Many Continue Fight Against Proposed Outlet Mall Near Turkey Mountain

Local mountain bikers are continuing their fight against an outlet mall near Turkey Mountain.

Saturday they welcomed an expert from Arkansas who discussed their best options, from here on out, to keep all of the land the green space it currently is.

Recently, the Kaiser Foundation announced it owns the plot of land near Turkey Mountain and the foundation vowed to conserve it.

8/27/2014 Related Story: George Kaiser Family Foundation Pledges To Preserve Turkey Mountain

It was a sigh of relief for so many who use the trails on the land and had feared they would be destroyed by development, but Saturday one group that doesn't want a man anywhere near the land welcomed Steve Schneider, a representative of the International Mountain Biking Association.

“You have so many children that enjoy the trails every day and to have that huge structure up there it would just completely alter the traffic flow and the landscape,” said trail supporter Kristi Prough.

They discussed possibly setting up an IMBA association in Tulsa.

“I'm sure they've been through many a fight, and we're hoping to get them to back us up on this one,” said trail supporter, David Ridilla.

The plans for the outlet mall are still vague, but the Turkey Mountain trail users are going to do whatever they can to let the city know how they feel.

“We will be at the town hall meetings, as many as we can get to, and make our voices heard,” Ridilla said.

Prough said, “Tulsa welcomes the different businesses here, and we welcome them to be in Tulsa, we want to shop at their malls, we want to spend our money at their stores; we just want to preserve the green space that we have.”

The Kaiser Foundation not only vowed to preserve the land on Turkey Mountain, but to possibly improve it by making it into a professionally designed outdoor sports park.