NORMAN A Norman City Council vote on a resolution establishing a partnership with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to help build routes through town as part of the agency’s expansion project will take place later this month.
Norman residents amassed in City Hall Tuesday evening in anticipation of a vote on a resolution created by the city last month that affirms Norman’s partnership and cooperation in the development of turnpikes as the agency looks to move forward with its controversial Access Oklahoma expansion plan.
That vote didn’t take place. Instead, the council voted early in the meeting on a motion to postpone the resolution decision to allow members an additional two weeks to review it.
“I know other council members would like the opportunity to discuss various items in the proclamation as well,” said Ward 4 Councilmember Helen Grant.
Ward 2 Councilmember Matt Peacock agreed, saying postponement would allow for further examination at another study session.
No councilors voted against the motion.
The OTA earlier this year requested a resolution from the City of Norman indicating cooperation in the agency’s expansion project it unveiled on Dec. 7, 2021, at the tail end of a meeting. The $5 billion Access Oklahoma long-range plan included alignment of turnpikes across north and east Norman. OTA’s plan was met with resistance by many Norman residents, particularly those in the proposed path, as well as multiple lawsuits, including one asserting the agency violated the Open Meetings Act.
In August 2023, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the OTA’s favor to allow the agency to sell $500 million in bonds to fund the plan and ultimately give them the statutory authority to move forward, however the exact route the south extension would take hasn’t been determined.
The agency requests the resolution to include affirmation of Norman’s cooperation in the development of turnpikes and has language that the future southern extension route will be coordinated between OTA and Norman.
According to the resolution, if Norman City Council doesn’t approve the resolution, OTA funding for certain items deemed important to the city, such as green infrastructure to protect water quality, may be jeopardized.
Following a vote to postpone the resolution, the remainder of the meeting was opened up for public comments.
Ward 6 resident Kelly Wilson, said most ODOT follows the Uniform Relocation Act, which provides services and benefits to residents displaced by a project, but the OTA doesn’t, and accommodation through the agency is “brutal.”
Wilson said 104 homes were taken due to the Kickapoo Turnpike project, 44 of which went through the accommodation process, but of those, 13 were in the court system for at least one year, another for three years, and five that have been in the court system for more than six years and are still ongoing today. She said that’s because the OTA isn’t easy to work with and doesn’t afford many benefits to those their projects impact.
Ward 5 resident Julie Sondag called the language in the resolution “utterly misleading,” and said the OTA continues to make their own rules.
“The city of Norman asked two years ago for environmental studies. The OTA refuses to produce them. When asked where the access plan was in the Association of Central Oklahoma Government's 2045 plan, ACOG stated that the OTA refused to participate when Oklahoma City sent them the $600,000 bill for the road damages after Kickapoo turnpike buildout, but the OTA still has not paid the citizens impacted by it.
Rob Norman, an attorney who represented the organization Pike Off OTA in a lawsuit against the agency, said postponement seemed inevitable and it was the “right thing to do.” He told the council to not do something that could revoke an earlier resolution drafted in 2022 that states Norman’s opposition to the OTA’s plan.
“We're going to ask you, in this amendment process, to do something that's going to make some of you uncomfortable, and that is to maintain your stance in opposition to these turnpikes. You can do that and still work with the OTA,” Norman said.
OTA set a deadline of Sept. 2 for the city’s decision, and a vote is now expected by NCC on Aug. 27.
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