About 100 Norman residents met to discuss their most important issues with facilitators and to elect new members of the ONE Norman visioning task force Wednesday evening.
ONE Norman is a six-month visioning process that aims to assist the city with the development of Norman’s 20-year comprehensive plan.
The updated Norman Comprehensive Plan will be written partially with the results of ONE Norman’s visioning task force efforts and Strong Towns — which seeks to work within local government to improve development patterns through resident committees and city staff — according to Ward 8 Councilmember Matthew Peacock.
Peacock co-chairs the 36-member ONE Norman vision steering committee along with David Nimmo, president and CEO of Chickasaw Nation Industries. The committee chose 90 task force members and will help guide the visioning process.
“Norman has a wonderful town. It's said to be a purple island in a red sea, and I believe that's true,” Nimmo said. “We have a lot of thought and people of difference. It does not have to be a bad thing. It should be and is a good thing.”
Several members of the task force were present at the summit, including Ward 4 Councilmember Helen Grant, Ward 7 Councilmember Stephen Tyler Holman and Cleveland County District 1 Commissioner Rod Cleveland.
Members of the vision steering committee present included former Ward 4 Councilmember Lee Hall, Mayor Larry Heikkila, Norman Public Schools Superintendent Nick Migliorino, Lawrence McKinney, Norman Economic Development Coalition president and CEO, and his wife Elizabeth.
Residents were divided into eight break-out rooms, each equipped with a facilitator and a notepad for participants to write down their main concerns. Discussions focused on issues participants felt were most important in allowing Norman to become a “stronger, more attractive and livable city.”
After discussion, participants ranked the issues discussed on a scale of one to 10, one being the most important, and which was later presented to all event attendees. The groups also elected a new representative to the task force.
Jayke Flaggert, OU economics senior and committee member, documented the discussion results. Top issues included business retention and expansion, affordable housing, quality of life, unification between the city and the university, transportation and the development of a Norman version of Oklahoma City’s MAPS project.
The first MAPS project was created in 1993 to revitalize downtown Oklahoma City using a $350 million penny sales tax. Three more MAPS projects were passed by Oklahoma City voters going toward education and infrastructure.
Flaggert will calculate the rankings from the group discussions to determine the general top ten issues Norman residents are concerned about.
Cynthia Rogers, an OU economics professor, and Russel Rice, co-founder of Care-A-Vans, were also elected to the task force.
ONE Norman’s next public forum will be on May 10, featuring guest speaker Quint Studer who will deliver the results of Norman’s quality of life survey.
This story was edited by Alexia Aston and Jazz Wolfe. Francisco Gutierrez and Alexandra Powell-Lorentzatos copy edited this story.
