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NORMAN – Later this month, the Norman City Council will vote on a resolution to form a partnership with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to help build routes through the city as part of the authority’s expansion project.

Norman residents gathered at City Hall Tuesday night in anticipation of a vote on a resolution the city introduced last month affirming Norman’s partnership and cooperation in toll road development as the agency seeks to advance its controversial “Access Oklahoma” expansion plan.

That vote did not take place. Instead, the Council voted at the beginning of the meeting on a motion to delay the resolution decision to give members an additional two weeks to consider it.

“I know other council members would also like to take the opportunity to discuss various aspects of the proclamation,” said Helen Grant, council member for District 4.

Second District Councilman Matt Peacock agreed, saying the postponement would allow for more thorough review at another study session.

No city council voted against the motion.

The OTA requested a resolution from the city of Norman earlier this year announcing its cooperation on the agency’s expansion project, which it unveiled at the end of a meeting on Dec. 7, 2021. Access Oklahoma’s $5 billion long-term plan called for aligning toll roads in northern and eastern Norman. The OTA’s plan faced opposition from many Norman residents, particularly those who advocated for the proposed route, as well as several lawsuits, including one alleging the agency violated the Open Meetings Act.

In August 2023, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in favor of the OTA in a 6-3 decision, allowing the agency to sell $500 million in bonds to finance the plan and ultimately give it the legal authority to move forward. However, the exact route of the southern expansion has not yet been determined.

The agency is demanding that the resolution also confirm Norman’s willingness to cooperate in the construction of toll highways and that the future southern extension be coordinated between OTA and Norman.

According to the resolution, if the Norman City Council does not approve the resolution, OTA funding for certain items important to the city, such as green infrastructure to protect water quality, could be at risk.

After a vote to postpone the resolution, the remainder of the session was opened for public comment.

Kelly Wilson, a Ward 6 resident, said most ODOT agencies follow the Uniform Relocation Act, which provides services and benefits to residents made homeless by a project, but OTA does not, and the agency’s housing is “brutal.”

Wilson said 104 homes were taken away because of the Kickapoo Turnpike project, 44 of which went through the housing process, but 13 of those were in court for at least a year, another for three years, and five that have been in court for more than six years and are still ongoing today. She said that’s because the OTA is not easy to work with and does not offer many benefits to those affected by their projects.

District 5 resident Julie Sondag called the wording in the resolution “totally misleading” and said the OTA continues to make its own rules.

“The City of Norman requested environmental studies two years ago. The OTA refuses to do them. When asked where the access plan stands in the Association of Central Oklahoma Government’s 2045 plan, ACOG stated that the OTA refused to cooperate when Oklahoma City sent them the $600,000 bill for the road damage after the Kickapoo Freeway expansion, but the OTA still has not paid the affected citizens.

Rob Norman, an attorney representing the Pike Off OTA organization in a lawsuit against the agency, said a postponement seems inevitable and is “the right thing to do.” He urged the council not to do anything that could revoke an earlier resolution passed in 2022 expressing Norman’s opposition to the OTA’s plan.

“We’re going to ask you in this amendment process to do something that’s going to make some of you uncomfortable, which is to maintain your stance against these toll roads. You can do that and still work with the OTA,” Norman said.

The OTA has set a deadline of September 2nd for the city to make a decision; a vote by the NCC is now expected on August 27th.