News
City of Tulsa's sustainability plan on track
City's sustainability plan on track
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
Urban Weekly
Tulsa officials and representatives of a Texas-based firm are close to signing a contract that would allow the company to begin work on a sustainability plan for the city.
Brett Fidler, director of the Office of Sustainability, said a few details remain to be hammered out in the agreement between Tulsa and the URS Corporation, but he expected it would be finalized soon. A Jan. 27 deadline for completion of the agreement came and went, but Fidler said the deal was far enough along that federal officials approved an extension.
URS submitted a winning bid of $277,000 for the project earlier this winter, and the cost of the plan will be covered by a U.S. Department of Energy-administered Energy Efficiency Block Grant. The firm is charged with developing a plan to help the city identify opportunities to save resources and money, reduce its environmental impact, improve air quality, promote a green economy, provide sustainability education and outreach to citizens and businesses, guide decision making and policy making, and help Tulsa become a regional leader in sustainable government.
Fidler said he expected Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr. would be able to sign a finished agreement this week. Once that happens, he said, URS can begin work on the project immediately.
"They've got a four-month deadline," he said. "They've got to have something to us by May, so they need to go ahead and get started."
The city has indicated it hopes to receive a plan that outlines methods to help Tulsa reach such goals as reducing energy consumption citywide by at least 25 percent, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent, obtaining 10 percent of energy from renewable resources, and developing a plan to increase the number of alternative fuel vehicles to 20 percent of the total city fleet -- all by December 2012.
Snow delays city code meeting
A Feb. 2 meeting of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission was postponed by last week's snowstorm, meaning approval of the city's first form-based code has been delayed until the commission's next meeting on Feb. 16.
The Planning Commission was supposed to continue a public hearing for the form-based code pilot project for the Pearl District at the Feb. 2 meeting, but the weather made that impossible. TMAPC Chairman Bill Leighty said the group would take the issue up at its next regularly scheduled meeting.
The form-based code pilot project covers a small part of the Pearl District, an area just east of downtown Tulsa that is hoping to reinvent itself as a walkable, sustainable neighborhood. The form-based code proposed for the district represents a departure from traditional zoning, fostering predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form, rather than a separation of uses, as its organization principle.
The code first went before the Planning Commission on Dec. 7 before it was determined some minor adjustments needed to be made to it by the city's legal staff.
Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr. OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
News Release Date: December 22, 2010 Com. Contact: Michelle Allen, Communications Dept., 637-8225 City Awards Sustainability Plan Contract Mayor Dewey Bartlett has announced the contractor selected for the development of the City of Tulsa’s Sustainability Plan. The selected company, URS, submitted a proposal for a cost of $276,990.00 and with a timeline of four months. Work on the plan, which will address ways to save energy and make systems throughout the city more efficient, will begin in January 2011 and expect to conclude in summer 2011. “I am very pleased to make this announcement,” said Mayor Dewey Bartlett. “Renewable energy, and the use of more efficient systems that save money, is the way we have to go. This plan will give us a road map for our energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives for the next five to ten years. Energy conservation is fundamental in securing our future and I’m confident that this road map will complement the recently approved PLANiTULSA comprehensive plan.” “Also, the plan will provide us with a list of recommended actions that will significantly reduce the City’s energy costs and consumption, help improve our air quality and also position Tulsa as a regional leader in sustainable government.” Brett Fidler, Director of the Office of Sustainability, will be charged with carrying out the plan once URS presents the plan next year. “URS has a lot of experience developing similar plans and I'm confident they will help the City of Tulsa meet its sustainability goals,” Fidler said. A Request for Proposal (RFP) to create the City of Tulsa Sustainability Plan was posted in late October. Twelve companies presented proposals by the deadline date, Nov. 17. A team reviewed the proposals and scored them according to announced selection criteria. The bids ranged in cost from $221,000 dollars to $320,000, and the time frame required varied from 18 months to 4 months. URS offices in Tulsa and is a publicly owned company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Additional members of the URS team include: Hara Software, Inc, an industry leader in the field of environmental and energy management software; Rex Public Relations of Tulsa, the Public Relations company that assisted with the development of the PLANiTULSA Comprehensive Plan that was approved earlier this year; and the Tejas Verde Group, a company with expertise in developing sustainability plans for large municipalities with particular focus on how to initiate and maintain sustainable development. The team members have worked on similar projects for such groups as CPS Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority, The University of California, San Diego, Bowling Green University, Kent State University and cities such as Philadelphia; Toledo, OH; San Antonio and Palo Alto, CA. Bartlett announced the creation of the Sustainability Department and the appointment of Brett Fidler as Director of that Department in March 2010. At that time, he also announced Tulsa received a $3.8 million multi-faceted grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Included in the grant was slightly more than $300,000 for the development of a Citywide Long Term Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Plan. ####