Oklahoma City plans for preserving heritage

When a taco stand jump-started the revival of a commercial district, it showed the power of the past to shape the future.

That is one of many takeaways in a new document, preserveOKC, highlighting the value shrouded in structures that once defined the city, only to be forgotten or overlooked in the rush of progress.

The public is getting its first look at preserveOKC, the city's first historic preservation plan and a component of Oklahoma City's comprehensive planning guide.

The 141-page draft was reviewed last week in a workshop attended by members of the city council, the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning Commission.

It is entering a period of public comment, heading toward hearings by the two commissions in November and a vote as early as Dec. 12 by the Planning Commission to officially adopt it.

The draft includes dozens of examples, with photographs, of structures revitalized and of others lost.

One of those reclaimed is Big Truck Tacos' location at 530 NW 23 St. in Uptown.

Three chefs in 2009 acquired the vacant drive-in, in what had been the "heart of Route 66" through Oklahoma City and the first shopping district outside downtown.

Reclaiming the drive-in and its mid-century cinder-block building involved a "modest exterior rehabilitation involving mostly paint and new signage."

The result, as the draft explains, became a catalyst for revival of a street surrounded by historic neighborhoods yet pocked by "vacant and boarded buildings, struggling businesses, and little to draw interest and activity."

The district's transformation is one of the spinoffs from the renaissance attributed to MAPS, launched in 1993 by a vote for a 1-cent sales tax to finance capital improvements.

"Just as one vacant building can bring down an entire block," the draft's Big Truck Tacos story says, "one revitalized space can catalyze millions of dollars of reinvestment in surrounding properties."

The draft is organized around four issues, labeled big ideas, that "encapsulate the city's challenges and opportunities."

Interest is high, it says, in districts "with walkability, high quality of life amenities and a strong sense of identity and place" and in development that is economically and environmentally sustainable.

The big ideas:

• Strengthening public support for historic preservation.

• Practicing good stewardship of city-owned historic structures.

• Protecting historic resources city-wide.

• Developing effective city tools and policies to promote preservation.

Developers that rehab structures with historic qualities can qualify for public incentives, including tax credits that can make an otherwise dubious project financially feasible.

Tax increment financing can be used to reinvest property taxes in formerly blighted areas experiencing revitalization.