Planning Commission to consider rezoning case for new apartments at I-35 and Memorial Rd.
***UPDATE: This rezoning item has been moved to the Feb. 4 Planning Commission Meeting***
⚠️ ACTION ALERT for urbanists and advocates for affordable housing ⚠️
The Edmond Planning Commission, at its Tuesday, Feb. 4 meeting, is expected to consider an application from Kalidy LLC to rezone of a small 1.5 acre parcel at the corner of I-35 and Memorial Rd. from "Neighborhood Commercial" to "PUD" to accommodate future construction of a new apartment complex.
This area is located at far southeastern edge of Edmond city limits.
Before anyone convinces you that this area is some kind of nature preserve, check out the collage of photos.
This parcel used to be the site of a drive-thru bank ATM, hence the maze of concrete driveways, traffic barriers, and lights. To the north is the old Oklahoma Department of Transportation Edmond maintenance yard and construction residency, which has been vacant since at least 2017. Across the interstate is a massive storage unit complex. To the south is the brand-new, ultramodern archsolutions office.
And before anyone convinces you that housing for 204 new families will overwhelm the streets with traffic, consider the ODOT traffic data for the intersection:
I-35 carries about 84,000 vehicles per day at Memorial Rd.
Memorial Rd. itself carries more than 7,000 vehicles per day at I-35
The I-35 on- and off-ramps at Memorial Rd. carry between 1,700 and 2,300 vehicles per day.
And before someone holler that they shouldn't be built because they won't be "affordable housing," please consider this - rent for an apartment on I-35 will be less than $330,000, which is the median home sale price in Edmond. Sounds like affordable housing to us. It's hard for the Law of Supply and Demand to work properly for housing when the supply of multifamily has been artificially constricted for decades by NIMBY policies.
Will a new, 10-story apartment complex be a sales-tax producing property? No. But it will bring 204 new families to Edmond, who will likely patronize Edmond businesses and contribute to our local workforce. But more importantly, 204 units of new housing along I-35 in Edmond provides a customer base that, in time, can help spur development of more sales tax-producing businesses along the corridor, along with more housing and jobs in Edmond. That's why this section of I-35 corridor in Edmond has frontage roads. It's what youd expect to see as far as interstate frontage development in any of Edmond's peer cities.
We sincerely believe the Planning Commission must vote YES to approve this application, and we encourage you to contact members of the commission to ask them to support development of affordable housing in Edmond.
It's interstate frontage - and has been for the past 60 years. And if an interstate frontage road isn't an appropriate place in Edmond to develop multifamily housing, then where is?
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