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Oklahoma City Council adopts amended Wildwood PUD after neighborhood protests
Summary
Council approved amendments to a planned-unit development (PUD) affecting land north of Northeast 59th Street, after weeks of negotiation and public comment about density, traffic and open space. The council adopted an amendment to the master design statement and then approved the final ordinance, both unanimously.
The Oklahoma City Council on a unanimous vote adopted an amended planned-unit development (PUD) for the Wildwood area — rezoning the property described in the record as 59100 Wildwood from PUD 1842 to PUD 2016, after presenting and passing an amendment to the master design statement and then approving the ordinance on final hearing.
The amendment and final ordinance reflect concessions the developer said it negotiated with neighbors, including increases to required open space and new landscaping and setback language. Mark Zizziah, a representative of Johnson & Associates, told the council the developer “has made a considerable number of concessions” and listed changes including new open-space minimums and additional landscaping and setback measures.
Neighbors spoke at length in public comment, pressing for clearer caps on density and for protections for neighborhood character. Arlisa Long, who said she has lived at 315 Northeast 59th Street for nearly 30 years, told the council, “It appears to me that there are some specific wording within the PUDs…describing it as 55 4 units or 45 units doesn't really explicitly say that there's a cap.” Reverend David Dawson and other longtime residents told the council they feared strain on streets, utilities and parks and asked the developer and council to protect tree cover and limit traffic impacts.
In response, Zizziah said the revised PUD text is more specific than the prior document. He told council members that “the maximum density within track 2 shall be 545 units,” and that the new PUD increases minimum open space for track 2 from 15% to 25% and raises the single-family minimum lot size language in the proposed PUD (as presented) from the previous standard.
Councilman Lee Cooper, who presented the item, said council members toured the land and negotiated with the developer; Cooper moved to adopt the master-design statement amendment and then moved adoption of the ordinance as amended. The amendment to the master design statement passed unanimously; the final ordinance, as amended, also passed unanimously.
The developer described the project as including multiple tracks: a single-family track with roughly 40 single-family lots and a multifamily track limited to the 545-unit cap in the PUD language. Council members and the developer said multifamily access would be to the south and that single-family access would connect to the existing neighborhood. Council discussion and public comments emphasized traffic-calming measures, tree plantings along the northern property line, brick fencing columns and specific language to enforce erosion-control measures during construction.
What happens next: The adopted master design statement and PUD text now govern development approvals for the site. Several residents pressed the council to clarify and enforce PUD language as construction moves forward and asked for continued neighborhood-level coordination on traffic and tree preservation.
Votes and formal actions on 11A: the council first adopted an amendment to the master design statement (motion passed unanimously) and then adopted the ordinance on final hearing as amended (motion passed unanimously).
