Published: December 11, 2006 09:37 am      

Choctaw developments not favored

Choctaw residents spoke for most of Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting.

After it was all said and done, the Commission recommended against rezoning the 180-acre Choctaw 180 property and split on rezoning the Deerborne Village property.

The Choctaw City Council will vote on the issue at Tuesday night.

Neither request met with the goals set out in the city’s comprehensive plan, said Kerry Becker, who voted against both items.

“They are a lot closer (Deerborne Village), but they still aren’t in line with it,” Becker said.

Becker said the Comprehensive Plan allows for rezoning rural residential to single family residential nearer to N.E. 23rd Street, which he referred to as “urban sprawl,” but did not recommend rezoning deeper within the city.

Bob Rennell, the planning commission’s only member who voted for both proposals, refused to elaborate on his thoughts, but said he believes both are in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan.

According to Lou Renolds, an attorney representing the developers of Deerborne Village, City Planner Mark Seibold believes the rezoning of the 90 acres they requested to be single family residential is in line with the Comprehensive Plan.

Seibold said that, according to the 1982 Comprehensive Plan, both developments are appropriate as single-family residential.

He also said, however, that the 2001 Strategic Plan was also to be taken into account.

Broken Arrow-based Triad Development is developing Deerborne Village and is made up of three men — Greg Henry, John Reynolds and Haynes Reynolds. All three are connected to Choctaw. Henry is a resident of Choctaw and the father-in-law of Haynes.

Haynes is the son of John Reynolds. Henry recently was one of several who bought Choctaw Creek Golf Course to “save” it from development.

“When this development is done, we’re (family members) going to still be there,” Haynes said.

Citizens complained that the floodplain was not properly delineated and that the city’s infrastructure would not be able to catch up with the number of houses coming in.

Haynes said they had spent $360,000 with Oklahoma City-based SMC Consulting and Intercon to test where the floodplain is located.

They admitted that it extends beyond the FEMA and U.S. Corps of Engineer maps, but said they took that into account in their planning.

Haynes also said that they would be looking into partnering with the city and other developers on installing a water tower and that the development could take as long as 15 years to complete.

Triad Development dropped a request to rezone 20 acres as commercial. Haynes admitted the request was not in line with the Comprehensive Plan.

“It’s going to take years and years to develop this many homes.”

Sandy Hauser, developer of Choctaw 180, was also present at the meeting with attorney Phil Hagan.

Both said they are being misrepresented by citizens and that many of the issues brought into question are not pertinent to the rezoning application.

Resident Rhonda Burgess cited a study that found scale of crime in a neighborhood correlates with the neighborhood’s density.