The Norman City Council discussed the Storm Water Master Plan Tuesday evening in front of a packed house of concerned citizens, business leaders and others who had varying concerns regarding the 650-page document that will cost $83 million to implement.
After an avalanche of public comment, including a resolution drafted by the Norman Chamber of Commerce urging the council not to adopt data and maps contained in the plans because they would hurt business development in the future, council members voted unanimously to adopt the resolution and begin the process of moving forward on the Storm Water Master Plan after a meeting lasting more than four hours.
With so much interest, City Manager Steve Lewis took time before public comment to assure concerned members of the public in attendance that the resolution before the council Tuesday evening wouldn't commit the city to any particular funding mechanism and wouldn't result in the creation of any new ordinance, two fears of many in the audience regarding the Storm Water Master Plan.
The city also showed a video before public comments to address a possible Impervious Surface Fee, which everybody in Norman would have to pay, including churches, schools, private residents, businesses and the University of Oklahoma. According to the video, the average homeowner in Norman would have to pay about $6 per month in additional utility fees.
Most in attendance had no problem paying the extra utility fees and urged the council to take swift action before further damage was caused by flooding, run-off and other problems associated with storm water. Many who stepped up to the podium were personally affected by the issues addressed in the plan.
Jim Seifried, who lives at McGee Street and Lindsey Street, said the flooding around his residence is bad and getting worse. He said the city has done nothing in the last several years to fix flooding in the area, which is some times called "Lake McGee" because of the massive pools of water that form when it rains.
"We feel ignored by the City of Norman," Seifried said. "We're lump summed into a master plan, and we're not getting fixed."
But it wasn't just well-known flooding areas that dominated the discussion.
One man, who works at a Campus Corner coffee shop, said his employer lost business because of the poor taste of Norman's water, which many attributed to run-off into Lake Thunderbird.
Another woman said her garage floods every time it rains.
Some business owners, who are members of the Norman Chamber of Commerce, even came out in support of the plan.
Homeowners associations, who in many cases are charged with maintaining detention ponds to manage storm water, also are in favor of the plan because they can't put money into sprucing up their neighborhoods if they're spending small fortunes every year doing work the city should be taking care of.
Members of the business community and economic developers, including a representative of Norman Public Schools, were opposed to council adopting the resolution.
Trey Bates, president of the Norman Developers Council and a member of the Norman Chamber of Commerce, said he felt like the Storm Water Master Plan was a good thing, he just felt it shouldn't be rushed. Especially not at this point in its development.
"We're all wanting the same thing," Bates said. "We need to come together with a complete plan.
"The worst thing that could happen is we spend all of this time, all of these thousands or millions of dollars, and not come out with a plan."
Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com
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NEW: Public speaks out on Storm Water Master Plan
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