Although the Edmond Planning commission has denied a request from Sooner Investments to build another Utica Square style shopping center near Hafer Park (this would be another in the area near 15th and Bryant........a 3rd development.....2 are already there, 1 completed- Spring Creek Plaza, and 1 nearly completed- Spring Creek Village).

I really think Edmond City residents are holding progress back by denying this new proposal. Guess it shows you again how backwards Oklahomans are.

Now, what OKC needs to do is contact Sooner Investments and offer them similar land on the Oklahoma River to build their proposed concept on!! lol! Boy, don't you love that thinking?

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"Down But Not Out: Despite planning commission’s rejection, Edmond council keeps hope alive for Sooner Investment’s the Bridges at Spring Creek

By Pamela Grady

pgrady@okcbusiness.com

Sooner Investment partner Brad Goodwin remains optimistic about his plans to build The Bridges at Spring Creek near 15th and Bryant.

That optimism comes even after the Edmond City Planning Commission declined 5-0 Sooner Investments’ request to rezone the property where the development would be built. The Edmond City Council tabled last week the company’s proposal for a tenant-driven development until its June 27 city council meeting.

Residents voiced concerns about the potential retail development during the council’s meeting last week, indicating they believed more commercial activity in the area could cause traffic problems, create detention or drainage, and compromise tree preservation and Hafer Park.

Sooner Investment plans to build The Bridges at Spring Creek as an infill project modeled after Utica Square in Tulsa. The idea is to situate the upscale lifestyle shopping center on 32 acres totaling 200,000 square feet with one anchor, three junior anchors and small shops ranging from 1,400 to 10,000 square feet.

The shopping center would have an architectural style of a brick facade similar to Terryl Zerby’s Spring Creek Plaza and Charles Ballenger’s Spring Creek Village. The project also would have a minimum of 14 percent landscaping with plans to build a pedestrian and a vehicular bridge. Both would resemble the bridges in Bricktown.

Randel Shadid, representative for Sooner Investment said rezoning is required for a department store tenant that is interested in anchoring the center and currently in talks with the property development company.

While he declined to reveal the name of the potential tenant, he said, the department store is comparable to Dillards and would require for its operations a two-story building totaling 75,000 square feet at the center of the proposed development.

In addition, Shadid said the developer has talked to a bookstore and a financial institution about possibly agreeing to the location should the development be approved.

During his presentation at the city council meeting last week, Shadid several times stressed the importance of the developer wanting to attract upscale retailers similar to the ones found at Utica Square and how that could be a further benefit for the 15th and Bryant area, rather than a detriment.

Goodwin said, “We’d have a nice anchor that would generate and cause for continuous clientele to frequent this location which in turn would help Spring Creek Plaza.

“For example, people who would go to the mall at Quail Springs might come here instead and shop in this area versus going to the mall, because the anchor tenant would be able to satisfy some of their other needs that currently can’t be met.”

When asked if it’s more difficult to get rezoning in Edmond compared to other parts of the metro area, Goodwin replied, “Edmond is a reasonable city to deal with. They have requirements like any other city. They may vary. One ordinance may be a little stiffer than the other one. But overall I think they’re quite fair. If we didn’t [think so], we wouldn’t continue to do business there.”

He added he was still optimistic the development ultimately would be approved by the city council. And, if things go as planned, he said, Sooner’s development company will break ground by the end of the year and need only nine months to complete the project.

If The Bridges at Spring Creek gets the nod from city leaders, Paris Projects will be the development project manager and Little & Associates out of Charlotte, N. C., will head up architectural efforts.

Carter & Burgess has been selected for the engineering and Sooner Investment Realty will manage the property."

Patrick, I'm not sure how I would feel about one of these developments on the river. Doing so would hinder any possible retail activity for downtown. This has already been discussed by the mayor and city officials that it would harm downtown retail revitalization. We want to develop the river so it compliments downtown and the rest of the city, not competes against other places in the city

I wonder what the "Dillard's" type tenant would be. If I was guessing, probably Belk. They are currently building a couple locations in Tulsa and have been wanting to enter the OKC market.

Also, I have heard that Sooner Investments is wanting to buy a large amount of land in the Jenks area to build an outdoor shopping center to try and compete with Utica Square. Hope it happens.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for a nordstrom...although it probably isn't.

Oklahoma City needs a Nordstom (I would settle for a Saks) something fierce. That is the most amazing department store on earth! They carry many things Dillards does, and much higher end as well. Their service if far superior, and their prices are still reasonable.

IMHO the best place for an open-air mall is the Flatiron/Triangle district. It would have great interstate access. It connects the CBD with the "other half", the capitol and medical parks. It would have a dense -- and wealthy and educated -- residential customer base (Deep Deuce and the Hill). The railroad runs along it, providing a unique sense of place.

It would complement the restaurants and entertainment of Bricktown. If they better access to Bricktown through Oklahoma and Walnut (through pedestrian-friendly trails or trolley/shuttle line) you would double the "cool" part of downtown and downtown in general.

Along with more multifamily housing, and you could have OKC's version of Washington's M street in Georgetown, traffic and all.

I wonder what the "Dillard's" type tenant would be. If I was guessing, probably Belk. They are currently building a couple locations in Tulsa and have been wanting to enter the OKC market.

Also, I have heard that Sooner Investments is wanting to buy a large amount of land in the Jenks area to build an outdoor shopping center to try and compete with Utica Square. Hope it happens.

I'm thinking Belk is seriously considering the east anchor of Spring Creek Village at the present time, but I could be wrong.

i think a pottery barn and/or restoration hardware would thrive in that area.

This is another good thing for Edmond that better not get shot down. I'm also curious what the department store will be. Sure would be nice if it was a Nordstrom or Saks, but doesn't sound like it. I've seen Spring Creek Village going up and it doesn't look like there would be room for a department store anywhere.

This is another good thing for Edmond that better not get shot down. I'm also curious what the department store will be. Sure would be nice if it was a Nordstrom or Saks, but doesn't sound like it. I've seen Spring Creek Village going up and it doesn't look like there would be room for a department store anywhere.

The department store space was supposed to be in the building on the far east side of the property, on the corner of 15th and Bryant. Rumors said it might be a Belk, but I'm not sure at this point.

Any news on this or about what stores will be in Spring Creek Village?

I beleive the Urban Planning Commision Voted Against it...so now it will go to the City Council, where it could very well be approved. But i expect a huge turnout to oppose this project. Also In the same general area..the new Wal-Mart at 15th and I-35 is beginning preliminary dirtwork and expect a building permit to be approved on august 26ths council meeting. Also on a personal note...i was just appointed to Edmond's convention and tourism board..so for all things edmond, hit me up. peace.

Congratulations on your appointment, I look foreward to your imput.

I posted about some new information on this development on the Edmond board. Looks like it's finally going to be decided by the council.

Group files 3,300 signatures

John A. Williams
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND— Two petitions, each with more than 3,300 signatures calling for a referendum vote on the proposed Bridges of Spring Creek development, have been filed with the Edmond City Clerk.

The petition was launched days after the Edmond City Council voted 3-2 June 26 to rezone an area next to Hafer Park to allow a commercial development by Sooner Investment.

“We still have as many as 50 that haven’t been turned in,” said Edmond attorney Lydia Lee, representing the Bryant ACCORD III. “But we have the lion’s share and felt we would go ahead and file them.”

The 293 pages of names were turned into the clerk’s office at 3 p.m. Monday. “We’ve collected signatures from all over Edmond,” Lee said. “This is a citywide issue not just a localized issues for NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). We had people seeking us out to sign the petition.”

The two petitions seek to rescind the council’s vote on Ordinance 3026 and Ordinance 3028 that changed the zoning next to Hafer Park from A-Single Family Dwelling to D-1 and E-1 commercial usage.

City Clerk Nancy Nichols must verify the signatures before a vote can be called.

The Bridges of Spring Creek development was again the topic of discussion at the City Council’s Monday night meeting.

First, the council considered approving the minutes of the June 26 meeting. Mayor Saundra Naifeh refused to recognize Lee at the podium saying there had been full discussion during the July 10 meeting where Lee presented the council with a list of additions she wanted added to the minutes.

Councilman Wayne Page said the minutes should not be taken lightly and asked for several changes. He said there was no mention in the minutes to the discussion of possibly adding dual left turn lanes and protected right turn lanes at 15th and Bryant if the Spring Creek plan was approved.

Page said the amount of increased traffic listed was erroneous and there was no mention of the changes businesses at the intersection would have to do to signs and landscaping if the turn lanes were built.

The minutes were approved as written by a vote of 4-1.

Though the council took no action on an item to discuss a motion to reconsider its June 26 vote on the Spring Creek project. Page asked the council to consider at a future date adding ordinances 3025 and 3027, which the council also voted to amend, to the same referendum vote.

By a majority vote, council could add the items making all four ordinance changes made June 26 part of a referendum vote of the people.
But the Bryant ACCORD III already has planned to circulate another two petitions beginning today.

“I thought maybe the possibility of 3,300 Edmond citizens might sway their opinion a little bit,” Lee said. “I’m still hoping they will on their own initiative put the planned amendments on the (ballot) with the others. We’re very confident that we’ve got the signatures to put this to a vote of the people.”
Randel Shadid, the attorney representing the Bridges at Spring Creek developer Sooner Land Investment, said he understands that commercial development is an emotional subject in Edmond. He faced a similar situation as a councilman in the early 1980s.

“I voted to rezone the northeast corner of 15th and Bryant in 1982 and that decision was actually rescinded by initiative petition. I think it was a 3-2 vote.” That area now is home to the first Spring Creek shopping center.
“Better be careful what you ask for because if this is rescinded, it goes back to A-Single Family, they’ll put homes in there. They’ll be no 25 percent landscaping except for what there is on the house. They’ll be no retention improvements to Spring Creek because the commercial development will allow you to address those problems,” Shadid said.

Council also approved an Edmond Fire Department training trust fund to help defray the cost of training emergency workers from smaller departments. The fund will seek private and corporate donors.

The council also approved a project agreement with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for the widening of Boulevard and Broadway and realinging the intersection of Broadway and Covell to the east in preparation of the Covell underpass project in 2007.

The estimated cost of the projects is $6.1 million with Edmond paying 20 percent or $1.2 million.
(John A. Williams may be reached via e-mail at jwilliams@edmondsun.com.)

“Better be careful what you ask for because if this is rescinded, it goes back to A-Single Family, they’ll put homes in there. They’ll be no 25 percent landscaping except for what there is on the house. They’ll be no retention improvements to Spring Creek because the commercial development will allow you to address those problems,” Shadid said.

Ding ding ding!

jbrown, you're right. The funny thing is, Sooner owns this land. It would be zoned single family residential. Since Sooner owns it, they control the covenants. They could conceivably build cheap little 800 sq ft frame houses on the land if this gets rescinded.

Exactly. We can take this REALLY nice shopping center that we know will have 25% landscaping (that's a huge amount) and a retention pond to control drainage in the area, and will most assuredly improve Edmond and Oklahoma's image, or we can risk getting a bunch of tiny houses with all the trees bulldozed.

I was telling someone today that I wouldn't be surprised if the parties involved did ads on the issue before the vote, like a state question. It's crazy.

— Edmond voters will have the final say on a controversial shopping center.

JOHN WILLIAMS
The Edmond Sun


Edmond City Clerk Nancy Nichols has ruled that the opponents to the Bridges at Spring Creek development have gathered enough signatures to bring the plan to a citywide vote on April 3. Until the vote, developers can do no construction.

“We are ecstatic,” said Edmond attorney Lydia Lee, who represents the Bryant ACCORD III. “We gathered more than three times what was required.”

The group gathered 3,205 signatures on a petition to bring the council’s decision to rezone the land for the development to general commercial and 3,311 signatures on another ordinance that changed the land for D-1 Restricted Commercial development.

Nichols said she deputized four other people to help her verify the signatures. “We’ve never had this many before.”

She said about 100 signatures were disallowed because a husband and wife’s name was signed by one person, some petitions were not properly notarized or some signatures were not those of Edmond residents.

The next step is the publication of an official notice and giving any protesters 10 days to object to the petitions. Nichols said she doesn’t expect a protest.
Lee said the group’s next hurdle is to try to get the city to add the two Edmond Plan III amendments on the ballot without having to circulate another initiative petition.

“I’m confident we can get the signatures but why put the people through that when we’ve had a demonstration of what the will of the people is on this.”

She’s hoping instead that the City Council will add the two amendments to the ballot during their next meeting Aug. 14.

Edmond attorney Randel Shadid, who represents the Bridges at Spring Creek developer Sooner Land Company, said he wasn’t surprised the group was able to gather the signatures so quickly.

“We’re going to get a copy of the petitions and then see what we want to do,” he said.

Shadid said last month if the decision is reversed, the landowner will put in new housing instead.

“The citizens of this community do not want this development there. I think that’s been made clear,” Lee said. “Only 4,000 people voted in the last citywide election. We have nearly that many who will vote against it.”

Voter's decide Nov. 7

http://www.edmondsun.com/local/local_story_241000832.html

I will be voting in favor.

Good job Sooner Investments!

By Diana Baldwin
The Oklahoman

EDMOND - Voters on Tuesday ratified an earlier city council decision to rezone 30 acres adjacent to E.C. Hafer Park as commercial to make way for a controversial, upscale shopping center.

With all 31 precincts counted, people cast the highly advertised "Yes, Yes, No, No" combination of votes on the four propositions needed to keep the property on Bryant Avenue, north of East 15th Street, commercial.


Council members were forced to call the election after opponents of the proposed Bridges at Spring Creek successfully circulated referendum petitions.


Developer Brad Goodwin of Sooner Development said, "We're happy we won today. We are proud the citizens came out to support the council and mayor. We are ready to move forward."


Goodwin is proposing to build a 160,000-square-foot shopping center, anchored by a Belks department store.


Opponents campaigned on a variety of topics ranging from saving the trees, predictions of unsafe traffic, the size of the project and the loss of tranquillity at the park.


Lydia Lee, an attorney for rezoning opponents, said, "We're so proud of our efforts. There were more than 25,000 votes cast -- that is more votes ever cast in an Edmond municipal election. We were outspent 60 to one, and we came close to beating them."


In another metro area municipal election Tuesday, Moore voters passed a four-year, half-cent sales tax that will generate an estimated $10 million over four years.


Among projects proposed are three new fire stations, renovating of another station, new police cars, equipment, parking and a 911 communications center.
(http://www.newsok.com/article/2968439/?print=1)

Good news on the Moore front...Houses are going up so fast we definitely needed to add fire stations and enhance our police dept

This was the right decision for Edmond.

Yep. Edmond people are so strangely anti-development. They build in undeveloped areas, then they become apoplectic when someone has the audacity to develop that undeveloped land.

I never could understand that.

It amazes me that 48-49% of voters really thought that the alternative to the shopping center was going to be something better for Edmond. One woman told a friend of my dad's that she thought developers were "bluffing" about building tiny starter homes on the property if it was voted down. "Oh they're just bluffing, it will become part of Hafer Park and every tree will be saved!" Delusion.

Green space vs. trees
Developer, panel disagree on agreement's meaning

By Tricia Pemberton
Staff Writer

EDMOND — Trees are once again an issue for developers building The Bridges at Spring Creek shopping center at 15th Street and Bryant Avenue.
Sooner Land Co. representatives are requesting a second amendment to its Planned Unit Development. The issue is set to come before the Edmond Planning Commission on April 3.

At issue is language in the newest request that would change the landscaping requirements. Developers and city leaders initially agreed that 25 percent of the area would be landscaped. Now the builders want to change that to 15 percent and eliminate a pine tree preservation area. They claim the pine trees can no longer be preserved because they are dead or dying.

"This is really not a change, it's a clarification,” developer Brad Goodwin said. "People are confusing green space and landscaping.”

Attorney Randel Shadid, who represents Sooner Land Co., explained the developer still is planning for about 27 percent green space around the shopping center, but is asking that specific landscaping requirements be changed so that only 15 percent of that area is landscaped.

"This meets the I-35 corridor guidelines, and that's the most stringent standard in the city,” Shadid said.

The new development amendment request also asks the city to waive the 50 percent landscaping requirement in the "front-yard area” of the development because shops wouldn't be seen from 15th Street or Bryant Avenue if the requirement remains.

Some in the city claim the new request is evidence that Sooner is trying to break its promise to Edmond residents who voted for the development in a November special election.

Lydia Lee, an Edmond attorney who represented opponents of the project, said, "I will refer you to a postcard they sent out, every mailer, even their Web site says one-third of the project will be landscaped. They made numerous promises that this would be heavily landscaped; and I'm sorry, 15 percent is not heavily landscaped.”

Lee and other opponents plan to be at the planning commission meeting April 3 and at any subsequent city council meetings to protest changes to the shopping center plan.

"The vote last fall was pretty close,” Lee said. "This is not just for the 11,000 who voted against this, but for the 11,000 or 12,000 who voted in favor of it. They deserve to have what they were promised.”

The new request differs from marketing materials dispersed throughout Edmond by a Sooner-backed group called Citizens for a Better Edmond before a November special election.

Before the election, the city was plastered with full-color fliers showing the shopping center flanked by numerous areas of trees. One flier has "37% landscaped” printed in the corner.

Goodwin said that figure included all of the green space at the development, including detention ponds. The city later told him the detention ponds could not be counted as green space, and that led to the reduced landscape figure in his request, he said.

He said the area will still have plenty of trees, including trees that will be left on city property bordering Spring Creek and buffering the duck pond at E.C. Hafer Park.

A grove of pine trees, however — located off of 15th Street behind Chappelwood Financial Services — are dying or dead, according to the amendment request.

Carrie Tomlinson, Edmond's urban forester, confirmed that the trees are dying and said it's a problem affecting pine trees throughout Edmond.

Tomlinson said the trees either have the Ips pine bark beetle or nematodes, a form of worm carried by the pine sawyer beetle. She also said pine trees are a marginal species in Oklahoma anyway and are tough to keep healthy because of recent drought conditions and hot summers.

Tomlinson said the developers could replant with a different species of tree, but their amendment request says the pine tree preserve will be eliminated.

Lee also has an issue with 35,000 square feet of property that Sooner vowed to donate to the city to the south of the Pelican Bay Aquatic Center at Ninth Street and Bryant Avenue. She said the land has not yet been donated and instead Sooner is proposing to share the land with the city.

Shadid said the land is committed to the city.

"It's the city's ground, so they can do what they want with it, but it would make sense for it to be shared parking lot,” he said.

Councilman Charles Lamb said it's important for people to remember that the amendment request is still just a request.

"They have a right to ask for anything they want, but that's all this is. There's no assurance that the planning commission or the council will grant what they're asking. Right now, they are still obligated to what got approved, and that (agreement) has not been changed,” Lamb said.

Goodwin and Shadid said it's possible that they will ask for an extension and not meet with the planning commission April 3 in order to further study the landscaping requirements.