The proposal for a five-story structure on the current site of Bishop’s Landing Apartments drew opposition in February but got the nod from the city council on the condition that FEMA approved a flood map revision for the site.
Norman was notified of FEMA’s conditional approval — the first step in the process — last week.
The process began when Inland American Communities Group sent a Conditional Letter of Map Revision request to FEMA this spring.
“It’s a really complicated process, even for us,” Norman Public Works Director Shawn O’Leary said. “It’s not something that happens very often.”
Inland American is actually solving a problem that already existed with the current property, according to city staff. Located on the north side of Brooks Street and west of the BNSF Railroad right of way, the existing 50-year-old apartments encroach into the floodplain and the floodway with buildings and parking lots.
Despite the existing problems, there were concerns expressed by the public that a bad precedent was being set. The proposed University House Norman will be taller and will have a smaller ground-level footprint than Bishop’s Landing. It also will resolve some of the floodplain and floodway issues of the current property.
Originally, the Floodplain Committee gave unanimous approval for the proposal, but at least two committee members at the Feb. 10 meeting said more information had come to light that would have resulted in a different vote.
The nature of the additional information was unclear, and after hearing arguments from both sides, the city council approved the proposal for University House Norman to replace the aging Bishop’s Landing, 333 E. Brooks St., in a 5-2 vote, with Greg Jungman and Lynne Miller opposing.
Having received council’s blessing, Inland American has provided the engineering and will provide the dirt work to solve flooding problems in accordance with FEMA guidelines.
Without the private investment, it might have fallen to the city to mitigate flooding that has plagued the area. Norman has a significant number of properties in the floodplain, which were built before the floodplain maps were created to guide development and the city has an active mitigation plan in place.
In the Bishop’s Landing site project, Inland submitted engineering and technical data to FEMA over the summer, which approved the CLOMR on Oct. 1.
“We were expecting it,” O’Leary said. “The feedback we were getting in the last 30 days or so was that FEMA was very comfortable with it.”
The conditional letter, or CLOMR, will turn into a Letter of Map Revision, a LOMR, once the dirt work is done to FEMA’s satisfaction.
Meanwhile, a demolition permit for the existing structures on the property was issued, as was an earth change permit for site grading work, consistent with the CLOMR.
“We’ve reviewed the FEMA documents, and staff is very comfortable,” O’Leary said. “The applicant is proceeding with the demolition. They could have done that at any time. The demolition wasn’t subject to this process.”
The applicant’s engineer submitted detailed engineering reports, maps and calculations and will move forward concurrently with the city platting and permitting process.
“We’ll see the beginning of the earth grading, which is the part we’re focused on here, relative to the floodplain,” O’Leary said. “They’re creating a compensatory storage, meaning they’ll have more storage in the floodplain area after the project than they do now.”
Inland has said it will use the city’s concurrent construction process for the project to complete required public improvements and begin construction work in areas outside the existing floodplain.
“In the recent two months, they have been submitting their building documents for building permits. This is not uncommon on a project of this complexity,” O’Leary said. “We’ve had concurrent construction for many years. They pay an additional fee to the city and their building permit is running concurrent to the final plat. What’s unique to this one is you have this CLOMR process in the middle of it all.”
Once FEMA is satisfied and a Letter of Map Revision issued, the city council will consider approval of the final plat.
“The city will issue a phased building permit, meaning they will only be able to construct the buildings outside the floodplain until the LOMR is approved,” O’Leary said. “It could take four to six months to get through that LOMR process.”
The location of the apartments, on Brooks Street across from the CART stop and near campus, means more walkability for students, supporting council members argued when they approved the application in February.
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