Out of the loop

By Mindy Ragan Wood

Transcript Staff Writer

Central Oklahoma’s key agency that coordinates the region’s transportation plan among cities and state agencies was not provided with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s long-range turnpike expansion program, records and testimonies from officials indicate.

The Association of Central Oklahoma Governments is the federally-designated regional planning agency for the region.

It serves as a forum for officials to offer their municipalities’ and state agencies’ transportation projects as part of a five-year planning period for its 25 year transportation plan, currently the Encompass 2045 plan.

OTA is listed as a member of ACOG’s planning committee as a non-voting member.

The plan is a forecast of the projects for which ACOG administers federal transportation grants, and is updated or affirmed every five years.

After the board adopted its Encompass 2045 plan in November, in December OTA announced a long-range plan but did not unveil details until its February meeting. While ACOG’s 25-year plan overlaps the OTA’s 15-year long-range turnpike expansion.

OTA plans to build two toll roads through Cleveland County — an “outer loop” around the east side of the Oklahoma City metro area. OTA has said the purpose of its proposed turnpikes is to relieve traffic congestion in the metro, in particular on Interstate-35.

The plan has worried homeowners in east Norman, city officials and state legislators alike, who fear the turnpike will force many residents to move and negatively impact wildlife and natural water sources.

The Transcript asked OTA why the agency did not participate in ACOG’s planning process. A request for comment was not returned.

‘No information’

As ACOG planned its 25year forecast in the last five years, OTA was absent, ACOG spokeswoman Rachel Meinke said.

Meinke said OTA officials did not attend “any of our regular meetings during the planning period for Encompass 2045.”

“The OTA was provided information about the ACOG

See OTA Page A3

Protesters hold signs as they gather durnig a rally in March in the fourth-floor rotunda at the Oklahoma State Capitol. Residents say the plan was ill planned.

Kyle Phillips / The Transcript

From Page A1 Encompass 2045 Plan Stakeholder Advisory Committee Meetings in the Spring of 2021 and the Call For Projects in March 2021 (twice),” Meinke’s email to The Transcript reads. “No projects were submitted by OTA. All projects submitted are listed in the Encompass 2045 Plan.”

According to agendas and minutes for those meetings, OTA does not have a designated member assigned to the committee, but does list a secondary representative: Darian Butler, OTA’s pre-construction engineer.

No one from the agency attended meetings from Jan. 2021 to the October 2022 meeting, online records indicated.

Among meetings OTA did not attend, it is also a non-voting member of ACOG’s policy committee, which met in March 2021.

“Joe Echelle, Deputy Director OTA, was requested to provide an overview to the ACOG Transportation Policy Committee on March 31, 2022,” Meinke said. “This committee is composed of over 30 communities in central Oklahoma.”

Councilor for Ward 7 Stephen Holman said he attended ACOG’s board member retreat last week and received an official statement that indicated ACOG attempted numerous times to obtain any information related to future turnpike projects.

“No information was provided to ACOG about these projects to incorporate them into the Plan even though staff had made several inquiries to the OTA,” the statement reads.

“I did confirm that with some of the ACOG staff that was there,” Holman said. “I asked if anything had been communicated with ACOG at all and they said, ‘Nope. Not at all. We’ve been trying.’” Holman was surprised because of the importance OTA’s plan would place on Norman and ACOG’s 2045 plan.

“It would seemingly be vitally important that ACOG would be directly involved in any plans that ODOT, OTA and the City of Norman, anybody has when it comes to those types of plans,” Holman said. “It keeps the elected officials in the loop about what’s going on.”

Th eACOGstatement Holman provided to the Transcript also indicates that the plan is designed to relieve congestion ahead of population growth.

“The region is suffering from traffic congestion in the urban and suburban areas that threaten the region’s growth and future economic competitiveness,” the statement reads. “There is not enough funding to expand road capacity. Continued growth patterns coupled with a primary focus on passenger vehicles to move people to home and work will only exacerbate the problem.”

No communication, then reliance

OTA now looks to ACOG to determine how OTA’s plans will impact its 2045 plan outlook.

“ACOG is currently involved in some transportation modeling along with OTA’s consultant at OTA’s request,” Meinke said. “We will know a little later on how this might change the traffic patterns at a regional level.”

Holman and other city councilors, City Manager Darrel Pyle and Public Works Director Shawn O’Leary have said they had no prior knowledge of any turnpike plans.

In March, former Mayor Breea Clark alluded to ACOG’s 2030 transportation plan, in which a Norman turnpike was included before it was removed.

“In the great state of Oklahoma, there were many directions they could have taken this turnpike,” she said. “Instead, the last time we saw it was what? Several years in the 2030 Plan? It went into dispute. They chose to take it out of that.

“They chose to not tell us what was coming, even though it’s looking pretty clear they knew what was coming. They chose to leave elected officials, city staff and residents in the dark.

“They chose to let us build dream homes, retirement homes, and hoped to pass on to generations to come but they chose lightening traffic over that. I will never stand for that.”

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable court cases for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.