Quote Originally Posted by vaflyer View Post
The UNP TIF district was formed to be economic development tool for the City of Norman. The logic was to build a high-quality development that would be attractive to tenants that would be a regional draw. People from around the region then would shop there and pay sales taxes to the City of Norman. For the regional draw part to work, the development ideally needs to be near a freeway (the UNP is) and it must have ample parking because people outside the City of Norman must drive to get there. One can debate whether or not the UNP is actually a regional draw, but the decision to have ample parking is consistent with the UNP’s intended purpose of being a regional draw.
Nobody is debating the number of parking spaces that should be allowed, or even whether it should just be surface parking. What I don't understand is why the parking isn't pushed to the back to allow for at least something resembling a cheesy lifestyle center. This has always been proposed as a lifestyle center, and that's why the citizens including myself back when I was still in Norman, voted for it. It wasn't a matter of doing economic development behind a strip mall (I promise you, that would have been voted down) but it was the idea that a public-private partnership could accomplish superior economic development with a superior lifestyle development. Now build at least a cheesy lifestyle center.

And no revisionist history. We didn't just vote for a strip mall.