Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the September 24th meeting of the Oklahoma City Planning Commission. I'd like to call us to order and go over a few housekeeping items. If you have a cell phone with you, please silence or turn it off. If you've never been to one of our meetings before, here's what you can expect. So we'll start with some simple administrative items. such as minutes and continuances, and then we move on to cases that are on the consent docket, and these are pretty straightforward cases that can be all heard and motioned on as a group. So then after that, we will move to

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to receive the minutes of September 10th, 2026.

I have a motion from Commissioner Noble to receive the minutes. We're giving our system a minute to get going. We need a voice vote? No. Okay. I can't. Okay. It was seconded by Commissioner Meek. Okay.

I will make a motion to approve the uncontested continuous request as read.

A motion to approve the uncontested request, seconded by Commissioner Harrison. Please cast your votes. So I'll say aye. We're waiting on Commissioner Newman. He's voice voted aye. All right, and those new, uncontested requests are read. So new requests.

Okay, is there anyone here to be heard on any of those items? All right, seeing none, I'm ready for a motion.

I will make a motion to approve the new continuance request as read.

A motion from Commissioner Noble to approve the new request as read. Seconded by Commissioner Privett, please cast your votes. And those new requests are granted. All right, now we move to the consent docket.

All right, we're ready for a motion for the consent docket. I will make a motion to approve the consent docket. A motion from Commissioner Noble to approve the consent docket. Seconded by Commissioner Newman, please cast your votes. And consent docket is approved. All right, now we are on to items to be heard individually, and we start with item four.

We have a motion from Commissioner Harrison to recommend the item for approval. It's been seconded by Commissioner Meek. Please cast your votes. That item is approved. Thank you.

So we would be deleting TE2, which is the request for the variance?

Okay. Commissioner Meek, this is your ward if you want to lead the discussion. I do not have anyone signed up to speak.

Thank you, Chairman. Real quick, we're not, for those in the audience that don't know, we're not supposed to talk about Platts. We're not allowed to. So this is the first time I can speak to my fellow commissioners regarding this. I'm not saying the developer did anything wrong, but this ended up being a big mess. I was contacted in the evening with homeowners ready to fight, police on the way, and an adjoining development trying to take down a fence to put a stub street into a private gated addition that has a whole lot of amenities. And these people were mad. And we don't get paid for that k

Well, and that's not part of my purview, really. I just was wondering if it was gated. The second lesson that this... this case should teach us that I'm requesting of my fellow commissioners is that when a PUD is heard, a PUD of this size especially, followed on the same agenda with the preliminary plat, there's a whole lot of changes that happen up here during hearing the PUD. We put a bunch of TEs on it, and then the preliminary plat falls behind it and you approve it. And then what happens in this case can happen they go out there they got work orders for streets drainage you know put in th

That's a possibility, but when it is allowed, I don't think they need to have stubs to a dead-end fence because, especially this addition, Williamson Farms, and I've worked hand-in-hand with the HOA team there because this is 750 homes, 100% built out. They have multiple swimming pools, multiple clubhouses, multiple ponds. And they pay very high dues, and the last thing they want is hundreds of other houses coming through their neighborhood and could go use any of their amenities, but they don't pay dues.

And it goes two ways. With private streets, the HOA owns those streets, and you don't need additional traffic on those streets. Additional traffic, right. Okay. The opportunity to maybe purchase that property to the west and extend the neighborhood, then you would have needed to stop. I mean, I don't know what they were thinking.

But streets to nowhere are not good anyway.

Right. Streets to nowhere are not good. And a crash gate is usually a bar that pedestrians can just walk right through. And this private 750 home development next door did not want that fence taken down. And I agree with them. So I just believe that – and I believe the planning commission – That heard this PUD originally, they agreed with it. And some of you were on that. And they said, you need another access to 119th. It just didn't get passed throughout to the field. That's what happened. And today we're correcting all that. So with that being said, I'll quit preaching and I'll recommend th

So we have a motion from Commissioner Meek to approve the item striking TE two. Yeah, I'm refreshing. Looks like it's been seconded by Commissioner Peaver. Please cast your votes. And that is unanimously approved. Thank you.

Okay. We just need a motion to approve the resolution. Yeah, we just need a motion to approve the resolution. There's no number, so I'll make a motion to approve case number seven, or item number seven in the resolution recommending to the City of Oklahoma City Council to amend the subdivision plats.

I have a motion from Commissioner Noble. It's been seconded by Commissioner Peaver. Please cast your votes. That item is approved. Thank you so much. Oh, you know what? I'm so sorry. I had someone signed up to speak on that. Okay. If you could come up to the podium, please.

You could probably get with staff and they could explain the process. Explain to me what it actually meant.

I'd be glad to move approval if there are no other questions.

Okay, yeah, go ahead. All right, we have a motion from Commissioner Peaver to approve the item. Second by Commissioner Noble. Please cast your votes.

Very good. We're still waiting on Commissioner Privet?

Commissioner Milner, this is Ward 6. I do not have anyone signed up to speak.

Okay, and I didn't have any questions on this. This is pretty straightforward. It was once a duplex combined into a single family going back to a duplex, and I believe it was recommended approval yesterday at Urban Design Commission, I think. Yes. Okay, so unless we have commissioners that have any questions on this. I'd like to recommend approval of PC 11017.

A motion to recommend approval to City Council from Commissioner Milner, seconded by Commissioner Harrison. Please cast your votes. And that item is recommended for approval. Good luck.

All right. Thank you. Commissioner Milner, back to you. I don't have anyone signed up.

Okay, and I don't have any additional questions. Thank you for talking to both of the individuals that wrote in with concerns. I do appreciate that. Commissioners, any questions on this one? If not, I'm going to recommend approval.

Motion from Commissioner Milner to recommend the item for approval of the City Council. Seconded by Commissioner Harrison. Please cast your votes. That item is recommended for approval.

I do not have anyone sign up to speak. I

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, as Mr. Box said, this is matching the one we just approved to the north and with the T's we put on it previously. They included them other than the HOA and he's accepted that. So any other commissioners have any comments regarding this? If not, I'm going to move to recommend approval of PUD 2161 with TE number one being added that the fence on 44th Street will be

That item is recommended for approval. Thank you. Item 13 was continued, so we're at item 14.

All right. I think Mr. Lodge is coming to the podium to provide that response.

Commissioner Powers, this is Ward 2. If you want to lead our discussion, I have two folks signed up to speak.

OK. OK, we'll start with Chad Simmons. Sure, is this Woodrow Walker? Okay.

If you could start off with your name and address.

All right, thank you, Mr. Simmons. Okay, Commissioner Powers?

Eight-foot monument. I would agree with that, eight-foot monument. I think you could go to 15 by code, so I'd rather see an eight-foot monument. That's fine.

I think what's different about this is that you have a lot of property and you have the ability to put it over there.

Like, all those other structures are... Well, those are two people that you're going to bother. Those are the only houses.

I have some thoughts. I certainly understand, as my experience in multifamily design, the access to these units, to the dumpsters, are important, as well as prolonging the pavement. So if these trash trucks have to make a lot of turning movements within the development, it tears up the pavement. That's where on this, as the exhibit that's up right now, that one all the way in the back, while it works well for being away from neighbors, that's very hard to get to, and that trash truck is going to have to back up and around a corner and into another street to be able to pull out. And that's just

Where it is having it having it there on that little corner where they don't know how to describe that for purposes of a te Draw it on this just put a perk you'll take a screenshot of where that has the cursor the dumpster shall be placed in the landscape terminal island at the end at the Southwest corner of whatever building that is building to the two building.

Yeah building to coming back for specific plan.

commissioner clare put it on the site plan a specific plan sure oh they have to do sidewalks do we have a hey what is that commissioner powers can we put a footage on distance from the distance instead of trying to guess at the

I'm fine with it. We're not doing 100 feet. Let's just be clear. I mean, I think you heard, I think 100 foot's a pretty good idea.

Well, it's not 100 feet. We're not agreeing to that, ever. I think that island's probably at least 100 foot. It looks about 100. If this is the scale, it's about 100 feet for sure.

But we're not allowing pole signs. Right, but I'm just saying if you... Only monument. If David was curious.

Where did we land on TE1 and 2 that they want to strike both?

And TE2 would be taken care of in traffic. Because they have to put it in somewhere.

And are you good with the architectures?

Just checking. Things I don't like, but just checking.

We can't decide who buys the property and develops it, though.

Your site plan says 153. I understand. Just throw that out there to you.

There was a note about landscaping in lieu of the fence. Were you okay with that under screening?

Okay, we have a motion from Commissioner Powers recommend the item City Council for approval subject to the amended and additional te's Back me up.

I don't have the second. Who seconded that? Chris Harrison. Okay, Commissioner Harrison. Seconded by Commissioner Harrison. Please cast your votes. That item is recommended for approval.

Are you concerned at all about the east and the west sides, the existing fence that's already there? No. Okay, so you're just going to leave it out of the, because I just don't want you to have to build a new fence all the way around it. The existing, this vinyl fence on the east and the west.

Okay. Commissioner Newman, this is your ward. I do not have anyone signed up to speak.

We did have a community meeting. Thanks for having that. I think that you pretty much addressed the concerns that were brought up with the TEs today. I knew I was going to do that. With that being said, does any of the other commissioners have any other comments, thoughts?

Well, then I'm going to make a motion to move to make a motion to recommend approval with the TEs as read into the record.

A motion from Commissioner Newman to recommend the item City Council for approval subject to the six TEs as read in. It's been seconded by Commissioner Privet. Yes. You can come to the mic, please.

No, this is a vote to make a recommendation to the City Council. This does not actually change it. It has to go before the City Council makes the final decision upon it.

It will stay what it is currently until it is heard before city council. And at that point in time, if the city council approves this SPUD, then this will take precedence over what it's zoned right now. Okay. But it's not going to straight zoning?

No. It's going to remain in an SPUD? Correct.

Right. If that case, if someone wants to rezone that, that would be a completely separate case, be re-noticed, and there would be a separate hearing on that case.

anyone that purchases any piece of property in Oklahoma City can request rezoning.

Well, we're just here to address the zoning portion of it, not the... financial portion of it. But to answer your question, the property next door is a separate issue. If someone would purchase that property, they could choose to do a spud on it, or they could choose to change it to a straight zoning if they wanted to. Or they could leave their zoning as it is.

But there is a notice requirement. So if we receive an application on that, that will get noticed to the neighbors with everyone within specified distance. Thank you. Okay, so we had a motion from Commissioner Newman. It was seconded by Commissioner Privett. Please cast your votes. And that is recommended to City Council.

Yeah, I just want to make this. So you're using the existing structure as? No, sorry. Okay. So you'll be demolishing that?

This is Ward 7, if you want to lead our discussion. I don't have anyone signed up to speak.

Okay, yeah. He made a wonderful presentation, myself as well as Councilman Pennington. So if no one has anything else, I recommend approval.

I have some thoughts. So I drive by this area often and absolutely, without a doubt, I think it's one of the, as it is, one of the biggest eyesores. on I-35 as you approach our city. And there's currently a lot of stuff going in place that's going to start to beautify that corridor. And I think the redevelopment of this will no doubt drastically improve this. I would like to see a landscape buffer with some shade trees on the highway side, basically on your property line as it butts the highway. As it's shown right now, you've got a lot of parking and paving, and so what I want to ask is do yo

The area that we are showing paved here is paved today.

That's ODOT right away, and so there's nothing that's going in there. Okay.

Well, and I don't think you should have to have a buffer all the way across. I'd rather see some planted islands and stuff like that. That would be if we could... You know, what we're looking for is some campy trees, something to calm the parking lot between that and the highway, but... That's why I just don't think you should have to take a property to accomplish that. You can accomplish it without just a complete landscape buffer. There's going to be a specific plan on this also, right? Wouldn't there be?

I mean, I'll have to... Well, I think where we are is either you can agree to provide a specific plan today and we can provide the recommendation, or if that's something that you can't agree to, I think we're going to probably want to put some other things in here. So I think it's going to affect our recommendation. A 20-foot buffer along the whole north? Well, I'm not saying that we have to do that. I think Commissioner Noble's idea of it doesn't have to be a consistent 20-foot buffer, but we're going to want to see some areas provided along that side of the property that allow for some shade

Can we ask them to do that off of this SPD? Because obviously this is only the northern couple of feet.

But it's on the parcel that's not actually part of the application. Yeah, but when they get the new... Oh, I see what you're saying.

There'll be a building permit. Yeah, they'll have to conform on the entire new property to the current landscape. It's not going to dictate trees along that side for sure. I thought there was a requirement for frontage trees.

Yeah, we don't have the ability here. Now I know what you guys are going to do is going to be a huge improvement. I do understand that. But I had to ask. And I wouldn't have, even if we hadn't talked about trees today, I would have asked for it.

I held off asking because I knew you would.

You put it on a T for me. All right. Okay. That was my two cents.

I don't think you need to do anything else.

Well, at this time, okay. All right, seeing no other discussion or hearing any discussion, I will make a motion for approval of SPUD 1870.

Are we deleting, or what are we doing with the TE? There's a TE.

Yeah, if you don't want to change anything on that, then you don't have to.

All right, so we have a motion from Commissioner Harrison to recommend the item to City Council, deleting TE1. It's been seconded by Commissioner Noble. Please cast your votes. And that is unanimously recommended for approval. Good luck. Thank you.

Okay. Commissioner Newman, if you want to lead the discussion, I do not have anyone signed up to speak.

Okay. We have done a couple other cases along this strip here. I don't know quite what the deal is, but most of these buildings were built in the 50s, and they were all built on R1 back in the day, so it's kind of... This place has been there, I don't know how long, but I know it's been there a significant amount of time. So with the changes we discussed, I didn't really have any additional concerns about this. Does anyone else have any concerns or questions?

Just the one with the church being within 300 feet, they need to get some kind of a letter of approval from the church to go forward. You still have to get that? Correct.

It's not a special permit, though, right? It's basically just that they're saying they're okay with the idea.

So do they have to do that before we can change the zoning? No. No. So that would be in addition. That's outside of our purview. Yeah, that's a state application. Okay, that's what I thought. I didn't realize. I'm starting to figure I've had something to do with this I didn't know about. Okay, so...

We have to be first. Okay, I wasn't sure what the order was at, what you were bringing up. I wasn't either.

Um, with that being said, I'd like to make a motion to recommend approval to city council. I would like to, unless you have an objection, I'd like to delete the TE1. It's fine. Okay, and then I would like to add TEs, we'll call it TE, delete TE1, add TE2, which deletes 8300.5 alcoholic beverage sales and retail sales, 8300.22 bingo parlors. eighty three hundred point five seven payday loans uh... t three uh... no sir dispensary well at this point uh... that's the three new no marijuana use is allowed and then t four under architectural regulations change uh... the first fifty percent of sevent

I'm leaving the drainage stuff. I'm sorry.

Alcoholic beverage retail sales. Bingo parlors. Payday loans or title loan agencies.

Okay, so we have a motion from Commissioner Newman to recommend the item to City Council for approval subject to deleting TE1 and adding TE's 2, 3, and 4 as read in. It's been seconded by Commissioner Harrison. Please cast your votes. That item is recommended for approval unanimously.

Okay. All right Commissioner Noble, this is your ward. I have several signed up to speak. Well, let's hear from the public.

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Milligan Ben Cunningham

Thank you, Ms. Smith. Giovanni McKinney.

All right. Thank you, Mr. McKinney. Mark Michaud.

Next we have Linda Hadley, and after that, that'll be our last speaker.

Thanks, and I did attend that meeting and also was convinced somewhat that it would be a down zone from... the potential other uses that were allowed in the original PUD that was done in 2004. I'd like to hear from everybody else after listening to the public.

There's an existing 20, I mean, existing eight foot tall site put fence on the backside of all those properties.

Is this facility air conditioned so that the doors would be down after a vehicle pulled in? That's what I thought I had heard.

Some of the other concerns were the traffic. So the use of the noise in the traffic, that's really the only concerns that I heard.

I mean, if this were a... mcdonald's taco bell or whatever with the drive-thru you're gonna have a hundred cars coming every hour uh... whereas with this i have to think that i mean you're probably dropping off in the morning and picking up in the afternoon i mean i'd have to think the coming and going traffic is substantially less

No, I'm not going to. You've had your time. Thank you for asking.

So in my opinion, from the land use point of view, maybe we need to take out some of the uses that are within the application itself. But the addition of that use, I can see go with the property at that location.

Is the 50-foot buffer and the 15-foot landscaping buffer, are those together, or is the 15-foot inside the 50-foot?

I... I agree with the downzoning potential, but I also hate the fact that the developer peeled off part of this commercial to sell all these homes and specifically limited that use.

Yeah. My point still stands. I've been in neighborhood meetings with you where you, and before I became a planning commissioner, I would have never looked at a PUD nearby a neighborhood that I was talking with the realtor about buying a house. But you brought that up, that people should do that. When you're looking at property, you should read a PUD next door. Well... This was the developer that did this. And I just, you know, I just have a little bit of hesitation because there were limited uses removed to develop this neighborhood.

Well, let me say this. This isn't in my ward, and staff doesn't provide us the old PUDs or SPUDs in our case reports. And we already have enough to learn and read through with the packets we get, so I don't know what the old PUD and SPUD said. All I see is what you're asking for.

And I'll say this. I think everyone that was at the meeting understood that part of it and kind of got on the side of this would be better than a potential alternative.

And I agree that air conditioned shop with the doors down, they're not going to leave them open. You're not going to hear as much. I do concur that the equipment is now not pneumatic. It is electric. It's industry wide. I don't know. I think the buffer is an improvement. I mean, I think about in Commissioner Newman, we had a previous case on 104th where people turned down and fought and fought against something that was proposed and that it went away and now things come in and they're regretting what they turned down. So there's both sides to it.

I've got a question on the use that you're looking for and that you need is the 8300.14, correct? All the other uses that are listed, I'm assuming, already exist in the current PUD.

So on our list, there's ones you've taken out that we still see?

I'm just looking at the list that's in the staff report that we were provided on this one.

Which we're talking about they could have this right now, but that's in here still. We need to remove it if that's the case, especially the drive-thru restaurants.

Okay. I'm sorry. I need a clarification on if we're limiting hours of the business, are we limiting the hours if it's just 8300.14? I just want clarity there. And if this property was to change hands to another automotive user, they have to work within those hours, correct? Correct.

And the idea to remove the other, the fast food or anything else, I mean, you're not proposing that, or are you? No. Wait, say it again?

It's just, I mean, I see it both ways. Yeah, the 8300.36 drive-thru window with the... Drive-thru restaurant, fast food with drive-thru order window. The speaker box is 150 foot away from residential.

You know, to me, with the limits on this, you're going to have a window of noise versus where it's at tonight. Where the current zoning is, you could have, as he pointed out, speakers all night long at a drive-thru restaurant. So to me, that's a downgrade on the sound. The traffic, I think, versus... a drive-through restaurant is significantly less. I don't know, I just, I kind of see this as if I had to choose one of the two next to me, I'd probably choose this one. That's exactly where I was too, so.

That's already in the spud. The tree spacing and all that. Correct. Nate, you good?

Okay, and then I'll also say that this is a recommendation to the city council, so there will be in eight weeks another opportunity to talk with the council. With that, I will make a motion to recommend approval of SBUD 1869 with the striking TE 1 and 2 and adding 3, 4, and 5 as read into the record.

The motion from Commissioner Noble to recommend the item to City Council subject to the deleted and additional TEs. All right, can I get a second via voice? I'll second. Seconded by Commissioner Powers. Let's do a voice vote.

All right. That's a unanimous recommendation.

All right. That was the last item on the agenda to be heard. So we'll move on to additional items, communications report, planning commission committees. I was unable to attend last week's code committee, so is there an update from that?

thing today i think we'll get you up to speed yeah there were there were two different focus groups and i'm on the one with all the council people and no none of the planning commissioners um ours went really good i thought i think we got through everything on the list um i don't know how the second one went went though we might not have gotten yeah we talked about one and we didn't come to any decision so there you go well it's we're moving along all right

Anything else from committee standpoint? Planning Commission members?

I know it's been a long day for us, but I just wanted to add that Commissioner Powers and I attended a code update meeting for Gatewood Neighborhood. Was that Monday evening? Was it past Monday evening? I think it was. The only thing I just want to say about that is Planning staff, I commend you for the work you're doing there and trying to get residents involved, but I really hope more residents get involved. Because I think we found out that evening, out of 600 plus homes in Gatewood, I think we had 34 respondents in the survey there, so.

Yeah, three initially, yeah. It's just, you know, this code update, and especially in the urban core, it's just, it's big, and I don't have suggestions for you, but I will help in any way.

Right, and will be very much affected by some of the code update. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

It was a great meeting, though. Thank you to the staff.

Dennis and I talked about that a little bit today. We're going to do everything we can that we do as much as we can to get it in a better spot before we get the approval and then all the complaints. Yeah, right.

I'm sure he goes back and watches all the video again.

All right. Anything from the municipal counselor's office? Nothing. All right. I see no citizens to be heard. We have no other business, so we are adjourned. Thank you.