City of Norman shares updates on turnpike designs, residents call for larger focus on environmental impacts

NORMAN, Okla. ( KFOR ) — As Norman City Council members met to discuss the city’s ongoing negotiations with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority over designs for several proposed turnpikes, Norman residents opposed to the turnpikes said the city should instead focus on a different discussion.

At a Norman City Council Study Session Tuesday evening, City of Norman Public Works staff updated council members on discussions they have been having with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) about the proposed design of the ‘East-West Connector’ Turnpike, one of several turnpikes OTA intends to build through the city as part of its controversial Access Oklahoma plan.

Members of the group Pike Off OTA spoke out in advance of a study session discussion, saying the city should adopt a resolution to oppose the turnpikes in their entirety and commit to protecting the local water supply.

At Tuesday evening’s study session, public works staff informed council members they have gotten OTA to agree to build two lane, one-way, free-to-access frontage roads along a stretch of the East-West Connector proposed to be built on top of what is currently Indian Hills Road.

That’s something the OTA executive director Joe Echelle previously told News 4 he couldn’t guarantee.

But members of Pike Off maintain the council is still focused on the wrong discussions.

“We are all gathered here today… to thank the Mayor for being willing to support our cause as much as he’s able, and encourage the city to move beyond the idea of a study to mitigate the damage and to focus more on what other legal avenues might be available to stop this construction altogether,” said Tassie Hirschfeld, a member of Pike Off OTA. “Imagine that you are in the later days of the Roman Empire. You wake up one morning and you go outside and you see that there’s a group of Visigoths camped outside your town. And so at this point, you have two choices. You can alert the town and try to prevent an invasion, or you can form a study committee to try to mitigate the damage that will come from the looting and destruction is sure to follow.”

“The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is a group of bureaucrats who are captured by a few special interests, who don’t care about people’s property rights, who don’t care about people’s civil rights, and don’t care about compliance with the law,” said Robert Norman, a lawyer and member of Pike Off OTA.

They say the proposed turnpikes would irreparably harm the city’s water supply, and stopping that harm by stopping the turnpikes should be the city’s priority.

“The only thing that matters is our future,” said Norman City Councilmember and Pike Off supporter Michael Nash. “The City of Norman, our water supply, protecting the water that’s within our boundaries.”

To that end, Pike Off members called on the city council to adopt a resolution, which would formally commit the city to oppose the toll roads, and commit to “the protection and preservation of the watershed” serving the area.

The council did not take any action Tuesday evening.

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