Why is the OTA DESPERATE for a partnership resolution with the City of Norman?

Because our state statutes require CONSENT.. and the City of Norman should continue to REFUSE.

The OTA NEEDS a partnership resolution. They are DESPERATE for the City of Norman to succumb to the fear porn of “missing out.” They need the partnership resolution because our state statutes REQUIRE the OTA to get CONSENT from the governing body owning the roadways that the OTA will affect with their turnpikes.

Without CONSENT, there is NO TURNPIKE.

Issuing permits or signing a resolution of cooperation are both methods of proving municipal consent.

Do you understand yet?

Good… now help me explain it to our City Council Members and for goodness sake…please tell all the Council members, neighbors, friends and anyone else who will listen that the City of Norman isn’t missing out on “access” to our unwanted and unneeded turnpike like our unelected CZAR Darrel Pyle says we are.

Isn’t five access points along a disgustingly destructive turnpike that we don’t want enough? I mean how much land do we want them to eminent domain and pave over in our watershed?

The right answer is NONE, but if we can’t stop them then AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE!

We are actually dodging several big pollution generating, property-tax increasing, generational wealth stealing bullets.

Just SAY NO (AGAIN) to the *partnership* resolution.

Statutes Requiring Consent

The following state statutes require the OTA to garner permission to connect to disturb any of the City of Norman streets and limit the extent to which the OTA can exact eminent domain.

OS 69-1716(b) states that

"All...municipalities...are hereby authorized and empowered to lease, lend, grant, or convey to the Authority at its request upon such terms and conditions as the...municipalities...may deem reasonable and fair ...the regular and formal action of the authorities concerned, any real property which may be necessary or convenient to the effectuation of the authorized purposed of the Authority, including public roads and other real property already devoted to public use." 

Another statute that details consent is Title 69, Chapter 2, Section 3004 (Connecting or feeder roads or streets), which states that:

“If, in the opinion of the board of trustees of such public trust, and of the contractor, that it would be economically wise to improve or construct connecting or feeder streets or roads to the toll expressway, even though such connecting streets or roads would be free roads, then in such event, the trust shall have the authority to let contracts for the construction of such connecting or feeder roads or streets under the following conditions:

1. The consent of the governing body, having jurisdiction over such street or road is first obtained.”

These two specific statutes detail that the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) must have consent of Council to move forward.

That is WHY the OTA wants this resolution so badly and why it has been resurrected only 7 weeks after it was initially shot down with a unanimous City Council Vote of 9-0.

The City of Norman must stand firm and NOT SIGN A PARTNERSHIP RESOLUTION WITH THE OTA.

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Call to Action

It’s time to remind our council members that we’ve already voted this down once, and it deserves to be rejected again. This so-called "partnership resolution" is absurd. A sample letter is below.

City Council Members

Mayor - Larry Heikkila; mayor@normanok.gov or 405-876-9216

Ward 1 - Austin Ball; ward1@normanok.gov or 405-876-9170

Ward 2 - Matthew Peacock; ward2@normanok.gov or 405-876-9196

Ward 3 - Bree Montoya; ward3@normanok.gov or 405-876-3143

Ward 4 - Helen Grant; ward4@normanok.gov or 405-876-9237

Ward 5 - Michael Nash; ward5@normanok.gov or 405-876-9239

Ward 6 - Joshua A. Hinkle; ward6@normanok.gov or 405-876-9262

Ward 7 - Stephen Tyler Holman; ward7@normanok.gov or 405-876-9263

Ward 8 - Scott Dixon - ward8@normanok.gov or 405-876-9166

All City Council Members: city_council_members@normanok.gov

City Manager

Darrel Pyle - darrel.pyle@normanok.gov or 405-366-5402

Sample Letter

Dear Council Member,

NO MEANS NO! You voted to REJECT the OTA partnership resolution a mere SEVEN weeks ago and now City Manager Darrel Pyle is resurrecting it for *just* the Indian Hills Corridor ONLY because several Council Members requested it after hearing from the property owners along Indian Hills Road?

I don’t think that could possibly be the reason. I think this resurrection is developer and OTA led and the City must stand firm.

Without the resolution, if the OTA continues to build the turnpike east of I35, the City of Norman gets FIVE access points without the hundreds of millions of dollars it will cost to build the interchanges, upgrade the existing two lane connector roads and maintain the infrastructure long-term.

That’s plenty of access points in an area of Norman that we don’t even want a turnpike.

Just think about all the infrastructure additional access points are going to need in the heart of our watershed. Then think about how much those access points are going to cost. If the City of Norman signs a resolution and asks for more access points, the City of Norman will pay for those access points.

Do you have $250 million you could find in our budget in the next 5 years to pay for those additional access points? Can you justify the dozens more homes and families you will have to impact through eminent domain to do it?

Just say NO.

The OTA needs this resolution to continue to build and interfere with Indian Hills Road because the state statutes say they need “CONSENT” of the governing bodies. OS 69-1716(b) and OS 69, 2-3004 state that if the OTA needs to construct access points to the toll expressway, or connect with any free road it must first obtain “consent of the governing body having jurisdiction over such street or road is first obtained.”

That’s why this resolution was resurrected. Don’t be fooled by the new language requesting the OTA to “exercise discretion set forth in favor of complying with the Federal Uniform Relocation Act” and “work in good faith with financial institutions on behalf of the displaced property owners to transfer low-interest rate mortgages to new properties and provide adequate compensation to take into account the added future tax liabilities.”

Those are just wishes and the OTA doesn’t even follow the law in the statutes let along some City’s wish list.

Put this resolution to bed once and for all. Don’t let it out of Study Session onto the Council Agenda.

Thank you,

Concerned Citizen

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