Implementing smart growth—making communities more walkable and places where people can live, work, and play—can take years to materialize. It takes trust-building, thoughtful analysis, and champions both inside and outside government before meaningful change can take place. Our work in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a clear example of why that long view matters.

Our work with Tulsa has spanned nearly a decade. Since 2016, the city has partnered with SGA to review its comprehensive plan, conduct a fiscal impact analysis, and review its efforts to preserve and expand its housing supply across a range of housing types. While each engagement stands on its own, together we built trust and helped the city create a vision for change.

As development pressure increased in Tulsa, city leaders recognized that existing zoning and permitting systems were falling short. In 2024, Smart Growth America partnered with the Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation, a local philanthropy deeply invested in Tulsa, to analyze where there were disconnects and provide recommendations to make change.

To support these efforts, we spoke with local decision-makers to take a closer look at how projects actually moved through the zoning, permitting, and review processes, and where there might be opportunities to improve. We also examined staff capacity, cross-department coordination, digital tools, and community engagement to identify opportunities to improve how the system works day-to-day.

In early 2025, the newly formed organization Housing Forward published our recommendations as the Smart Growth Report: City of Tulsa Housing Development Analysis. The report outlines a set of practical, phased recommendations to address what isn’t working and to help Tulsa meet its goals. Our recommendations were straightforward: institute a place-based housing strategy, make the process easier to understand, give staff greater authority and support, restore transparency in decision-making, and remove unnecessary steps that only delayed housing projects. Our recommendations were shaped by our time in Tulsa and by listening to local staff, developers, and community members, and focused on changes the city could implement.

Following the report’s release, the city moved quickly to implement a number of recommended changes, including improving staff capacity in permitting, increasing interdepartmental coordination, and passing zoning code changes that will encourage more housing development. We expect that momentum to continue in 2026, with the anticipated launch of permit-ready housing plans.

Progress takes time, and thanks to our sustained partnership, engaged community voices, and a growing willingness to confront structural barriers head-on, we saw momentum build. For Smart Growth America, Tulsa represents what can happen when the right technical expertise meets the political will to tackle a big problem, and how our work can create changes that will ripple well beyond our partnerships.