Who is Affected by Abandoned and Neglected Properties in OKC?
Have you noticed an increase in abandoned and neglected properties in OKC? It’s a growing problem, causing headaches for everyone from police and fire departments, code enforcement officers to neighbors. Abandoned residential properties in Oklahoma City cause about a $1.7 billion loss in property value to surrounding properties. It’s unknown exactly how many neglected and vacant properties are in the city, but a recent query of postal service indicated that about 16,000 addresses have not received mail for 90 days or more and about 75 percent of these are residential. The City has hired a consultant to study the problem and present some hard numbers.
Russell Claus, Director of the Planning Department, wants to open a dialogue with neighborhoods; the planning department has information to share about this blight on our city and wants to hear your stories about how abandoned and vacant property affects you, your neighborhood and your property values.
The Neighborhood Alliance is hosting a lunch-time forum on March 29th at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation’s beautiful community room in downtown OKC. You’ll have the opportunity to share your stories as well as hear how this issue is affecting the community as a whole.
For more information about the forum, go to nacok.org.
Where would you like to see sidewalks in OKC?
The construction of new sidewalks is an important issue in OKC and citizens’ input is needed to help prioritize the best placement of these sidewalks. OKC voters approved $10 million dollars of the MAPS 3 funds to be used in the construction of new sidewalks on OKC arterial streets which should build between 50-70 miles of new sidewalks.
The MAPS 3 Sub-Committee on Trails and Sidewalks wants to hear from Oklahoma City residents to help set funding priorities. A short two-question survey is available at www.nacok.org and all citziens, young and old, sidewalk users or not, are encouraged to complete the survey.
The survey focuses on two major questions. The first is to help prioritize the locations. For instance, should the sidewalks be built primarily around elementary schools, or should the priority be to connect bus routes with densely populated areas? There are seven priority categories on the survey and respondents will be able to rank these in order of importance.
The second question asks respondents to think about the costs of building sidewalks. Should we stretch our dollars and build as many sidewalks as possible and forgo the expensive sites? Or should we focus on building sidewalks where the public needs them the most, even if the expensive sites mean fewer miles of sidewalks overall?
“The committee is very committed to making sure we get public input to aid in these decisions,” said Susan Hooper, Chair of the Maps 3 Sub-Committee on Sidewalks and Trails . “The survey is not intended to be a scientific study, but we know it will give us great information to pass on to the consultants, the Maps 3 Steering Committee and to City Council members, who are ultimately tasked with making the placement decisions.”
The Survey is available from March 1 through March 19 at www.nacok.org or you can link directly to it here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GBXKTRG
(Only one respondent per e-mail address will be accepted.)
