City Council

A-rr-lQrU-*-@ *E*-n, TT A,L ,',, l'/ I -/" I W,ffi Dr. Deupree - Your honor, in viet^r of the crowd thatrs here today and also the Lack of knowl-edge af,d poor communications that has existed up to now regarding the public housing developments in ^ OC I would like to suggest and mpve that we table al-l action with regard to public housing at thisl tl-me for a period of 30 days to al-low better education and better communications between aL1 of the different commissions and ag[ncies that are involved in these situations because there has beln a large element of protest come from each area where one ofi these projects has been suggested. They have to be some pLace, but so fat, because of Lack of understanding and lack of commurlications they have not been abl,e to arrive at a suitabl-e Locatiod for any one of them, so with that in mind and the Large numb{r of peopl-e that are here today, and I am sure most all- of them woul$ like to be heard on this subject, and I am sure we coul-dnrt be hetre I-ong enough for that, I would just move that we tabLe aLl activityl Council action on this for 30 days. postpone it for 30 days. s#P-- Roy You would probabLy want tI continue fr tor 4 weeks, rather that 30 days. i Dr. Beupree - At-L right. l Mgr. This is Item 7A2 concernin[ the rezoning fromttAt'to rrprr NE 83rd between Kelley and GoLdl Ueaat Drive, that item would then be continued for four weeks. t Bishop - On the other hand, nowl rile have some items that are either in the planning commission or that are in the process of being referred from Council to pl-anniLr g commission pertaining actualLy to this same thing. I wonder, afn d somewhere in your statement there I sense that one of your purpoqe s sras not only to better educate the public and us as wel-l-, but [p ossibLy to hear or famil-arize aLL of us and the pubLic at the sanie time that housing units are being proposed in all quadrants of tHe city, not just any one particular project. I wonder if we shoul-d;have all- of those, or would it be feasible to arrange to have altr, of them at one time, in order to make a comparison, so that the i folks that are here today and the fol-ks that vrere here at that mQeting will know. Mr. Cook - I think you are right. t think this is a problem that doesntt give itseLf to being bf,oken down into segments. I thinfi. wetve got to reaL1y understandial-l- thq detail-s of it and the public has got to understand that this Lsn'tK*ttouncil probl-em, this is a City probl-em that the Council- has got to solve so as to come up with a solution that if there [s harm involved it will- be of as 1itt1e harm as possible and wi[l affect as few people as possible, but I donrt think the Council lhould consider this one by one that we shouLd consider a proggam and then work out that program and everybody wiLl know that program. Bishop The overall program. - I Eeupree - WelL, I dontt know that we couLd soLve it in four weeks , but I think that without - that before any more open considerat ion that there is some evidence o{ - not the best communication between the PubLic Housing Authority aind the Planning Commission, and certainl-y between the Public ltousing Authority and the Urban Renewal- Authority and between lal1 these agencies and out body. So that certainly in that length lof time we coul-d have some better means of coming together and (ome up with an understanding among alL of these groups of what i+ invol-ved #fr*lt and then we could pre sent something to the public in a $ore inteLligent menner. I.. FH ,r. \-lu-bg Mr. Frankl-in - l,ltro is going to take,the lead toward seeing that some policies are formed here, I me$n, in your motion, coul-dntt we refer this to somebody or some grouf or something to make a study on it. I can see the idea that if we pfstpone it forbur weeks that we wil-1 come up in four weeks with aborlrt the same situation rre are in now unless r47e have somebody actualljz working on it. Mayor - I would suggest that perhapB the Council- and the Publ-ic Housing Authority shouLd get together for al session so that the CounciL can be informed as to lflfr##t## what are Eheir plans, what are they working toward, what does the future hold, lso that the Council wiLl be apprised. Perhaps the Council workihg together with them - melybe we can have an idea vrtrat they are doin|g and perhaps even suggest some changes that - because I for one, afrd apparentl-y none of the members of the Council really know what thqI ruUtic Housing Authority is doing, and I donrt think we have any juri cdiction over them do we, Mr. Semtner? St't++fu1'l Roy - No, sir. Mayor - So far as the Authority is concerned, but perhps we can in working with them maybe alLeviate qome of the situations. Mr. Cook _ Mr. Mayor, I would suggest that the Pl-anning and Urban Renewal Committee should have the primary responsibil-ity fpr that and that all members of the Council-, i f they are free, when they get e meeting set up couLd join with theilr Dr. DoweLl- - And I would also sugg€st that the - you said that the Planning Commission and the Council work together, but I think you should hare a representative of thfs group. I do know that many of these peopl-e sitting out here took off from their work and made a special- effort to be here. I,rIe do hpve a very precarious and difficul-t problem here. I agree with Dr. Deupree in postponing this ordinance for a month, but at the same time its time for us to be about the business in this City. There are some basic factors which mast be established. I was going to proposF this morning, and I would hope that it couLd be recommended and cpuld be weLl taken that the open housing - itrs not the open housirlg - the public housing - I guess thatrs just a matter of habit, that this pubLic housing be studied very thououghly on a very projecte{d basis as to what we hope to have ten years from now, what we hope to do now. The areas of town in which it is to be located and one point Lthat I hope we would consider, is consider the economic status rathdr than the racial status, say we dontt want people coming into our neighborhood because of race - weLl I wouLd be somewhat opposed to thdt, but if you donrt !{ant them coming in because of their Low ecdnomic status which woul-d deteriorate the community, I can see that and peopl-e are trying to protect the schools, they are trying to proteqt their val-ue of their property. I can understand that. That's a very t##t*#**tl#t#*t touchy thing and * I will- work aLong with that. But we need a basic program to be studied on a 1ong projected range, so we can see where are going and just to postpone it a month, that wont do it, but I think we need to get together and go into it with t he housing authority and let them put on paper what they hope to do within the next two, three, four and ten years - then we wil-l see rrherp we are {tt*/l going. lwe Mr. Franklin - Let me make this strggestion and I assume #frt/* will report to the Planning and Urban RenewaL Committee but admittedl-y I havenrt made any study on this, blrt it appears to me that we 8r,e going at this thing backwards, thht the Publ-ic Housing is going the wrong pl-ace. It would seem to me that pubLic housing shoul-d be in neighborhoods that are deterioratring *#t*t*tl#fr*frtf residentiaL areas in (applause drourned out conversajtion) rather than getting it in 2. FH -D q l, te residentiaL areas that are on the p-grade. Therets many cl-ose-in areas here, and it so happens I in an area that is close in, but therets many areas where resi nces are on the down grade and where the people that move into t se areas are of Low economic status and I would think that eve publ-ic housing may tend to rise to cause this area to rise rather than depreciate, rather than going out into the outer parts of town plus the fact that to me the wetre doing an injustice to those lthat actuaLLy rent the pubLie housing by putting them so far oud we donrt have busesr w€ donrt have transportation, where if they werd cl-oser to the center of town it wouLd be more feasible. Now, I medely suggest this and admit I have not made any study, but I wouLd Llke for the Committee to consider this. I move that we refer this td the Urlan RenewaL and P1-anning Cormrittee. Erz -Eewe I I - - - I-neulC- Iike- te- rE gges t - further- tha t - this - €etraeitr- Mrs. Latting - I would f.ike to suggest further that this kind of coordination emong the agencies mgntioned along with the Council wiLl- heLp a great deal in providing a base of publ-ic information upon which we can build the kind pf public housing faciLities that Oklahoma City obviousl-y needs. I dont think any of us would deny the fact that there are many of our citizens who need publ-ic housing facilities made available to them. It is a mistake, I think , to look at it from the probl-em ofl one Location after another, That r_s individual-ly, without regard to the overaL1 growth of the City and of the location of these facilitles, and I think the location that is on the agenda this morning , the one on N. KelLey is a very good exampLe of the kind of careful cdnsideration that must be given to the impact of public housing dacilities on some portions of OkLahoma City. (applause) Dr. Deupree - It was my idea in {ringing this up in the first place so that lve could have time to woqk out some coordination between the various agencies involved an{ maybe revise thethinking somewhat on some of these projects, becauqe itrs obvious that rnretre not al-l- informed as we should be on the $verall worthwhile projects that we have in mind herer so if we c4n - the Pl-anning and Urban Renewal Committee of the Council will be glad to take this over 8o help get it started in an effort to serve as a nucleus to bring all the or ganizat ions together. Mr. Cook - Mr. Mayor, I would supgest to bring this to a head since we have two motions before the hbuse. Mayor - Do we have a second to e L ther one? Dr.Dowell--Isecond. Mayor - Which one? Mr. Cook - I wouLd suggest that bf,. Deupree restate his motion and add to it Benrs motion that it !e referred to the Committee. i Mr. That rile postpone for four weeks and refer to the Franklin - I Planning and Urban Renewal- Comm 1ttee of the Council Reeording Secretary - That this I particular case be deferred for four weeks and the matter of puUlic heosing be referred to the Planning and Urban Renewal- Commlttee? Mr. Franklin - Yes, the entire quest ,"^! W(" Planning and Urban Renewal- is Dr. Deupree, Bil-1 Ai{hon and Dr. Dowel1 and along with 3. FH , ,{) r-lb l' the suggestion on this and on the motion wouLd be that when you have your meeting Let everybody know about it and I am sure that everybody interestedl wilL be here. Mr. smith - one more thing, M_ri. Mayor, that r woul-d suggest, that in the future, r donrt know wttat control- we have over it, r would suggest to alLeviate this prodle*. Now we had a case here !-ast week lfiere the foLks in a particuler area feLt there was going to be a nice beautiful aprtment complex onl-y to find out just before it came up on out docket here that it was a low cost public housing project. rt waq very near too late for them to do anything about it, but I would suggest that we make it mandatory that they state what they are going to build in a particular area because that I q the reason r made the motion l-ast week on the other one to put it off because those folEs werentt properly notified whad was going in their area. This is the only way we coul-d protEct them, r think, to send it back to the Planning Commission. Mr. cook - John, thatrs the sense of what h7e are doing here, is that they give us the wtrole plcture all at one time. Bill Col1ins, representing pretestants, asked to be notified of date of learing, but did not nove to speaker. (rmpossible to transcribe - not cl-ear). we fdel like that we should be part of it. rn other words, if you arq going to have it so the pubt-ic in each segment of oklahoma city and the various groups that are concerned. This is not j,r$t one area. Ttris is going to be in the four quadrants and I think everybody rfrrould be notified if they have some public hearlngs on the proposed pubLic housing projects, if you will- so that aLL of these people can at Least be apprised of the mgeting because they are vitally interested in the public houslng and of course many of these peopLe have taken off today. they have come domr here to be heard. Therets very few actuailly to speak on it but they are serb us about it because they feel l-ike it materially affects thdr property righrs trd rhar this public housing is a necessity, itrs something thatts here to stay but itrs vyhere irrs ro be and I think ffr#jt#tt'# wirh some good public forums and discussion among ybur committee that a lot of these things can be ironed out. But we ask certainLy to be advised when these meetings are to be held so we can have representatives present. Mr. Franklin - Bil-l, 1et me make this suggestion and r know you and aL1 the people you represent understand that this is a llrge probl-em that whether or not tfris particular zoning thing out on Kell-ey be approved or disapproved. As everybody submitted here, this is something we are gettilng into that we are unfamiliar with. Let this Committee start out hpre without any publ-ic hearings or 4, FH i a anything else and sort of meet with the PubLic Housing Board and so forth and get their feet on the ground. Norir before we do anything, certainly, the public and everybody concerned wllL have ample opportunity to come in, but I think it would be a mistakf to try to throw this into a public hearing to start out with. Let us ge started on this and then we will f I have, I can assure lou, we wi1l- give plenty of notice to everybody that s interested for them to express their views. i Bill Co1l-ins - I meant Ben, before i comes up four weeks from today so that we can be heard. t IuIr. Franklin - Well-, I wouLd doubt very seriously if it is going to be passed on four weeks from today, but I thinf, at Least by putting it off to there why we at l-ea8t have a goaL to work toward. Mr. Bishop - Mr. Mayor, I have notided that in al-l- the l-etters and corespondence, not only from these fol-ks northeast but from #fi#tl southwest, northwest, southeast, alI over Oklahoma City r,iltereever any public housing has been suggestfd, I haventt had one l-etter that I can remember that anyone says, "W{, dontt need public housing, and I personal-l-y dontt want public housf,ng". They are al-1 sympathetie to it and seem to recognize the need but they donrt want it here. Ihey want it there. We have the same proplem out in the area I represent and t I can appreciate the folks that are here todays concern. I am concerned I over it. I, at first, felt the same concern and probabLy the same feeling that you have. Wel-l, I wontit be bothered with it as $ong as itrs t I I over there r 5zou knov,r. But/ it s notl over there, it s over here. It s aLl- around us. So it becomes a pro!1-em as Rowe mentioned not only for the Council but for the entire City and we are going to have to have the publicrs help and understanding to solve this because it is not an isol-ated probl-em in any part of the Ci-ty. If it were just basical-Iy against public housing, period, I Coul-d understaad that, but notne has come forth or tol-d me that they ar+ against it. They seem to be aL1 for it but they donrt want it, none of us want it close to us. Wtrat I am hoping for and what I assume can come out of this is a compl-ete presentation by the PubI-ic Housingi Authority because at this point I have got to believe that thoee fhlks have gone into this, Dr. Dowell-, with a long range projection, and I think they have studied it comp&etely and they are trying to do the very best they can to selrve the entire City without being abusive to any one section of the City. I think that when we do have a presentation, a public presentation by them that a lot of these answers will be unfol-ding. Dr. Dowell - I woutd just like to call your attention to one point. Now, r^7e are speaking with referenoe to the NE portionr uP there at 83rd and N. Kell-ey in that area. Are we recommending also that this public housing whieh is beginning;in southwest and maybe some other part of town be held in abeyance until after we have arrived at a solution? Mayor - Yes, the motion covered that, Dr. Dr. Dowe11 - I woul-d hope sod. Mayor - anything further on the motion? If not ou are recc''rcie r-,s unL. s u caue t vote on. s he t zoning at 83rd and N. Kelley which is 7A2 on the docket will- be held up four weeks as well as any other publ-ic housing project or area which might come before the Council. So it will be four weeks from today at least. Inie appreciate very much you people coming down, and Doctor, I appreciate your bringing that up before we got down to it. 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