OKC Council approves annexation for job 'mega-site.' What will that mean for residents?

The Oklahoma City Council voted 6-to-3 to annex 320 acres near the Mustang area into Oklahoma City limits for help with the potential creation of a "mega-site" to draw big business.

Planners and attorneys with Oklahoma City had insisted earlier this month that property near Gregory Road and NW 10 should be annexed by the city as part of a 1,000-plus-acre proposal for economic development projects that could bring numerous jobs to the area in the future.

Kenton Tsoodle, president of the local Alliance for Economic Development, said the city had been missing out on competitive opportunities for different major developers and that the annexation would help position the city for more growth and success.

“This particular piece of property lies right adjacent to Oklahoma City,” Tsoodle said. “It’s a good piece of property. If you look around the city, there’s just not a lot of sites that have minimal impacts to residents.”

But some people who live in the broader area surrounding the annexed land, currently only in use for agriculture and industry, have made clear their opposition to the possible mega-site. The residents — who hailed from Yukon, Mustang and west Oklahoma City — appeared before the council Tuesday to object to the annexation, arguing that the consequences of a proposed mega-site would negatively affect them.

Resident tells council nobody has explained what would be built at the site

Debra Brown, a resident on West Reno Avenue, argued that various factors for the rural area should disqualify it from consideration, such as slower response times from police, the proximity of the local Banner Public School district, the current lack of utility infrastructure, and the safety issues from increased traffic.

Brown, who said her house was once the farthest west within Oklahoma City limits, compared the process of dealing with the alliance as unpleasant as negotiating the purchase of a car, adding that no one with the alliance would provide her information about what the proposed mega-site would actually be.

"If we don't know details, how can we approve it? How do we have safety?" Brown asked. "I just really would want y'all to question what is coming next. I know this is just annexation, but the next step is planning."

Dr. Warren Low, an orthopedic surgeon, and resident Angie Knight expressed similar concerns on behalf of the West Yukon Neighbors Association. They told council members that adding the land to the city would increase urban sprawl issues and disrupt that area's rural way of life.

“We've raised families out there for a certain reason: We want it outside of town,” Knight said. “I don't want my grandkids out in an area where there’s traffic all of the time. I think we just want honesty. We cannot stop the city from growing, but if you would just be honest with us about what’s coming out there, we can make decisions on the foreside instead of the backside.”

More: OKC considering job 'mega-site' to draw business with annexation plan

Tsoodle said he "fully recognized" that there were not adequate roads and infrastructure in the proposed area, but that the alliance could explore options like developing a tax increment financing district or pursuing state infrastructure funding. He also argued that annexing the property would ensure better zoning and permitting plans for development, since it did not currently have any safeguards as part of unincorporated Canadian County.

"We've got to put a site together, we've got to be able to market that site to users, and that's kind of the first step," Tsoodle said.

'This is a very difficult decision'

Ward 3 City Councilwoman Barbara Peck, who represents the area in which the property is being annexed, also told residents Tuesday "nobody is withholding that information" about what will be coming to the potential mega-site since the annexation vote only represented the first stage of pursuing that plan.

"Pursuing 2500-, 3500-, 5,000-job partners to come to this city and to give higher-paying jobs and more opportunities to the residents that are already here — and it's going to benefit Mustang, Yukon, El Reno, Oklahoma City, Bethany, Warr Acres — yes, that is our job," Peck said. "That is our job, to benefit the community that we live in."

Peck, who voted yes Tuesday, said the opportunity for the mega-site and the potential boost to the city it could bring was something she could not pass up.

"As you can imagine, this was a very difficult decision," Peck said before reiterating her support. "I have constituents and neighbors who have lived in an area, some of them since statehood, and the city has been, and is, growing out to them. And we are, and will, grow all the way to the boundaries that we have set today."

But councilmembers James Cooper for Ward 2, JoBeth Hamon for Ward 6 and Nikki Nice for Ward 7 voted against the annexation proposal. All three said the city, the 20th-largest in the United States, already faced enough challenges trying to adequately take care of the properties under its authority and the residents currently living within its boundaries.

"We constantly are faced with very frustrating decisions on where to use resources, and constantly being told there's never enough, and a lot of that is because of our urban sprawl and our past choices and inheriting those choices," Hamon said.

Nice had made similar comments when the annexation proposal was first heard in early June, and Cooper echoed more of the same before he cast his "no" vote.

"When we keep annexing land, we keep putting more resurfacing responsibilities on this council," Cooper said. "I understand the economic needs of this city, but I also understand the infrastructure needs."

"I’m not anti-any part of the city, I’m anti-adding additional parts to the city," he also said. "This is not about 'us vs. them,' it’s about protecting the us’s that are here and the land that we're supposed to steward."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Council approves annex for 'mega-site,' residents voice concern