Norman City Council approved the project plan for the $1 billion University North Park entertainment district on Tuesday after months of pushback from residents.
At the second public hearing regarding the project plan, Norman residents flooded city hall to voice their concerns or support for the plan.
The Rock Creek Entertainment District project plan creates two tax increment finance districts to fund the development. The first TIF uses sales tax, the second is an ad valorem increment district.
“We’re here for a project we believe will change our community for forever,” Sean Rieger, attorney for the applicant, said in his opening presentation. “For the better.”
Community members react
Over 70 community members signed up to speak in the public hearing.
Ward 3 resident Rob Norman was on the University North Park TIF committee.
“I voted against the financing because it is the worst possible public financing tool we could use, and it’s for one reason, and that’s to avoid a vote of the people,” Norman said. “Depending on what you do tonight, that’s going to happen anyway.”
While addressing council, Norman called for an open debate and public vote on the project plan.
In an interview with OU Daily during the hearing, Norman said he was concerned about economic harm because spending activity would be concentrated in the district. A TIF district would decrease the city of Norman’s general fund revenue, he said.
Many entertainment districts are funded without TIFs, Norman said. Instead, they use private funding, bonds or other tax revenue.
“The reason that that is not the plan here, which is what everyone else does, is that that brings it to a vote of the people,” Norman said. “And I don’t think the strongest advocates for this plan want this to go to a vote of the people.”
Norman said he wants there to be a public debate so citizens can speak for longer than the allotted time in city council meetings, which is three minutes.
“We have to make our case somewhere else,” Norman said. “We can and we will.”
Norman said citizens opposed to the district plan to create a referendum petition for a public vote if the project is approved.
“If they pass it, we’re going to do everything we can to get this voted on by the people,” Norman said.
Cynthia Rogers, an OU economics professor, said in an interview with OU Daily that such a contentious and large spending program should be voted on by the public.
“You get to vote on everything else that uses tax dollars: sales tax, new sales tax,” Rogers said. “This uses the thing that we vote on, diverting it to something that we didn’t vote on.”
Rogers also said the property taxes the TIF collects are intended to fund public schools.
“The most important thing for families to come to Norman, they look at the schools,” she said. “That’s the first thing they look at. I doubt they’re like, ‘Do you have an arena?’”
Most current city council members will not be on the council when school and infrastructure funding issues arise as a result of the TIF, she said.
Rogers said she does not want the district to be completely funded by TIFs, but the city should finance the public infrastructure portions of the project.
Ward 6 resident Marguerite Larson said city surveys reflect that the Norman community does not want the project approved.
Larson also said the TIF will impact school and city funding, and that OU should finance the arena. She also said she was disappointed with the results of a previous TIF.
Larson said she doesn’t agree with the project developers’ assumption that a large amount of funding would be coming in from the TIFs.
“We were promised the moon and the stars and sunshine and dancing girls, and we got Dollar Tree,” she said. “We got Target. We got Office Max.”
In an interview with OU Daily, Larson said she was concerned about housing costs in the district and potential tornado damage.
“Why not invest in something that’s already here?” Larson said. “Why not invest in the community as a whole, as something that’s going to benefit everyone?”
Ward 6 resident Andrew Rasner said that a TIF is the worst way to fund the project plan and no other SEC schools financed their arenas through TIFs.
“This plan severely impacts both our short-term fiscal stability and our long-term ability to invest elsewhere,” he said.
In an interview with OU Daily, Rasner said he appreciates the walkability and higher density housing the project creates but he doesn’t agree with how the project will be supported.
“A lot of those things look really neat, but they are just tied intimately to the way of funding this,” Rasner said.
The project’s supporters
Ward 3 resident James Howard spoke in favor of the project. In an interview with OU Daily during the hearing, Howard said he has seen towns fail to progress “into the future.”
“They have fallen further and further behind in terms of maintaining their population and services to their citizens,” Howard said. “So it’s either forward or backwards.”
Howard said the district would be a “marquee” visible to Norman tourists or drivers on the interstate.
“It basically lets them know that we’re a destination to be taken seriously and enjoyed seriously, which is great for our businesses,” Howard said.
Ward 7 resident Gregg Garn, interim dean of professional and continuing studies, said he is in favor of the project.
“I think this is a powerful one for the university and for the city to come together to move forward in a powerful way,” Garn said. “And I don’t see adverse effects for the public schools.”
Howard said he would be happy if the project was approved.
“It would be a signal to others around us and to the state that we’re serious about being a good city – the place to be,” Howard said.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
