Lawton City Council to consider new annexation process for Westwin site

New action to annex property for the Westwin Elements pilot plant project will ensure the process is not clouded, attorneys say.

Members of the City Council will address the issue today during a special meeting, acting on a petition of annexation from the Comanche County Industrial Development Authority (CCIDA). CCIDA owns the 160 acres being considered, which in turn are part of 480 acres that CCIDA owns south of the west Lawton industrial park at West Lee Boulevard and Southwest 112th Street.

For this purpose, the annexation is focused on land located between Southwest 112th and Southwest 97th streets, stretching north from Bishop Road about one-half mile. The tract includes the 40 acres to be designated to Westwin Elements for the pilot plant project that will provide the data the company needs for a bankable feasibility study on its full-scale, $732.5 million cobalt/nickel refinery.

CCIDA is submitting the petition for annexation as the land’s sole owner. The petition comes with a request to bring the land into the city under a temporary I-4 Heavy Industrial District zoning, the least restrictive of the city’s zoning categories and one that allows heavy industrial activities. The city must grant permanent I-4 zoning to the tract within a year, under the terms of the petition.

It’s not a new process.

The council originally annexed the property into the city limits in December 2022, but city staff, after reviewing that action, is recommending the annexation process be “confirmed.”

Mike Mayhall, attorney for CCIDA, said the action is being taken because officials can’t confirm the original annexation process was fully followed. CCIDA applied for annexation in 2022 and while the City Council approved the request, officials cannot confirm the petition for annexation was published twice in a newspaper (once a week for two consecutive weeks), as required by law. Dan Batchelor, the Center for Economic Development Law founder who has helped local entities craft the Westwin redevelopment agreements, said his recommendation was to redo the annexation process to confirm it, noting “we don’t want to cloud” the issue because only one publication notice could be located.

Mayhall said that because the owners of the entire tract — CCIDA — petitioned for annexation, adjacent property owners do not have to be notified individually. However, public notice of the action is required, which is the process being followed now. CCIDA petitioned for the annexation on Dec. 6, and publication was specified on Dec. 8 and Dec. 15.

Approval of the ordinance today would replace action taken in December 2022, specifying CCIDA wants the annexation confirmed prior to the anticipated transfer of property to the Lawton Economic Development Authority for “significant economic development.” City officials said the request falls within all specified criteria: the land is adjacent and contiguous to the corporate city limits, is not part of any other incorporated municipality, and is wholly owned by CCIDA.

Approval by the council will annex the 160-acre tract into the city immediately, with an I-4 zoning.

In another economic development issue, the council will receive a presentation from LEDA Executive Director Richard Rogalski and Brad Cooksey, president of the Lawton Economic Development Corporation, about a potential industrial development project within the Airport Industrial Park. That land is adjacent to Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport and is owned by LEDC.

Rogalski and Cooksey will update the council on a project they said would create a distribution center on a 15-acre parcel, a project that will call for the extension/relocation of public water, sewer and roads, according to the agenda commentary. The unnamed project is similar to the development done for the PepsiCo facility already operating in that area after being developed in 2021, LEDC said.