Now is a good time to press Oklahoma City council members to enact strict building guidelines for the redevelopment of a rundown area south of downtown where the new I-40 will be moved. These are some guidelines that need to be in place that will further enhance this new portion of Oklahoma City, and perhaps improve Bricktown by including all future projects and lower Bricktown's perimeter in this new zone.

- All new contruction projects must be required to have a percentage of public art on the facade of the structure

- New structures are prohibited from using stucco exterior.

- All signage must be at ground level and all signage on the facade of any structure must be appealing and in clean view.

- Landscaping must follow city code, which is based on the percentage of greenspace where trees and shrubs must be planted.

- All surface parking must be out of view unless such parking involves a multi-storied parking structure. Such structure must follow the new zones architectural guidelines. Surface parking that is out of view must be well lit, secured by a form of surveillance, and signage must point motorists easily to the premises.

Are there any other ideas anyone would like to pitch in?

I would maybe add encourage underground parking, where possible. It can be quite expensive to do so but if the area is fairly dense it really makes more sense than requiring more land to build a parking garage. If parking garages are built there should be a requirement that the ground floor (facing the street) includes retail/restaurant/office space. Your have good ideas and hopefully they will be implemented not only for South Downtown (Riverside) but for all of central OKC including Capitol Hill to the south, the Stockyards City area to the west, Midtown and the 23rd Street/OCU corridor to the north, and the Lincoln Blvd./State Capitol/OUHSC area to the east.

It is good to see interest in design guidelines for this important part of OKC, but simply writing a comment on this blog will have little or no effect. The OKC Planning Department is in the process of developing a comprehensive new zoning ordinance and design guidelines for downtown and the surrounding area, including the seven miles of the river, to replace the multitude of existing zoning and overlay zoning districts. Terry Taylor is the contact person in the OKC Planning Department. There will be a pubilc presentation at some point to the Planning Commission. In the meantime, anyone that wishes to have genuine input into the process should contact the OKC Planning Department and inquire where they might attend a public presentation. It may be possible to obtain a copy of the current working draft from the Planning Department. A phone call to the Planning Department will get anyone actually interested in this lengthy process all the information they need. When the draft process is completed and prior to adoption by the City Council, a copy of the new ordinance will be available to the public and there will be a period of time that written comments can be made.

There are existing individual zoning and design guidelines for Capitol Hill, Stockyards and the Uptown District of 23rd Street. Lincoln Terrace Historic District has a design review process as does the State Capitol/Health Sciences District. Bricktown has it's own design guidelines and design review commission. The regs for Lower Bricktown South of Reno are different than those for the historic portion North of Reno. All of these ordinances are subject to periodic review and updating. Of course copies are available to the public and may be available through the OKC City website.