Interesting new development in the works for the undeveloped land west of the Norman airport along I-35 between Robinson and Tecumseh. According to the developers it is going to be a large mixed-use district anchored by Super Target and will include retail, offices, restaurants, and residential with 24th Street becoming a tree-lined blvd. through the development. From the Norman City Council minutes...

Mr. Carl Edwards, Managing Partner of Price, Edwards, and Company-Commercial Real Estate Services, provided a conceptual land use plan; an illustrative master plan; an aerial view of the retail district; a street level of the primary street; conceptual retail and office space around the Town Square; and proposed residential development to complement the retail center.

The article...

University North Park plat OK’d

By Carol Cole
The Norman Transcript

The first phase of the University North Park final plat was approved Tuesday on a split vote of 6-1 by the Norman City Council, despite last minute concerns that a 173,900-square-foot Super Target store would be built on top of a plugged oil well.

The 470,000-square-foot first phase will be on 69 acres north of Robinson Street, east of Interstate 35 and west of 24th Avenue NW, on land currently owned by the University of Oklahoma Foundation.

It is the first phase of the 585-acre Planned Unit Development that is projected to be one of the top five single retail developments in the country if built out to its master plan.

Ryan Zick is Target representative for environmental services for property assessment and remediation from the corporation’s Minneapolis office.

Zick said Target would vent the well outside the structure and the corporation had hired the Kleinfelder corporation to remediate the well, which was plugged in 2002.

Councilmembers expressed concerns about the safety of building a store on the site. Council recently passed an ordinance becoming the first Oklahoma city to prohibit building habitable structures on top of wells.

But the “habitable” term was the phrase that left a loophole for commercial structures.

Bill Huey of Kleinfelder of Albuquerque, N.M., told councilmembers the firm had found no evidence of methane gas from the well and the firm was in the process of assessing any threat.

Huey said the oil field has never produced a significant amount of gas. At the time it was plugged, it was producing 85 barrels of oil and five gallons of water daily. The last record from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission showed oil, but no gas.

“It’s not likely that it would ever start producing gas,” he said. “It’s forward thinking and responsible for Target to think about venting the well.”

Ward 7 councilmember Doug Cubberley offered an amendment of venting where the well is plugged as part of the final plat. It was approved 6-1 with Stanley voting “no.”

“I’m not happy at all to approve a commercial building situated on a well,” Cubberley said. “I think our teeth obviously have been filed. … But I’m very pleased that Super Target is coming.”

A traffic analysis of the site included improvements that would be necessary to accommodate the more than 18,000 visits the development would generate.

Those would include improvements at intersections on Robinson Street, 24th Avenue NW, Interstate Drive East, North Park Drive and Tecumseh Road.

Attorney Harold Heiple said some of the improvements might have to be done twice if the proposed $15 million tax increment financing district for traffic improvements was not approved. The double turn lanes at Robinson Street would not be required in the initial phase.

“It’s better to put them in at the same time,” said Tom McCaleb of Spears and McCaleb, engineer for the project.