Does Edmond need more apartment space?
Residents of nearby neighborhoods showed their displeasure over an extension request to the Planning Commission for an apartment complex planned for Covell Road, east of Kelly.
Here are readers’ comments on the debate:
This planning commission case may not yet be on the city council agenda, but it is getting a lot of local attention and is worthy of your consideration. As a note, I did not locate the names of the planning commission members, otherwise I would have contacted them as well. The case involves zoning approval to move forward with an apartment complex in the Coffee Creek development. The Coffee Creek development, which you likely already know, is bounded by Coffee Creek, Covell, Kelly and Boulevard roads, and is composed largely of single family dwellings. The apartments would be located along Covell, near the Touchmark project. The residents of Coffee Creek of which I am one, appear to be completely against building any new apartments within the development or close to it for that matter. There may be many reasons for this and I have chosen to list some of them below for your convenience:
1) I would not have purchased real estate within Coffee Creek had I known there would
be an apartment complex (other than Touchmark) built there.
2) Impairment of property values
3) Greater strain on the school system causing a need for further expansion
4) Higher property taxes for those owning homes to support school expansion due to
higher density housing.
5) Potential higher rates of crime
6) Police are seldom seen cruising through the Coffee Creek development
7) Higher stress on the availability of water – we’ve had low water pressure at times
Water drainage problems will increase – more pollution in the Coffee Creek lakes
9) There are two apartment complexes nearby already (one is under construction)
10) The Touchmark project within the Coffee Creek development actually contains
apartments (although they are designed for older folks)
11) Edmond seems to be have plenty of apartments already and doesn’t need to
overload its infrastructure with unnecessary high density housing.
12) Apartments are typically not maintained adequately and many become almost
like slums over the course of time.
13) The apartments would be located along and next to the primary south exit to the
development.
14) Traffic levels throughout the development would likely increase.
15) Due to the increased traffic and difficulty arising out of exiting the development, more
traffic signals on Covell and more stop signs within the development may be needed.
16) The apartment residents would likely utilize and put more strain on the physical
amenities of the Coffee Creek development.
There are certainly many concerns that the citizens of Edmond have with their community, not the least of which is a proliferation of apartments. I would be happy to discuss any of the issues with you at your convenience.
Thanks, Ron Sease
Dear Mr. Williams,
We read and heartily agree with Dow Dozier’s comments in Thursday’s paper. Why was the zoning not asked for at the time it was supposed to be renewed? We love living in Coffee Creek, but are deeply concerned about multi-family apartments being built in such a small area of land. With three Edmond schools so close and all the traffic already in place, we question the need for more apartments. Before the zoning extension is granted, now is the time for our concern.
The Villages at Coffee Creek already have 490 homes in a pretty large area. The zoning renewal, which if granted would put over 300 MORE units in a fairly small area. That’s over half of what is already built.
We merely ask each planning commission member and each city council member to drive by the Enclave Apartments that are being built to the west of Lowe’s on N. Kelley. That apartment complex is 149 units. If the Covell Property zoning is approved, the buyer plans to build over 300 units on the remaining space. We ask that you take a look and visually see what is at stake, before it is too late. We would much rather see single family homes or possibly even offices.
Mary and Bob Austin
John-
Apartments and/or federally assisted housing/nursing homes do not belong in Edmond.
I use to live in a affluent area of Putnam North. When developers starting building duplexes at the entrance to the subdivision and low income apartments were built, the area went down hill and property values decreased. I moved several miles north to the Deer Creek area just to get away from this type of environment.
If developers want to build apartments and low income housing, they should not be allowed north of Brittan road. Edmond is up scale area and any building that would attract low income earners would only lower property values and increae crime. I have seen this happen!!
Tom Fisher
My wife and I live at Touchmark at Coffee Creek, directly across the street from the proposed apartment project. Touchmark is a beautiful, first-class assisted living and independent living center. Yes, it is multi-family and I suppose this area had to be zoned multi-family before it could be built.
However, the similarity to Touchmark and any apartment complex I have ever seen is non-existent. We have previously lived in Del City, western Oklahoma City, and Warr Acres. In each location we were aware of the adverse effects of nearby apartment projects. Most of these apartments were billed as fine places to live, and they probably were when first built. Over the years, though, each apartment project went downhill, suffering from absentee ownership, poor upkeep and a myriad of problems. Most notable were the incidents of violence and crime
that just seem to be more prevalent in apartment projects.
I would ask the Edmond Planning Commission to immediately deny a permit to build apartments on Shortgrass Road north of Covell. In addition to the lowering of property values in the beautiful Coffee Creek area, the increased traffic on this two-lane street would uncoubtedly be a huge problem.
Respectfully,
Dow and Carolyn Dozier
Re: this morning’s column:
Federally assisted housing in Edmond? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd & Co., have already screwed up housing in this country enough without giving them a crack at Edmond. When we can remove cancers like them from government and crack addicts, crooks and whores from public housing, perhaps THEN is the time to seek people who will value and take care of the property that is paid for with our tax dollars and offered to them as homes. I doubt if this would occur in my lifetime.
Sincerely,
Richard H. Irish
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Comments
rusty was wrong, turner has not agreed to cut down of units they are using the maxium allowed 384. It was 541 until they built houses where they said in 1996 that they would condos and or town houses. Check the edmond city council minutes from 1996. Also turner is selling the property so he doesn’t care what goes there. Turner hasn’t given in to the residents of coffee creek at all. If he thinks giving coffee creek residents a say on what the apartments will look like that’s like letting me chose the shade of lipstick I want on a pig.
Edmond doesn’t need more apartment complexes for one very clear reason that no one seems to recognize. There a plenty now. It is not hard, at all, to find an affordable apartment in Edmond. Why is there some kind of presumption that there are not enough?
I would love to see an actual report on occupancy rates. Same is true for affordable housing. Again, why is it considered a given that there isn’t enough?
When we can remove cancers like them from government and crack addicts, crooks and whores from public housing…Woe is me…please don’t let the infected trash into Edmond! Everyone knows that none of God’s creatures could ever live in an apartment complex! Therefore anyone in apartment complexes must be beneath us! Please! Don’t do this to us! People who live in apartment complexes don’t deserve to live in Edmond! They don’t make as much money as us rich people, so they should have to live in holes in the ground, or cardboard boxes, or anywhere but Holier Than Thou Edmond. Children who live in apartments don’t deserve to go to school! Are you kidding me! They’re trash! They don’t deserve an education. They’re only going to grow up gang bangers and crackheads. Babies don’t need a warm place to sleep at night! Send them to the homeless shelters. They’re worthless creatures. They don’t deserve to breathe the air that we hoity toity Edmondites breathe! That would cause us to become infected!
Oh…right….I forgot, I’m not actually from Edmond. I bought a single family, brick home, in Guthrie (a.k.a. Edmond’s Ghetto), Oklahoma. And you people are the reason normal people hate Edmond.