Paseo District Artwork Spurs Legal Debate

By Amy Lester, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A battle that has been brewing for three years over a mural in the historic Paseo Arts District is moving to the courtroom.

"It's been very helpful to the street," said artist Randy Feuerborn. "Helps create mood of the street, tells you this is Paseo art, a beautiful district."

The mural that welcomes people to The Paseo Arts District, the one pizza lovers enjoy, may soon come down and one of the artists who poured his heart into it doesn't understand why.

"It's not even controversial," Feuerborn said. "If I had done something political or that was edgy, but this is probably the least controversial thing I can think of."

The owner of building where the mural is painted, John Belt, can't make sense of this either.

"They don't want to see their work destroyed and I don't want to see their work destroyed," Belt said.

Three years ago, John Belt commissioned artists to paint the mural. Since the Paseo District is an historic district, he was supposed to get approval first from the City Arts Commission and Historic Preservation Commission. Not realizing that, the mural went up, without the city's approval.

"If you fail to say, ‘May I?' then you just get put backwards and that's what we've been experiencing here," Belt said.

When he asked for approval, after the fact, the Arts Commission gave him their approval, but the Historic Preservation Commission did not. They claim "the design of the mural is not compatible with the area and other buildings on the street."

"We found that the mural wasn't historic enough or not appropriate and we turned it down," said Historic Preservation Commission Chairman Roland Tague.

Belt appealed that decision, and lost and the Board of Adjustment also disapproved of the mural.

"I'm not inclined to just accept that, so we appeal to the district court," Belt said.

A district court will decide if the mural must turn back into a blank wall.

"I'm using the devices that the law provides to try to save the mural," Belt said. "That's what I would like to do, that's what the people on the street would like to do."

When the historic commission was making its decision, they got a report from city staff, which recommended allowing the mural to stay up.