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Iron Gate Soup Kitchen Staying Put for Now

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

Plans by downtown Tulsa's Iron Gate soup kitchen to move are stopped again.

In a largely ceremonial Board of Adjustment hearing, Iron Gate fell short on attempts to appeal its classification as a governmental service and to be allowed by special exception at its proposed new location. Iron Gate board chair-elect Shaun Saunders said they aren't giving up on plans to build a new facility at Seventh Street and Frankfort Avenue.

"The question for Iron Gate now is we go back as a board and regroup and determine our path forward, which, most likely, looks like we'll be headed to district court," Saunders said.

Iron Gate has 10 days from when it receives paperwork from the Board of Adjustment to file an appeal in court.

Three of five members of the Board of Adjustment — Stuart Van De Wiele, Tom Flanagan and Carolyn Back — recused themselves over conflicts of interest.

Van De Wiele attended Thursday's meeting so there would be a quorum and it could proceed, but he abstained from voting, leaving Austin Bond and David White as the only two voting.

Items before the Board of Adjustment must get three votes to be approved.

Bond and White voted in favor of Iron Gate's appeal over being classified as a governmental service under the city zoning code. Attorney Lou Reynolds argued Iron Gate should be classified as a restaurant, pointing out the zoning code makes no distinction between selling and giving away food.

With only two voting members, however, Iron Gate couldn't get the three votes required for approval by the Board of Adjustment.

Iron Gate also requested a special exception to operate as a governmental service at its proposed new location. The soup kitchen has met opposition from downtown property owners.

Through their attorney, a few property owners who were not at the meeting said they worry Iron Gate will hurt them by scaring people away from their nearby projects.

"You can go out there right now and step off the feet from their investment — their proposed investment — from Trinity Episcopal and to this proposed site," Saunders said. "It's the same neighborhood. It's equidistant between their projects."

Most downtown property owners who spoke at the meeting said they worried about pedestrian safety and traffic bottlenecks with the proposed location being at the end of a highway off ramp.

"I do appreciate some of the people there who were at least honest and said, frankly, 'We just don't want to see the working poor in our neighborhood,'" Saunders said. "And that's really what this boils down to. All of the other arguments tend to be a little bit red herring in nature.

In his presentation to the Board of Adjustment, Reynolds went over several design features Iron Gate worked into its new facility in order to keep lines of clients off the sidewalk, prevent littering and blend into the neighborhood.

Members of the Downtown Coordinating Council, a city board representing downtown business and property owners, told the Board of Adjustment they'll work with Iron Gate to find it a site in an area zoned for social services and law enforcement. That limits Iron Gate to the area around the jail, which Reynolds called "economically off the charts." He added people just looking for a hot meal or groceries shouldn't be forced to go there.

Bond and White voted in favor of the special exception. City Attorney Mark Swiney advised them their action must be in the affirmative for a future court case.

This is the second time Iron Gate's plans to relocate have been stopped. Plans to move to the Pearl District last year were not approved by the Board of Adjustment, either.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.