday, urging the council to pursue high‑impact incremental changes to increase housing supply rather than a single large code rewrite.

Leah, one of the fellows partnered with the mayor’s office and Housing Forward, said Tulsa faces a headline figure of a roughly 13,000‑unit housing gap; the fellows translated that into a target of about 460 additional homes per year to close the shortfall on current trends. They also reviewed vacant land data and found the bulk of vacant acreage zoned residential is in single‑family districts, which limits opportunities for missing‑middle and multifamily development.

The fellows recommended two…