Edmond council reviews comprehensive-plan update emphasizing housing, mobility and urban forestry

Edmond City Council heard a workshop presentation Sept. 22 on a proposed update to the city’s comprehensive plan that adds a new housing chapter, renames the transportation chapter “mobility” to reflect EdmondShift recommendations, and consolidates urban-forestry work into a utilities and natural-resources chapter.

“I'm Hannah Nolan, long range planner with City of Edmond,” Hannah Nolan said at the start of her presentation, which summarized how three recent studies — EdmondShift (2022), the 2023 housing assessment and the 2023 forest composition and ecosystem analysis — are being incorporated into the plan update.

The update adds a dedicated housing chapter after the housing assessment found Edmond will need nearly 9,000 new housing units over the next 10 years to meet projected demand and reported that about three out of four Edmond workers live outside the city and commute in daily. Nolan summarized four strategies carried into the plan: make it easier to build housing, diversify housing types and price points, improve older housing and preserve affordability, and support workforce housing. Nolan said the plan also adds five new housing actions, including strengthening homebuyer…