City Council to consider rezonings for soccer fields, assisted living facility

Proposals that will allow construction of private soccer fields and an assisted living facility for senior citizens in two Lawton neighborhoods will top the agenda today when the City Council meets in regular session.

Council members will decide a proposal submitted by Jesus Rodriguez-Contreras to rezone an empty tract at 3116 SW J, taking what is now an R-1 Single-Family Residential Dwelling District to C-4 Tourist Commercial District, and changing the Land Use Plan from Residential/High Density to Commercial.

Rodriguez-Contreras wants to turn the land into two private soccer fields with a 1,000-square-foot building for concessions and restrooms. The binding site plan — necessary because the commercial tract would be adjacent to residential lots — shows an 8-foot-tall chain link fence around the property and a tree buffer on the east side to shield adjacent residences. The plan also shows an 82-space parking lot to be built along the front of the property along Southwest J Avenue, with the fields located to the south.

In his application, Rodriguez-Contreras stated the complex would hold two small fields for a children’s academy, where children would be taught to play soccer in sessions that he expected to occur outside school hours.

The proposal comes with a recommendation from city staff, as well as the City Planning Commission, which granted its approval in late March. Council members tabled the proposal in late April, with a request that city staff bring back an amended city code to establish parking requirements for sports fields. While that ordinance was crafted, it did not make it through the council.

City planners said the proposal comes with a binding site plan, meaning no significant changes may be made without prior approval from the council.

A binding site plan also is part of a second city staff recommendation: changing zoning on a now-empty commercial building at 801-809 Northwest Pershing Drive from R-1 Single-Family Residential to R-3 Multiple-Family, and a change in the Land Use Plan from Residential/Low Density to Residential/High Density. The proposed use for that building at the junction of Pershing Drive and Ash Avenue is an assisted living facility for senior citizens.

It’s a plan opposed by many nearby residents, who say they fear the effects a commercial use will bring to their stable residential neighborhood.

Deborah Bell purchased the building in January with plans to provide housing for senior citizens who needed the help of assisted living. Rhonda Bell-Todd, Bell’s sister, said the facility will provide on-site living, manned around the clock by staff members and with most visitors expected to be the family members of residents. Bell said the facility will be designed to hold 19 to 20 patients, with quiet hour mandated between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Residents have multiple concerns about the proposed use, including increased traffic through a residential neighborhood that already has problems with traffic and speeders because streets link Cache Road and Northwest Ferris; an increase in crime and vagrants brought by the new use; and the affect on property values. Residents have filed a petition with 30 signatures opposing the rezoning, with 12 of those signatures coming from property owners who are within 300 feet of the tract.

The proposal is coming to the council without any recommendation from the planning commission, a rare occurrence. Two motions — one to pass, one to deny — failed to get seconds, meaning they died without being considered. CPC Chairman David Denham said it was the first time that had happened during his 20-year tenure on the commission.

In other business, the council will look at amending contracts for two major improvement projects, including upgrades to the aging wastewater treatment plant in southeast Lawton.

The change to the contract with Wynn Construction would add $527,851.67 in cost and 90 work days for work that will demolish three unserviceable blowers and install four new blowers. That work is part of a change the council approved in March to add new blowers, equipment that provides oxygen for the plant’s aeration basins. All the projects are part of Phase I upgrades now underway, work that is allowing repairs, replacement and modernization of plant processes that will address a Consent Order from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality after the plant violated treatment requirements in its discharged water.

The new change order brings the final contract amount to $85,345,473.58., an increase of 1.87 percent to the total contract, said Public Utilities Director Rusty Whisenhunt.

Council members also will consider amending the city’s contract with CDBL, the construction manager at risk for the McMahon Auditorium upgrade.

The amendment centers on the maximum price amendment, the guaranteed cost for Phase I work that will modernize bathrooms, install an elevator and do lobby upgrades. That price is not to exceed $7,333,138.45, less than the $8 million budgeted for the project in the 2019 Capital Improvements Program.