Edmond residents proved once again this week that the word “apartments” can turn out a crowd quite unlike any other phrase used in the city.
Residents of the Coffee Creek development area turned out in droves, filling the Edmond City Council Chambers and spilling out into the lobby and outside the downtown building for the Edmond Planning Commission hearing Tuesday night. The Planning Commission heard, and delayed any action upon, a request by Covell Road Properties LLC to consider an extension of a previously approved Planned Unit Development zoning for the undeveloped areas of Coffee Creek.
This area has developed into upscale housing divisions with adjacent office and retail as well as a premier senior living facility. Many of the single family homes in the area are in the $300,000 to $600,000 price range.
The City Council approved the PUD zoning and plan for the area in 1996 with little action since then. Many of the area’s homeowners have moved in after 2000 as building has proceeded at a brisk pace in the area.
With much of the development now built, it’s time for the developers to take stock of how they will proceed with the final parcels, including an area that originally was planned for multi-family housing on 74.33 acres. Some of the land was actually built as single family homes, soaking up some of the multi-family-zoned land, leaving about 43.23 acres. In a memo to the Planning Commission by City Planner Bob Schiermeyer, the number of multi-family units now proposed has gone from 960 down to 514 as possible for the development.
The positive note out of Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting is that both sides agreed to a Community Connections meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 1 in the Downtown Community Center, 28 E. Main St.
We strongly urge the residents of this area to take this opportunity to forge a solid working relationship with the developer. This is the time for residents to get to know the land owners, express their concerns and their wishes and try to promote a plan that all can live with in the future. Other neighborhoods have successfully modeled this type of interaction with developers and there’s no reason why the Coffee Creek area cannot continue to be a premier development in Edmond.
There is little that can be done by the city at this phase of the process. The worst thing that could happen is for the extension to be denied, the land sold off and the residents starting over with a new developer and an unknown plan. Coffee Creek is a beautiful project and the best way to keep it that way is for residents to calmly and reasonably influence the process now before it gets to the site plan phase at the City Council.
Our View
Coffee Creek still has hope
- Our View
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OUR VIEW: Fundraisers make an impression
Edmond students in both public and private schools showed their community spirit in February and March by raising $1.18 million total for charity.
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OUR VIEW: Taking care of some old business
Earlier this month, the City Council filled an unexpected vacancy when Ward 4 Councilman David Miller took an out-of-state job opportunity.
Filling the position until the 2013 election is financial adviser Nick Massey. He’s a familiar face to Edmond Sun readers, having contributed a regular financial column for almost five years. We would like to congratulate Massey on attaining the Ward 4 council seat and we wish him the best as he learns the ropes at city hall.
But Massey’s appointment caps an almost unprecedented amount of change within the City Council structure. -
OUR VIEW: Public safety needs support
Oklahoma politicians talk often and loudly about how much they support public safety. It’s often cited as a core function of government supported by conservatives and liberals alike.
But do we really support public safety? -
OUR VIEW: Super campaigns need a revamp
Super Tuesday offers Oklahomans the chance to give their input in the presidential primaries, but the question is how much input do we really have these days?
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Our View — Voter turnout remains tepid
On Feb. 14, 809 voters decided between two candidates for the Edmond Public Schools District 2 seat on the Board of Education. That number of voters would not sound so bad all by itself, but when you stand it up next to the number of registered voters in the district, the story changes quite a bit. According to the Oklahoma County Election Board, there are 17,475 voters in that school board district in northwest Edmond.
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OUR VIEW: Teacher certification payment causes concern
Educators have become pitted against legislators once again over a program that should have brought nothing but good things to our schools and students. However, teachers and lawmakers alike have soured over the National Board Certified Teachers program due to insufficient state funds to keep up promised annual payments to those teachers who earned the designation.
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OUR VIEW: Gov. Fallin scores big with speech
Gov. Mary Fallin defined her governorship on Feb. 6 and cemented her legacy as a leader. In her State of the State address, Fallin laid out her vision for how Oklahoma can grow or lead in several important areas.
Nowhere in that speech did she throw down the “my way or the highway” gauntlet to legislators or the people of Oklahoma. No, she truly offered a multi-point plan that offers opportunity for discussion that could bear rich fruit for our state. -
OUR VIEW: Feb. 14 vote about ideas
If you read any of the letters to the editor in the past two weeks regarding Tuesday’s District 2 Edmond school board race, then you already know that this election is not about the individual candidates so much as it’s about what type of school board do Edmond residents really want governing their school district?
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OUR VIEW: Bright spots highlight 2011
Last year was mostly marked with grim economic news and continued worries for the future by most individuals and businesses. However, there were several bright spots that highlighted 2011 and they are good examples why Edmond continues to weather the nation’s economic storms better than most.
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City still needs a business navigator
At the outset of her first term in office, then-Mayor Patrice Douglas appointed a task force dedicated to helping the City of Edmond better understand the needs of small businesses in our city. This task force met for several months and released a number of recommendations for how the city could better serve this huge sector of its economy.
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OUR VIEW: Fundraisers make an impression
