‘Let the citizens of Norman decide’: Residents petition for public vote on entertainment district

At the southwest corner of Porter Avenue and Main Street, Debbie Burleson instructs petition signers to write their names across the line in clear, capital letters. Community members ask her questions about the district and thank her for volunteering.

Burleson, a volunteer, is gathering signatures for the referendum petition that would turn the Rock Creek Entertainment District project plan over to a public vote.

“All we’re trying to do here is let the citizens of Norman decide what they want to do: yes or no,” Burleson said.

In the early hours of Sept. 18, Norman City Council approved the $1 billion district project plan in a 5-4 vote. Over 70 community members voiced their support or concerns in the contentious seven-hour meeting.

Oklahomans for Responsible Economic Development, filed the petition to Mayor Larry Heikkila on Sept. 20.

At the meeting, many spoke about the tax increment financing districts, or TIFs, included in the project plan. Community members who objected to financing the district through TIFs cited concerns about their effectiveness and impact on public funding. A TIF is a financing tool that allocates incoming tax money from a particular area to developments.

The entertainment district would feature an 8,000 seat arena for OU’s basketball and gymnastics teams, 500 housing units, commercial lots, hotel and parking garage.

ORED is a nonprofit organization formed to give community members a say in economic development decisions for the city, according to its website.

Paul Arcaroli, a founding member of ORED, Pamela McCoy-Post and Richard Sondag are listed as proponents on the petition.

Arcaroli said the petition allows the Norman community to have a say about the district.

“Those developments, in this case economic, or other developments that can have impact on the larger community should be thoroughly vetted and thoroughly discussed by everybody,” Arcaroli said.

Burleson has volunteered at the petition booth for the past three days, and said she has seen many people “anxious to sign.” According to Burleson, Norman residents are angry they haven’t had a chance to vote on the use of such a large portion of their tax money.

“It’s the audacity of the individual members of the city council deciding that five people could make this huge financial commitment for the larger community,” Arcaroli said.

OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. told OU Daily he believes community members have the right to overturn the council’s decision, but he hopes the decision will prevail.

“They want to try and overturn it, they can try to overturn it,” Harroz said. “I obviously think that’s not in the best interest of the city, but they think otherwise. So we’ll see what that shakes out.”

Harroz said advancement and growth is key to OU’s success. He said the entertainment district is an opportunity to grow.

“People don’t like change,” Harroz said. “They want to criticize change, but that assumes that where you stand, if you don’t change, will be the same tomorrow as it is today.”

Arcaroli said he has always encouraged community-minded growth, but this district plan’s value is “questionable.”

“We are not anti-growth, we’re not anti-arena, we’re not anti-change,” Arcaroli said. “Those are the narratives that the pro-business constituents continue to throw out, and it’s absolutely not true.”

According to Arcaroli, developers and proponents of the project have “controlled the narrative” around the district. He said the community needs a public discussion so people’s questions can be answered.

“Up to this point it’s been a complete one-way flow of information controlled and managed by the pro-arena, the pro-TIF constituency, and those folk that are going to be impacted the greatest by this have been frozen out,” Arcaroli said.

OU economics professor Cynthia Rogers, a founding member of ORED, acts as an economic consultant for the organization and collects signatures.

Rogers said the arena isn’t the issue but rather its financing. The project plan proposes two TIF districts, one collecting sales and use tax, the other collecting ad valorem, or property tax.

According to Rogers, the city budget and public schools will suffer from losing the tax revenue directed towards the proposal. However, project developers say there will be no adverse effects.

Norman Public Schools Superintendent Nick Migliorino said there is no evidence TIFs will negatively impact public school funding at a recent board meeting.

“The benefit is it increases the valuation of the total overall wealth of the community. Therefore, our bonding capacity goes up because our bonding capacity is based off the sum of the valuation,” Migliorino said.

According to a presentation sent to OU Daily by Rogers, the proposed TIFs would take 100% of tax revenue in the district. According to the project plan, the TIF districts will last up to 25 years.

Rogers said she estimates $105 million of the $600 million financing will be tax money taken from schools.

“I find that to be incredibly offensive, to take public school money and use it for an arena for OU,” Rogers said. “The financing is bad. And of course, (the developers) never ask the public, ‘Do you want to pay for a new arena for OU? Do you want to spend this much money on one?’ That conversation never happened.”

Since the petition was filed, a group called Elevate Norman has been sending texts to community members, encouraging them not to sign the petition.

“Support Norman’s growth and the new sports arena anchored in the Rock Creek Entertainment District that was approved by city council,” the message read. “Don’t sign the petition that may put this crucial project at risk of further delays.”

According to Elevate Norman’s website, the project will not increase taxes or bring any risk to the city.

“Anybody who’s telling you a $600 million tax expenditure … won’t come out of taxpayers’ pockets is crazy,” Rogers said.

OU Daily asked Norman Economic Development Coalition President and CEO Lawrence McKinney, Norman Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Scott Martin and Visit Norman Executive Director Dan Schemm if their organizations were involved in the campaign. All three said their organizations, while in support of the entertainment district, are not involved with the website.

Elevate Norman has no contact information or founders displayed on their website.

“I think that’s worth noting, that whoever it is, they’re not standing behind their claims,” Rogers said.

Attorney Robert Norman, who provides legal advice for ORED and was part of the previous TIF oversight committee, is listed as the attorney for the petition proponents. He said the text message motivated the community to sign the petition.

“It brought their attention to the forefront, and we had a nice uptick in signatures after people received that text,” Norman said. “So if anything, it ended up doing us a favor.”

Like Rogers, Norman also said he is concerned about the district’s financing. While consulting studies show that new economic activity will move into the district, he said the TIFs will take all of that tax revenue.

“The problem comes when the city and the county and the schools no longer get the benefit of the tax activity that is diverted into the TIF district,” Norman said.

Rogers said there is a possibility that the project “goes belly up” and the arena does not get built. She said the city is still “on the hook” to pay off the TIF, no matter what.

“There’s a risk of spending $600 million and not getting an arena, not getting anything we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” Rogers said. “That’s a significant risk.”

According to Tiffany Vrska, Norman chief communications officer, petitioners have until Oct. 18 to collect the 6,098 signatures necessary for the petition.

Once the signatures are collected, they will be submitted to City Clerk Brenda Hall for review. If she determines there are enough valid signatures, she will publish a notice, Norman said. Then, any legal challenges to the petition can be filed.

“It’s possible that could affect the date of any election,” Norman said. “We would strive to have any legal battles resolved in an expeditious manner and maintain that election date.”

The next Oklahoma general election will be on Feb. 11, and petitioners are hopeful the public vote will be on that ballot.

“We’re just going to move forward and keep working on gathering signatures and get this put to a vote of the people,” Norman said.

Arcaroli said there are about 200 signature gatherers volunteering to help with the petition.

Russell Rice, co-founder of Norman Care-A-Vans, is helping organize the petition effort. He said the petition creates change and allows people’s voices to be heard.

“We vote on bonds, we vote on all kinds of small money, so I don’t know why we’re not voting on $600 million,” Rice said. “We want to do this petition so that we can find out the will of the people.”

Rice said he predicts taxes will increase because the city’s general fund will be used up by the TIF.

Community member Kay Warren said she signed the petition because the new developments are unnecessary. She said the university should continue to use Lloyd Noble Center because it’s closer to campus.

“You need to utilize what you have instead of going someplace new,” Warren said.

Rice said the petition has received recognition and praise from various leaders across the state.

“All kinds of people from different cities, elected officials from different cities stopping by just to tell us we’re doing a great job,” Rice said. “They hear about it, and they’re amazed and they love it.”

Arcaroli said he has seen community members from all sides of the political spectrum support the petition.

“This is not a left issue or a right issue,” Arcaroli said. “This is an economic and a community issue.”

This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Ismael Lele and Ana Barboza. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.

This article was originally published by OU Daily.