By signing this petition, you are letting the Mayor and the City of Tulsa know you support making Tulsa a more beautiful City. But that goal needs to be done in such a way that it does not create a hardship for Tulsa's business, churches, schools, and government properties.

Like us, you are probably unaware of the many changes made by the new Tulsa Zoning Code passed November 5, 2015, with the effective date January 1, 2016. Recently, the City of Tulsa started Proactive Enforcement of a new section in the code; Dumpsters and Recyclable Material Bins. This proactive enforcement has already created problems for many in our community.

The Ordinance:

The new zoning regulation requires all dumpsters and recyclable material bins at business, churches, and schools to be shielded from public view. This visual barrier is required by the ordinance to be a wooden privacy fence or an expensive masonry fence with an access gate.

The Problem:

The ordinance does NOT allow for existing dumpsters and recycle bins to be exempt from the requirement (Grandfathered Status) instead, it forces ALL organizations to spend money on shielding their waste and recycle bins, or face stiff penalties assessed by City inspectors.

Why is this a problem?

Every development in the City of Tulsa (Business, Church, School, ect.) had to apply for a permit before they were built. During the permitting process, the City and the developer agreed on where the dumpsters and recycle bins would be placed, and how they would be screened. Most of these dumpsters have been in the same place for 10, 20, and even 30+ years without issue.

Now, without notice, the City has decided to change the rules. Several businesses, churches, and schools have already received a Notice of Violation and were ONLY given 10 days to comply or face fines up to $1,000.00 per day.

This issue gets even more complex. Countless developments across the City do not have enough land or free space to build one of these enclosures. For one dumpster, the fence would need to be a minimum of 12 feet wide and 16 feet deep. An additional 10 feet of width must be added for every dumpster included in the fence. Surprisingly, there are no provisions for dumpsters in alleyways, downtown Tulsa, Brookside, or many other areas in our community with very constrained space. This abrupt change in the rules is creating hardships for many in our community.

Additionally, our great community has pushed to become more environmentally conscience by focusing on recycling and sustainability. This is evident by all the green and yellow recycle bins placed across our City. This ordinance will now force us to hide those containers the City has spent so much money promoting. Many organizations are opting instead to have the recycle bin removed.

The Facts:

• Tulsa already has a voluntary 95% compliance for proper waste disposal by businesses, churches, and schools.
• The City of Tulsa is trying to promote recycling and being sustainable but by hiding public recycle bins and drop off sites the City will be shielding the very thing it is trying to promote.
• All commercial dumpster complaints are resolved in less than 24 hours under existing nuisance zoning codes; with less than 5 exceptions per year.
• Countless developments could not get into compliance with the new ordinance even if they wanted to because of space constraints. This forces them to go through the costly and cumbersome process of filing for a variance.
• Wooden privacy fences are not a practical option because of the challenges of weekly dumpster cycles and Oklahomas harsh weather.
• Masonry fences are very expensive costing several thousand dollars to construct ($8,000 - $15,000).
• Most Cities do not have these requirements.
• The Cities with Dumpster screening requirements allow for grandfathered status and only apply the rules to new construction or a major redevelopment.
• Cities with these requirements have enforcement issues which result in poorly maintained wooden fences, broken or missing gates and dumpsters only setting partially in the enclosure.
• Dumpster enclosures create public safety issues because many homeless persons take shelter in and around them.
• Dumpster enclosures will increase Tulsa's trash rate by an estimated 15% or more.
• The City is citing business, churches, and schools for not being compliant when many City and County-owned properties are also in violation.
• Fines for noncompliance are excessive; $1,000.00 per day.

The Pause:

Recently Mayor G.T. Bynum has paused the proactive enforcement of the new dumpster enclosure ordinance after receiving many complaints. During this pause, the Mayor has set up a task-force to study the issue and determine if something needs to be changed. We would like to thank Mayor Bynum for taking this first step. However, we NEED to ensure our voices are apart of the conversation, so we can find a common-sense solution that does not hurt small businesses, churches, and schools while keeping Tulsa moving forward.

This is where you come in, by signing this petition, you are letting the Mayor and the City of Tulsa know you support making Tulsa a more beautiful City. But that goal needs to be done in such a way that it does not create a hardship for Tulsa's business, churches, schools, and government properties.

We seek a common-sense solution that will help make Tulsa a more beautiful City without arbitrarily punishing business, churches, and schools built before these new rules were established. Please join us in asking the Mayor, Tulsa City Council, Tulsa County Commissioners, and INCOG to update the Zoning Code for Dumpsters and Recycling Material

Containers that includes the following:

1. Grants existing development grandfathered status exempting them from screening requirements.
2. Strengthens our existing nuisance dumpster ordinances so that repeat offenders are subject to penalties up to and including mandatory screening fencing.
3. Require new development and redeveloped sites to incorporate screened dumpsters in their new site plans.

Thank you for taking part in this movement to protect small business owners, churches, public recycling, and other organizations that help make Tulsa the best place to work, live, play, worship and raise our families.