Planning commission backs MPD‑9 to allow large mixed‑use Riverside development

The Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission on April 15 recommended approval of MPD‑9, a rezoning and master planned development application for a roughly 30‑acre site east of Riverside Parkway near the River Spirit Casino. Staff recommended approval and the commission’s motion carried 9‑0.

The MPD‑9 development standards would rezone land now zoned CS, RMH, RM‑1 and AG to a single MPD designation and would permit a mix of housing and commercial uses. The applicant projects the project could yield about 800 multifamily residential units and about 200,000 square feet of new commercial area. The site lies within the Arkansas River Corridor land use designation; because the project exceeds 20 acres the MPD would exempt the site from the River Design Overlay but the development plan includes standards intended to meet the overlay’s intent.

Staff’s draft development standards call for façade articulation along Riverside Parkway and South Lewis Avenue, minimum landscape buffers along Riverside and South Lewis, a 10‑foot pedestrian trail and river‑front landscaping in the Riverside right‑of‑way (subject to a license agreement), and parking and bicycle requirements that reduce minimum vehicle parking to 50% of the code minimum while increasing bicycle parking to 150% of the code standard. The MPD also includes rules on signage, lighting, mechanical screening, and prohibitions on outside storage. The record shows a 9‑0 commission recommendation (Motion by Bulmash; Second by Craddock).

The commission’s recommendation forwards the MPD to the next steps in the city review process; the record includes the MPD legal description and the development standards that will govern detailed site plan review if the MPD is adopted.