City Council Recap | January 2026
- Tulsa City Council
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Below are the highlights of Council discussion and action items for January 2026.
Click each item to learn more.
Hotel Guest Tax
On January 14, the Tulsa City Council discussed a process and public outreach plan for placing a hotel guest tax increase on the August ballot.
The hotel guest tax funds the maintenance and operation of event venues like the BOK Center and Arvest Convention Center, promotes tourism and marketing of Tulsa to attract major concerts, tournaments, sporting events, and conventions, and supports economic development initiatives.
The proposed measure is not an across-the-board tax on residents and would apply only to guests staying in Tulsa hotels and short-term rentals or residents who choose to book accommodations locally.
Recent efforts on the hotel tax began in January 2025, when economic development was established as a Mayor/Council budget priority. City leaders discussed the need to explore long-term funding strategies to support tourism and further establish Tulsa as a destination without burdening local taxpayers.
The Council did not discuss a proposed hotel tax rate during its meeting, but a proposal from November 2025 suggested an increase from 5% to 9.25% of the cost of a hotel room. This increase, if passed by the voters, would be the first in more than 40 years. Oklahoma City voters approved a hotel tax increase from 5.5% to 9.25% in August 2024.
For more information and to follow along with the process, visit: tulsacouncil.org/hotel
Childcare Access
On January 28, the Tulsa City Council approved an ordinance amending fire suppression requirements for home-based day cares that care for up to 12 children.
Previously, the City’s building code required these day cares to install costly automatic sprinkler systems in the home before they could receive a Certificate of Occupancy, leading to numerous existing home-based childcare centers being out of compliance while preventing new ones from operating.
This action follows three years of work by city and state officials to address childcare deserts in Oklahoma by removing barriers and restrictions, simplifying the process for new home-based day cares to open and ensuring current centers remain in compliance.
In 2023, the City Council adopted two rounds of zoning code amendments to remove larger lot requirements for in-home day cares, increase the number of children allowed from seven to 12, and remove 300-foot spacing requirements between residential day cares. In 2024, the City Council passed a third zoning code amendment extending the deadline for pre-existing childcare homes to come into compliance with the fire code by one year. These changes allowed about 250 residential day cares to remain in operation in Tulsa.
Read more here
Low-Barrier Homeless Shelter Update
On January 14, the City Council approved a resolution conveying a portion of property to the nonprofit Harbor, LLC, an entity of the Zarrow Foundation, for managing and maintaining the property as a new low-barrier homelessness shelter.
This allows the Zarrow Foundation to access the property and begin making plans for development and renovation with a target opening date of November/December 2026.
The shelter is located on the former site of the Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center near Charles Page Boulevard and 25th W. Ave., which was purchased by the City of Tulsa for $500,000. Harbor, LLC, will operate the shelter and anticipates providing $2.5 million in operating expenses annually and investing about $9 million to renovate the property. This 24/7 shelter will offer 180 beds and provide services to help people experiencing homelessness transition into permanent housing. The new shelter will also assist other shelters, like the Tulsa Day Center, which are currently over capacity.
The addition of this new low-barrier shelter is part of the Mayor/Council Budget Priorities to address homelessness for fiscal year 2025.
Watch the discussion here.
View a discussion from December 2025 on the operation of the shelter here.
Mental Health Crisis Funding
On January 14, the Tulsa City Council approved about $320,000 in grants from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) for an additional Mobile Crisis Response Team.
This creates a third Alternate Response Team (ART-3) to respond to calls to help individuals experiencing mental health and substance abuse crises. The team will be on call 10 hours a day, four days per week, to provide face-to-face assessments and de-escalation in the community.
Services will be designed to increase safety, prevent hospitalization when possible, and avoid the use of law enforcement. The team will also connect patients to clinically appropriate care such as detox, residential substance abuse services, and urgent recovery centers.
Read more on mental health crisis response in Tulsa here.
Kendall Whittier Art Wraps
The City Council approved a license agreement between the City of Tulsa and Kendall Whittier Main Street (KWMS) on January 21 to install decorative vinyl wraps on traffic control cabinets in various locations across the Kendall Whittier district.
The goal is to both enliven and beautify public spaces and to provide cohesion and recognition of the neighborhood boundaries.
Kendall Whittier Main Street is the adopted owner and is responsible for ongoing maintenance, which will reduce the long-term cost for City of Tulsa residents. There is an application process in place for art wraps, as the City must still maintain safe and quick access to traffic cabinets. These wraps, designed by local artists, were selected by KWMS and other local stakeholders who matched them with appropriate locations.
