An article in today's edition of the TRANSCRIPT indicated that there will be a city council vote Tuesday night to retire the present TIF for UNP early. Additionally this would effectively end Norman financing an arena for the OU Foundation.
What a contrast between Norman and OKC on this type of funding.

There has been a big backlash against TIF in Norman by both citizens and city council.

OKC just creative 3 more for the American Indian Cultural Center.

An article in today's edition of the TRANSCRIPT indicated that there will be a city council vote Tuesday night to retire the present TIF for UNP early. Additionally this would effectively end Norman financing an arena for the OU Foundation.
What a contrast between Norman and OKC on this type of funding.

Can you post the link? I can't find it on their site.

Can you post the link? I can't find it on their site.

No link, I read the article in the physical copy.

Help me. I’m guessing there was a story in the Norman Transcript about Tax Incremental Financing for something called UNP? What is this and what does it mean?

A link to the article I mentioned.
https://www.normantranscript.com/news/local_news/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-unp-tif/article_bc5d1b3b-6d30-5f92-ac1f-7155304156bc.html

This is a petition that has been circulated. This petition is about the proposed TIF for the arena.
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-to-unp-tif-arena-in-norman

While not taking a stand either way, I was surprised at the difference in attitude of the council members and taxpayers between the largest and third largest city separated by less than 30 miles.

Is it possible it is seen as too big a project for a city the size of Norman? Scale it to the population of OKC and it would be like building something like Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Chisolm Creek and more, wouldn't it? Sometimes there is a fine line between being anti-progress, and responsible growth.

My feeling when talking to others in Norman is many feel they were sold a bill of goods on UNP, as far as what would be there, versus what actually is there. Also many feel that UNP is to blame for the demise of businesses on EN Parkway, as well as other areas of town. The diversion of sales tax revenue is problematic as well.

My feeling when talking to others in Norman is many feel they were sold a bill of goods on UNP, as far as what would be there, versus what actually is there. Also many feel that UNP is to blame for the demise of businesses on EN Parkway, as well as other areas of town. The diversion of sales tax revenue is problematic as well.
I know my friends and family count themselves in the group sold a bill of goods on UNP. It hasn't lived up to their expectations at all. They're not too upset about Ed Noble though, because that was more due to the highway construction in their opinion.

Born and raised in Norman and with my parents still living there, recently moving to a new addition on Tecumseh (about a mile from UNP). They are severely disappointed in the mix of retail and restaurant options. They remember being promised a higher-end mix of retail and larger more prominent national restaurant chains. They thought there would be a new movie theatre as well. None of that has really happened. I agree with them completely. When you're promised high-end then get TJ Maxx, Dollar Tree, Kohls, Carmax...Yikes. I do like that there is a La Madeline and Redrock Canyon Grill, but that's about it.

Born and raised in Norman and with my parents still living there, recently moving to a new addition on Tecumseh (about a mile from UNP). They are severely disappointed in the mix of retail and restaurant options. They remember being promised a higher-end mix of retail and larger more prominent national restaurant chains. They thought there would be a new movie theatre as well. None of that has really happened. I agree with them completely. When you're promised high-end then get TJ Maxx, Dollar Tree, Kohls, Carmax...Yikes. I do like that there is a La Madeline and Redrock Canyon Grill, but that's about it.

I legitimately can't believe someone hasn't built a better movie theater than the Spotlight in Norman. Last I checked the population is up to like 125k now.

Yeah that’s exactly it... the feeling here is that the Norman government and developers cannot be trusted to tell the truth. OKC in contrast has a long history of doing what it promises with its TIFs.

They showed us photos of walkable outdoor malls on the west coast and we ended up with seas of parking lots. They promised us high end and we got TJ Max. For years the story was always that the high end stuff was coming next. Then they claimed the economy changed and they couldn’t do it, but we would still get unique one of a kind shopping. Then we got the exact carbon copy of things you find near Belle, Memorial, etc. So in my opinion this isn’t a contrast of opinions of people located 30 miles from each other, it’s a statement about the state of Norman’s ability to govern compared to OKC.

^^^^^^ this!!!!!!!!!!!!