New West Norman Apartment Complex?

[rcjunkie]

And it was the naysayers who caused a lot of that^

Those "naysayers" make my skin crawl. I live at Tenkiller but own proprty near this location so I have followed this development closely. It's really sad when I hear people that live near this area refer to potential apartment renters as "those people". Sad and disgusting.

[Mr T]

I'm pretty sure post 76 was a good joke. Not all of Norman "nay-sayers" live in that area. We aren't really all that bad - it is just the "newspaper" editor who likes to imply that anything said other than pro-pro-pro-development is just a bunch of nattering old people who should die now and give up their teetering old bungalows and cottages for apartment buildings and Greek Houses. Not going to happen. The editor likes to call us naysayers and crunchy green people and NIMBY-types, but he is not a fair judge of what happens here by any stretch of the imagination.

[Mr T]

We are not the naysayers who say "those people." We are the naysayers who argue with the city and the chamber about water rates and zoning changes and "cat-proof fences."

[ou48A]

Those "naysayers" make my skin crawl. I live at Tenkiller but own proprty near this location so I have followed this development closely. It's really sad when I hear people that live near this area refer to potential apartment renters as "those people". Sad and disgusting.

But what's really sad and disgusting is when people complain about intolerant people when in fact their own words make them look even more intolerant and hypocritical.

The fact is that this project is a lot more palatable for most existing property owners than it was before and for many, a reasonable compromise was found that would not have happened without the input from the so called naysayers.

[David]

The construction fence went up today.

[kevinpate]

Mr. T, it was indeed.

[David]

Looks like there's a name.



I've started to collect my pictures of this site into an Imgur album (also, I apparently take terrible pictures, so you get what you pay for):

Windsor Apartments - Imgur

[Dar405301]

Techumseh Road??

[kevinpate]

Dem naysayers, they be chums.

[David]

LOL, I didn't even notice the misspelling on the sign.

[Dubya61]

Well, as you get closer to Tecumseh, it's lower tech.

[Stan Silliman]

Moore-Norman Vo-Tech, not far from Techcumseh Road.

"Franklin, my dear, I don't give a damn."

[David]

We're getting some earth moving on this site now, as well as the office complex site a bit to the west along Tecumseh.

[David]

A solid year into this project, and it turns out to be kind of huge. I'm a big fan of the stretch of the complex that sits right up against the road.

Windsor Apartments - 1.jpg

Windsor Apartments - 2.jpg

Windsor Apartments - 3.jpg

Windsor Apartments - 4.jpg

Amusingly enough I didn't take or make this panorama, Google automatically (and unexpectedly) stitched it together for me after I took the previous four.

Windsor Apartments - PANO.jpg

[Brownwood]

Although I live near and drive by the site each day, I almost forgot about the debate regarding the construction of the apartments. I'm neither for or against the development of the apartments, but I am thoroughly disgusted with the City of Norman (both planning staff and elected officials) for their disregard for the citizens.

According to KFOR (see post #35 for link) a "giant protest" of 840 nearby homeowners signed a petition to prevent the development. This is a significant percentage of the homeowners who are most affected by the development. The City of Norman, as has been their history, simply ignores the will of the people in favor of the development community. It doesn't seem to matter what the local property owners want as long as the developers are kept happy.

I think it's very important to remember the City did not approve a building permit for a development currently allowable: The City approved a CHANGE to the zoning and land use guidelines specifically PREVENTING this type of development from occurring. These ordinances were in effect when the home owners purchased their property and they should have a reasonable expectation of stability. At very least, the home owners should have a reasonable expectation of their collective voices being heard when a change was requested.

[Questor]

It's hard to tell from the photos, but not only are the apartments three stories but they are setting on top of a three or four foot high foundation. They're huge... By far the tallest buildings in this part of NW Norman.

Yes the city completely ignored its citizens and has since disallowed apartments in other parts of the city for being too big which aren't even close to the size of this complex. One has to wonder what the city's motivations were and are.

Most of the councillors who voted for it are now gone from the council. The elections in the years following were brutal for several of them. There's still one guy on the council who voted for it.

Not much has changed with the city planning commission, and the lawyer who represented this property continues to represent many other projects in front of the commission.

[David]

Ehh, I live closer to this complex than possibly anyone else on the board, and I don't mind either their size or their existence in the slightest. If the people who live in the immediate area that don't like what is being built want to live in an area where they can have more influence on their surroundings, *random set of cookie-cutter suburbs* is not that place, especially when said set of suburbs was built out in the middle of empty fields which are close enough to town that more development was eventually going to follow in relative short order.

[Questor]

Earlier this year these apartments were clipped by the May tornado or winds that took out a portion of the nearby Sonic. The building farthest south facing 36th street was visibly leaning to one side afterwards. There was a lot of chatter around town with locals wondering what would happen to the building. Anyway, after setting unchanged for several months one day construction restarted on the building and now it's almost finished. Anyone have any idea what that was all about?

[Questor]

New name and apparently ownership... Now known as Anatole at Norman.

The Anatole at Norman Apartments