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
-
-
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?
-
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.
-
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.
-
OUR VIEW: It’s time to bring ME’s office to Edmond
The exhumation of Dwite Morgan’s body earlier this month by state and local authorities is a travesty and symbolizes what has been wrong with the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office.
-
OUR VIEW: HOPE needs your help
Stories like the one shared today by Oneka Parker on page A1 are both troubling and uplifting at the same time. It’s a stark realization that so many Edmond residents find themselves in crisis and in need of basic, everyday supplies. But it’s a blessing to know that someplace like the nonprofit HOPE Center exists to help residents like Parker.
-
Our View: Sustainment center good news for Tinker
The Air Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base will now be a command site for a new Air Force sustainment and logistics center. Other changes include adding a three-star general that oversees operations at Tinker and two other Air Force bases.
-
Our View: DHS needs an overhaul
A recent conviction of an Edmond foster mother has added fuel to the angry fire of scorn heaped at Oklahoma’s child welfare system. The system has been rocked by multiple recent failures ending in the loss of very young, innocent lives entrusted to either the state’s care or supervision.
In the case of Amy L. Holder, she was convicted of felony child abuse and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine plus a $10,000 assessment to the victim’s compensation fund with no jail time in the death of 2-year-old Naomi Whitecrow. Family members of the victim seethed with anger at how the system failed their young relative. -
Peters exemplifies service
This Friday is special for more than just a national commemoration of Veterans Day. It also will mark the induction of Edmond resident Oren Lee Peters and eight other military veterans into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame. The annual banquet will take place at 6:30 p.m. at Oklahoma Christian University. The ceremony also will posthumously honor 14 Comanche code talkers who made pivotal contributions to encoding communications during World War II.
-
OUR VIEW: Brain gain plan needs to start earlier
Gov. Mary Fallin came to the University of Central Oklahoma campus along with State Superintendent Janet Barresi in September and touted her new “brain gain” initiative. The goal of the new program is to increase the 30,500 college degrees conferred annually now by 67 percent to 50,900 degrees annually by the year 2023.
-
Our View: Time to look at what’s next
With voter confidence strongly behind city leaders, the Public Safety Center project can now move to the planning stage.
- More Our View Headlines
-
OUR VIEW: Feb. 14 vote about ideas
