My 2 Cents: Growing Concerns About Rapid Expansion

For decades, Oklahoma City and surrounding communities were begging for investors to come in with exciting new ideas for retail stores, entertainment venues and creative new housing developments.

We were offering tax breaks, incentives, just about anything to get them to just try the Oklahoma City area.   

When you take that into account, it makes last night's vote in Edmond all the more revealing.

Edmond voters said no thanks to a $160 million high-end retail shopping center and apartment community at 15th and Bryant.    

Many people felt it was too close to Hafer Park, plus there's already retail in the area, and there was concern that an already congested intersection, by Edmond's standards, would become even busier.

There are other promising commercial developments that have stirred up nearby residents who are concerned about more traffic, more noise and light pollution.

In the interest of full disclosure, I live near one of them, so it's top of mind for me.

It's ironic that for so long the idea of improving our quality of life around here meant having more things to do.

Now that we're getting them, we're worried about how the rapid expansion will affect the slower-paced lifestyle so many of us have come to appreciate.

Growing pains...
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I'm Kelly Ogle and that's My 2 Cents.