Former OKC mayor Kirk Humphreys plots 1,600-acre development at Lake

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 16, 2008 by Kelley Chambers

Kirk Humphreys plans to build a resort community on about 1,600 acres at Lake Eufaula and he wants all of the input he can get.

Humphreys, former Oklahoma City mayor and chairman of Humphreys Real Estate Investments, has been going to that lake with his family for nearly 40 years, and last year started buying land for a project called Carlton Landing.

This week Humphreys is bringing together experts in the field, including Miami, Fla.-based urban planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company.

The group, led by Andres Duany, has developed more than 300 similar projects.

Government officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, homebuilders, Realtors, and others interested in the project have been invited to participate.

As the group meets over the next few days, they will iron out a plan for the development, and have a completed plan by early next week.

The sessions are being called a charrette, which Humphreys described as an intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate to create a vision for a development.

"We're starting with a blank piece of paper," Humphreys said. "If you have a charrette and bring all the stakeholders together then you can come up with a plan that's the best plan."

Humphreys has a house on Lake Eufaula, but he described most of what is there as a suburban style. He wants something that looks uniquely Oklahoman.

The development team plans to tour the site this week, then on the way back to Oklahoma City swing through Norman and Guthrie to look at the architecture for inspiration.

Eufaula, a man-made lake, was created through the River and Harbor Act of 1946 and built for about $121 million. Work began in 1956 and in 1964 the lake was dedicated by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The lake is the largest in Oklahoma with 600 miles of shoreline.

Residents at the lake now generally have to travel several miles into the city of Eufaula for any supplies.

Plans will likely include a grocery store and retailers that support living near a lake and limit car trips to town to retrieve basic items that support boating and lake activities.

"We want to take everything that's good about a lake experience and preserve that," Humphreys said. "Most lake developments are centered around the automobile. Ours isn't going to be that way."

Humphreys said a housing study for the lake showed that about half of existing residents are permanent, while others use the home as a weekend residence or second home, and he anticipates those numbers will be about the same at Carlton Landing.

The initial plan will include about 500 residential lots priced from $150,000 to $1 million.

"We want it to be an authentic community," Humphreys said. "An authentic community has diversity."

After the initial plan is completed next week the next step will be to work through the engineering and logistics. Humphreys said work could begin as early as next year.

In the early stages Humphreys said he cannot place a price on the project.

On Tuesday Duany toured Oklahoma City for the first time, and had not been to the Eufaula site yet, but said he was looking forward to his first glimpse today.

Duany said he decided to come on board for the project after meeting Humphreys, who visited one of Duany's projects in Seaside, Fla.

"It's different every time," he said. "I'm just getting my bearings here. And although I never avoid controversy, I actually don't have much of an opinion yet."