Uncommon Ground Park (2nd & Coltrane)

[BoulderSooner]

They’ve been moving land in this area for some time now. Is the entire project dead now and will they stop? Or will there still be some kind of park there anyway?

if they are stopping there won't be a park at all .. it will be large scale commercial and apts ..

[traxx]

Again, awesome that they cut down all those trees and took the horses away for nothing. Now we have a baren wasteland to look at. Good jorb!

[Hollywood]

Here's the News 9 story.

https://www.news9.com/story/647bda66...ity-of-edmond-

I can't help but wonder if this isn't just a Shadid tactic to create pressure on the city to cave on something we may not be aware of.

[Plutonic Panda]

^^^ or just a way to skirt around the recently enacted tree removal ordinance to cut down the trees with no penalties and build a typical Edmond development.

[Richard at Remax]

This will most likely be on the open market soon, according to Mr. French.

[Richard at Remax]

Here's the News 9 story.

https://www.news9.com/story/647bda66...ity-of-edmond-

I can't help but wonder if this isn't just a Shadid tactic to create pressure on the city to cave on something we may not be aware of.

Nothing going on behind the scenes.

[TornadoKegan]

Sounds like this Project is a bust

[TornadoKegan]

I wonder if the Famous people residing in Edmond have something to do with the project going bust

[TornadoKegan]

French should consider Moving his project to Moore he may have better luck there

[Plutonic Panda]

French should consider Moving his project to Moore he may have better luck there

Lol the city approved this project and it had public support. It isn’t Edmond on this one and I am VERY critical of Edmond. Ask many here and they’d likely tell you I have something against Edmond. The developers and Shadid are a bunch of babies who got their feelings hurt because it wasn’t rubber stamped in approval or there is something more nefarious going on.

[Richard at Remax]

Lol the city approved this project and it had public support. It isn’t Edmond on this one and I am VERY critical of Edmond. Ask many here and they’d likely tell you I have something against Edmond. The developers and Shadid are a bunch of babies who got their feelings hurt because it wasn’t rubber stamped in approval or there is something more nefarious going on.

100% false.

[Plutonic Panda]

100% false.

What is false? I watched the city council meetings. The city had concerns but was in favor of the project. The mayor even said he wants to work with the group to get it done. How am I wrong?

[Richard at Remax]

The part about being babies. I work right down the hall from Mr French. I came on here and posted the first renderings and what the lark will be called, ect. The city council was great. The city manager and people in the city offices are clowns. Have been difficult to deal with for over 2 years now on what would be an aweosme legitimate gift. Mr. French had enough after the meeting last week and pulled the plug. A ton of background stuff happened that's not being reported. Thankfully, the court of public opinion is on the developers side so that should tell you all you need to know.

[Plutonic Panda]

Okay so it wasn’t 100% false then. Maybe my characterization of them being babies isn’t fair but they certainly just gave up fast and everything they’ve said in news reports just doesn’t add up.

[EdOkCounty]

Seems like there is more to the story that isn't being communicated. The city council approved numerous variances for the project yet suddenly the project is dead. The city has neglected the intersection of 2nd and Coltrane far too long. Placing the responsibility for street infrastructure on the developer was heavy handed.

[onthestrip]

Getting things approved by city council is only part of the battle. The planning department can throw all kinds of demands on someone, put up roadblocks, come up with 11th hour requirements that add costs, etc. The details are worked out with planning department, not the council, and that can sometime be too expensive or difficult to make it worth their while. And in this case they were tired of it and walked away. No one at their age wants to have to fight battle after battle to get something like this done. Moral of the story, the city of Edmond needs to find more of a can do attitude and less of a cant do.

[shavethewhales]

Without knowing the details, it's hard to know who is really to blame here. I am a civil engineer myself and work on development projects every day. Sometimes cities are indeed hard to work with, but many of the frustrations are just part of doing business. Each department does what they think is necessary to protect the city and it's citizens and while it can be annoying to "jump through hoops" there is usually a reason. There are occasions where city staff are way too slow or just incompetent, but most of the time I find that everyone is just doing their jobs under the constraints they have.

This story sounds incredibly fishy to me. I have a feeling the guy giving this "gift" didn't take into account all the issues a park like this brings. Who provides security? Who maintains it? Who pays the water/electric/trash/etc bills? What programming will be provided? What happens if it gets vandalized? Lots of questions to answer. Sounds like this guy just wanted to build something and dump it on the city and got mad that everyone didn't line up and kiss his ass for it. Who knows though, like I said it's hard to see what is really going on, but that is sure how it comes off to me.

Edit: just looked up more info and I see that there was much debate about who would fit the bill for the infrastructure around the park. Probably talking about millions, if not tens of millions of dollars of pipe and roadwork to support this thing that the city would have to dig out of somewhere that wasn't planned for. Tulsa had enormous help to get Gathering Place off the ground. I can't remember what the bill was for the infrastructure alone, but including the tunnels it was over a hundred million dollars. Gathering Place didn't just randomly happen as some big gift from a billionaire plopped on the city - it took years and years of planning and an absolute assload of money from multiple sources.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^
Realest post in this thread.

[traxx]

I saw some trees had been torn out at Covell and Coltrane. Can we expect another park? Call it Barren Wasteland Park.

[Hollywood]

Saundra Naifeh, Patrice Douglas, Dan O’Neil and Elizabeth Waner are now jumping into the mix...

FORMER EDMOND MAYORS SPEAK OUT AFTER UNCOMMON GROUND PARK CALLED OFF
https://www.news9.com/story/648398a7...ark-called-off

[Plutonic Panda]

I guess we just need to wait and see what all comes out of this. Something doesn’t smell right. The mayor even said he was supportive of his project and wanted it done. It’s very weird that a group of former mayors would come together and write this letter essentially blaming him for this project failure and pointing out their disdain for the new City Hall complex. That is a project that is sorely needed. It’s embarrassing a City the size of Edmond doesn’t have a decent City Hall complex.

I’m also failing to see the relevance unless they’re trying to suggest the city should have funneled that money into this park instead. If that’s the case, then stop pretending like this is some family that wants to do some big philanthropic thing in Edmond.

[jerrywall]

Without getting too into politics, I'm also a little skeptical of some of this "outrage" and the motivations. There's been a rather... unsavory political movement in Edmond over the past few years and they've been trying to get their folks on the council and into the mayor's seat. They're the "Keep Edmond, Edmond" crowd, and the same ones that tried to block the new YMCA/Library, who led the efforts blocking the Spring Creek development, and are part of the "Stand Up for America" crowd with Old Ranger who shows up to bitch about DEI efforts and covid protocols at the council meetings. They've been pushing this narrative that Mayor Davis is some sort of dictator (like the mayor has any sort of real power outside of being another council seat) and their new tactic is to complain about "transparency". Even if there are valid concerns about that, when folks start attacking and referencing the same complaints as the "Lion's Den" jerks I pretty much assume they're part of the same effort.

[onthestrip]

Without getting too into politics, I'm also a little skeptical of some of this "outrage" and the motivations. There's been a rather... unsavory political movement in Edmond over the past few years and they've been trying to get their folks on the council and into the mayor's seat. They're the "Keep Edmond, Edmond" crowd, and the same ones that tried to block the new YMCA/Library, who led the efforts blocking the Spring Creek development, and are part of the "Stand Up for America" crowd with Old Ranger who shows up to bitch about DEI efforts and covid protocols at the council meetings. They've been pushing this narrative that Mayor Davis is some sort of dictator (like the mayor has any sort of real power outside of being another council seat) and their new tactic is to complain about "transparency". Even if there are valid concerns about that, when folks start attacking and referencing the same complaints as the "Lion's Den" jerks I pretty much assume they're part of the same effort.

Yes this small Stand up for America and Old Ranger crowd is getting really tiring. They think they speak for everyone, even though their preferred candidate just lost to Davis and they didnt get enough signatures to overturn the new city hall, ymca, library. At every council meeting Old Ranger berates the council and mayor, makes demands and then claims the council is woke if they dont do everything he demands of them.

But there does need to be an attitude change within city managers office and planning department. They sometimes have no concern for people looking to invest and develop multi million dollar projects, the type of things that grow the city budget and help pay for the high quality of of life in Edmond.

[jerrywall]

But there does need to be an attitude change within city managers office and planning department. They sometimes have no concern for people looking to invest and develop multi million dollar projects, the type of things that grow the city budget and help pay for the high quality of of life in Edmond.

I can't argue because I don't have direct experience to counter, but I'd question who "they" are and what this is based on. Scot has only been city manager for a little over a year. Is this a reputation he's earned already, or is this based on Larry's 20-year tenure? If it's a city staff issue, that may be a long term problem that will take a bit to fix with the newish manager. If it's the planning commission... well that group changes/evolves over time but I could see it being a problem - although in this case it seems like they rubber stamped every variance with barely a meeting so it can't be the problem with the park.

Certainly, developers can get resistance in Edmond to major projects, but that's usually community driven in my experience, not from the top down, but I'm willing to hear other experiences.

Side note - On transparency, I feel like those who are claiming the city isn't open aren't paying attention. I get all the city planning updates, budgets, agendas and more sent to me, plus the city has multiple dashboards to track projects, CIP expenditures, and such. Plus the regular city manager's updates on youtube, and more. Many of the things that folks are complaining about in terms of transparency were clearly discussed in open meetings. By transparent I think some folks mean every single decision should be voted on by the public... which isn't how it works.

[progressiveboy]

Since I have not kept up with Edmond politics, here is hoping Edmond can move into a 21st century mode and not be so anti development and full of NIMBYS! Why would people object to a new YMCA/Library and a new city hall. Edmond needs to play catch up and needs to operate like a forward thinking city or it will start stagnating. Edmond is struggling to make it to 100,000 population. Edmond should look to other forward thinking "regional" suburbs such as Overland Park, Plano, Frisco that continue to grow and prosper. Edmond can no longer afford to be complacent. This park could become a huge change for Edmond!