Uncommon Ground Park (2nd & Coltrane)

[Midtowner]

All your post did was rationalize your racism and classism.

Classism, sure. Racism? You're the guy saying POCs can't apparently afford to live in my neighborhood. You should check your racism there..

As someone who has committed their entire life to education and spends a lot of time in schools and working with them, I'd say I have skin in the game. Did you miss where I had to work against racism in Edmond Public Schools from some teachers and leaders toward students of color who lived in new apartments? This kids did not deserve to be stereotyped by adults, which is exactly what you're doing to children too.

My wife teaches at a Title I school which is majority non-white, so I'm not going to be handing you a halo. Your ethical obligation as a teacher is to teach the kids you have. As a resident who has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a home in a certain neighborhood with high performing schools, I don't want to see what happened my last neighborhood happen to my new neighborhood.

It is not stereotyping to suggest that bringing in greater population density and a greater number of financially insecure families to my kid's school is going to have a negative impact. It's just a fact.

[Plutonic Panda]

And if you don't have kids or don't plan to, your take on the whole situation re schools is kind of laughable. You obviously don't care about the community or how it's impacted by development.

No I have concern for the community or impact development has. That’s why I spend so much time on the Edmond threads, writing to council members and city staff, and clearly I don’t care about impacts to the community which is also why I stated in this thread I am siding with the “NIMBYs” and city on this one that there are valid concerns with some of the issues raised about traffic impacts.

But yeah, I’m just a troll who doesn’t care about Edmond. You got me.

[TornadoKegan]

New apartment complexes are going to be looked at as low income housing. While you're not developing it for that purpose, in 20 years, that's pretty much what it's going to be. And in 20 years, the developer and even the original owner are going to be long gone while the community gets to deal with the mess.

Or maybe not.. maybe the apartments are well kept and that never happens, but no one is going to want to take that chance with their own property and their kids' schools.

if you want low income housing without too much crime your best option is NW Moore. unless you are a student going to UCO good luck. with all the news personnel that live in Edmond. low income housing will be higher than in other parts of the metro and if you think i am going to spend money on a house in Edmond. forget it i will take that money and use it for housing in DFW

[Plutonic Panda]

Here’s that the city manager says. It starts at 5:55 into the video.

[Soonerinfiniti]

Sounds like City of Edmond is trying to cover their *ss. All I know is that over the years I constantly hear how difficult City of Edmond is to work with. Combined this with the NIMBY crowd, and I am not surprised French said forget it.

[jdross1982]

Sounds like City of Edmond is trying to cover their *ss. All I know is that over the years I constantly hear how difficult City of Edmond is to work with. Combined this with the NIMBY crowd, and I am not surprised French said forget it.

100%

[jerrywall]

Considering some of the history with Shadid, and the fact that he should be well aware of how the city works (and properly advising Mr. French on this), nothing about the process should have been a surprised. Considering the "dear john" letter specifically complains that they had to answer questions rather than just a quick approval (even though they still got ALL the approvals they asked for) I'm inclined to think there's a lot more there than just issues with the city, the least being that there wasn't really funding in place to support this park - just an "idea" of a trust funded by the restaurants which would appear hopefully.

A major park takes a lot of money as we saw in Tulsa. This wasn't so much as a gift as a kick start to build someone's legacy at the cities expense. I still supported it, and would still support it, but I don't think everyone involved (maybe on both sides) is being entirely honest.

[Richard at Remax]

Considering some of the history with Shadid, and the fact that he should be well aware of how the city works (and properly advising Mr. French on this), nothing about the process should have been a surprised. Considering the "dear john" letter specifically complains that they had to answer questions rather than just a quick approval (even though they still got ALL the approvals they asked for) I'm inclined to think there's a lot more there than just issues with the city, the least being that there wasn't really funding in place to support this park - just an "idea" of a trust funded by the restaurants which would appear hopefully.

A major park takes a lot of money as we saw in Tulsa. This wasn't so much as a gift as a kick start to build someone's legacy at the cities expense. I still supported it, and would still support it, but I don't think everyone involved (maybe on both sides) is being entirely honest.

The money was there, trust me

[Plutonic Panda]

Source: “trust me bro”

[TornadoKegan]

yeah Edmond is good for business but Moore does it better which is likely why Moore got a Winco Foods first before the rest of the state and Got a Costco instead of Norman

[MelOK]

Where we previously lived for 30 years, we had Code Enforcement Officers, and they enforced the codes of the city. I don't see any of that going on here. Junk in front or backyards, parking on grass in front yard, tall weeds, debris piled up, various codes being broken. THIS is what keeps a city looking like it was designed. C O D E E N F O R C E M E N T is needed.

[Celebrator]

Where we previously lived for 30 years, we had Code Enforcement Officers, and they enforced the codes of the city. I don't see any of that going on here. Junk in front or backyards, parking on grass in front yard, tall weeds, debris piled up, various codes being broken. THIS is what keeps a city looking like it was designed. C O D E E N F O R C E M E N T is needed.

Use the channels of communication the City of Edmond offers and you will see results. I have in my experience.
https://www.edmondok.gov/requesttracker.aspx

[jerrywall]

Yup. One thing about Edmonds code enforcement is that is report based (similar to okc I think) . Not sure if it's the most effective system.

[traxx]

Drove by the other day and saw little signs saying something to the effect of land available for restaurant development. So this is probably gonna end up being another strip center like the one down the street where Aspen Coffee is. Get ready for another dispensary, nail salon, and vape shop. The state doesn't have enough of those.

[mgharfeh]

That sign was always there even when the park was being built. I heard discussions are back on for the park. No official news yet but that’s word from an Edmond council member

[BoulderSooner]

Drove by the other day and saw little signs saying something to the effect of land available for restaurant development. So this is probably gonna end up being another strip center like the one down the street where Aspen Coffee is. Get ready for another dispensary, nail salon, and vape shop. The state doesn't have enough of those.

there was always going to be restaurant space along 2nd even with the park plan ... those signs have been there for a long long time

[onthestrip]

there was always going to be restaurant space along 2nd even with the park plan ... those signs have been there for a long long time

Not sure how they were going to structure the deals but the revenue from restaurants were supposedly going to help fund park operations.

[Silvershoes]

Sounds like City of Edmond is trying to cover their *ss. All I know is that over the years I constantly hear how difficult City of Edmond is to work with. Combined this with the NIMBY crowd, and I am not surprised French said forget it.

Restaurants absolutely avoid Edmond if possible, because of their over-the-top impossible code, etc. That is why forever, you had to go on the Memorial Road corridor for anything other than McDonalds. It's improved some but it is sad you have the per capita income in Edmond yet in many cases you are forced to go to OKC for what you want.

[jerrywall]

Restaurants absolutely avoid Edmond if possible, because of their over-the-top impossible code, etc. That is why forever, you had to go on the Memorial Road corridor for anything other than McDonalds. It's improved some but it is sad you have the per capita income in Edmond yet in many cases you are forced to go to OKC for what you want.

I'd be curious in what ways the code is over-the-top? I know Edmond is fairly strict on signage but nothing that's too difficult to deal with, and there are certainly design requirements in regards to parking, trees, etc, but having owned a couple of businesses in Edmond and ran several others, while also having businesses in OKC I didn't experience much in Edmond that was onerous. OKC has much more red tape and licensing involved in businesses in my experience.

Note, I separate this out from the nimby fights which can happen - although again I'm not convinced Edmond nimys are a special breed.

[Plutonic Panda]

I’m this case I’m actually siding with the NIMBYs are their concerns are legitimate. This would have a been a very nice park and I’d love to see it built but street/traffic issues absolutely need to be addressed and Edmond has so much on their plate right now.

[jdross1982]

I’m this case I’m actually siding with the NIMBYs are their concerns are legitimate. This would have a been a very nice park and I’d love to see it built but street/traffic issues absolutely need to be addressed and Edmond has so much on their plate right now.

except the Coltrane road issues would be dealt with before the park opened and 2nd street has zero issues in the area after the improvements at Bryant.

[April in the Plaza]

I'd be curious in what ways the code is over-the-top? I know Edmond is fairly strict on signage but nothing that's too difficult to deal with, and there are certainly design requirements in regards to parking, trees, etc, but having owned a couple of businesses in Edmond and ran several others, while also having businesses in OKC I didn't experience much in Edmond that was onerous. OKC has much more red tape and licensing involved in businesses in my experience.

Note, I separate this out from the nimby fights which can happen - although again I'm not convinced Edmond nimys are a special breed.

Signage, landscaping requirements, setbacks, which materials are allowed, the city staff is abysmal, etc.

Several prominent CRE developers have completely sworn Edmond off for the above reasons. They've taken their capital to Yukon, Moore, etc. and made handsome returns.

[Richard at Remax]

The city of Edmond came to the office to speak to Mr. French this week with hat in hand and lots of apologies. I don't know if anything will came of it but it's an interesting development nonetheless

[Plutonic Panda]

Really? What exactly did they apologize for?

[Richard at Remax]

About how they handled the situation. From what I could tell it was a few board members as well as someone from city manager office. They "realize" now that the citizens of Edmond really want this and need this and will try to do their best to make it work and be more accommodating.