City Of Sapulpa Works To Revitalize Downtown As Place To Gather

The City of Sapulpa is revitalizing its downtown in hopes of giving families a place to spend time together.

They started working on a master plan for revitalization in January of 2020 and now they’re taking steps toward completion - starting with a new name.

"We've heard Bison Crossing, Crossroads, District 66, kind of things that bring us back to our heritage here in Sapulpa," said City of Sapulpa Marketing Coordinator, Tawni Vickers.

Vickers grew up in Sapulpa and said she's excited to see so many families moving to the area. She said this new name could be the first step in big changes for downtown.

"To have a place to gather and bring your girl friends or bring your family is just something that we have the really cool opportunity to do that we've never had before,” said Vickers.

The City of Sapulpa plans to beautify some alleyways and add seating, expand sidewalks and find a new purpose for some of the extra space between buildings.

"These are just parking lots, one's privately owned and one the city owns for possibly the pop-up shops,” said Urban Development Director Nikki Howard.

Howard said the city has been working on this plan for about a year and a half. She said the city also hopes to take over the Route 66 part of downtown from ODOT, so they can change the layout of the road.

"We can narrow the street, we can widen sidewalks," said Howard. 

The city is even hoping to add some murals to beautify some of the brick walls from local artists.

"We would love to see something that takes us back to our heritage on these walls," said Vickers.

Some of the project will be made possible through city bond funds and the rest of the project would be funded by private investors. 

The bond money would help pay for public spaces and infrastructure like expanding the sidewalks, beautifying the alley ways to include outdoor seating and changing the street scape.

City leaders said private investors are working to remodel buildings downtown so they can become restaurants, breweries and new businesses.

Howard said they also hope to add a new downtown park with trails and lots of green space for kids

"The people from Sapulpa love Sapulpa and this just gives them a place to go to gather," said Howard.

The projected date to have the first alleyway finished is late spring or early summer of 2022.

If you’d like to see more on their plans or submit a name idea, click here.