Rezoning OK’d, but not without drama, protest

The Sallisaw Planning Commission on Tuesday approved — despite objections — rezoning for Redbird Smith Estates, and approved a replat of Sallisaw Feed Mill by Aviagen North America to accommodate its planned expansion. Both items will be presented to city commissioners at their Monday meeting for final approval.

The rezoning request by the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma for Redbird Smith Estates, located east of J.T. Stites Boulevard, is for Block 1 Lots 1-4 and Block 2 Lots 1-4, rezoning the property from single-family residence district (R-1) to residence district (R2) to allow for building multi-family dwellings.

But opponents of the soon-to-bestarted development told the planning board, not in my backyard, literally.

At Monday’s public hearing regarding the rezoning, three men who own property in Richland Estates adjacent to the proposed subdivision voiced their concerns, citing jeopardized property values and upkeep of the homes and duplexes planned.

“This is kinda deja vu. I think we were here about 20 years ago over this same thing,” said Gary Osborne, who moved to Richland Estates in 2000.

“The problem is not what nice, new houses are gonna look like and what they’re intended for. It’s what the neighborhood looks like 10 years later,” Osborne lectured the planning commission. “If you drive through any Indian Nation division or homes, they’re not well maintained. My concern is that it will destroy the value of our homes. Mine is one of the homes that’s gonna catch one of the first four houses on the west side, 2013 Winterpark. I’m gonna be real concerned about paying property taxes in the future on a home that’s gonna get devalued for the neighborhood over there.

“If I understood the newspaper that printed something a month ago or so, are there some duplexes or apartment-type building that’s gonna go into this property?” he asked, which Chris Carter, senior code inspector for the city, explained the subdivision’s first eight lots on the west side of the development, after rezoning, would be duplexes, and there would be 28 homes and duplexes built.

“So the first four are gonna be duplexes, instead of single-family homes?” Osborne confirmed. “This is even gonna deteriorate [property values] even more rapidly. People don’t care. They rent properties, apartments, they don’t care. They come in, they tear them up. These properties are gonna destroy our value of our homes.”

Carter also addressed Osborne’s concerns about water runoff from the subdivision onto his property as well as pulling power from J.T. Stites, which would not impact his property.

Then Osborne asked for assurances that Redbird Smith Estates would be separated from Richland Estates.

“If you guys approve this, there better be one big fence down the middle there to make a big division between them, our property and theirs.”

Keith Miller, building development director for the city, said putting up a fence between the subdivisions has been discussed, but is not a requirement, but that it can be encouraged.

But Osborne’s concerns remained unrequited, whether the subdivision included single-family homes or multi-family homes.

“When you help people to buy a house, especially if it’s no money down and you’re helping them, these are people …,” Osborne trailed off. “I have nothing against it, build these houses out at the racetrack. They (Cherokee Nation) own that land, too.

“But these people, they probably can’t maintain the home once they get in it. They don’t even know how to take care of it. It only takes about eight to 10 years, and I guarantee you the apartments behind our homes are gonna get destroyed even quicker, because people will be in and out of them.”

That’s when Miller pointed out that duplexes already exist in Richland Estates, which Osborne disputed.

“To be honest, you’ve got an R-2 district within your subdivision, and we couldn’t stop them from building duplexes within your subdivision already if they wanted to. Anybody could go into any one of the lots in your subdivision that’s zoned R-2 and build a duplex right now. They could take an existing home and turn it into a duplex. You have a duplex in that subdivision already,” Miller told Osborne, who remained skeptical.

Pride in ownership

Dan Rightmire, who says he lives five or six houses from Osborne in Richland Estates, drew on his experience in other Oklahoma cities where where he recalled the Cherokee Nation built homes.

“They weren’t maintained. I don’t know whether they had to be forced to maintain them, or the way it was set up or there were some consequences,” Rightmire said. “I had the concern, multiple dwellings in that area. I have seen some properties that weren’t taken care of, and they became an eyesore — they’d just get out of the car, Mc-Donald’s stuff, Walmart bags flying around the neighborhood. That has concern.”

Then he redirected his concerns closer to home.

“Richland Estates is well established. It’s not the most expensive area here in Sallisaw, but it’s a relatively nice neighborhood, a little bit upscale compared to some areas,” he said. “I’d not like to see a multi-family situation come in where — I need to say this politely — where destruction and neglect happens. If so, as Mr. Gary reflected, it would reflect on Richland Estates. “I’ve already called [the city] again this year, which makes me think, maintenance on this is not going to be good. I’ve called to have the three- to four-foot grass mowed, because all it does is creating the pollen, allergies and so on and so forth, plus weeds in my yard, which I would assume weeds in everybody’s yard alongside that southern border of that piece of property,” Rightmire said.

“If this is OK’d by the city, is there some kind of a barrier that will be put up? For example, we have a barbed-wire fence there that I crawl under so I can mow about four feet, five feet out, kinda make it look OK compared to the three- or four-foot weeds they have out there. Weeds are a reflection of their ability, or willingness, to maintain a property. So there I have a concern, and their willingness to make a property habitable and attractive to those who live by and live there.”

Rightmire then asked about homeownership. Representatives from the Cherokee housing authority explained that government- funded loans are paid directly to the housing authority, “so it’s like a mortgage company or a bank, and these people are paying for 30 years on these houses.”

But Rightmire, who was a banker for 30 years, believes therein lies a problem.

“My reflection, we did see the greatest foreclosure rates came with government- type lending — FHA, VA. Those who don’t put hardly anything down on a piece of property have nothing to lose; they’re basically paying rent. If they want to leave, whatever they want to do, they have that option.

“So with that brings — I don’t know how you would even deal with it — the quality of clientele that’s brought into this area. I don’t wanna be ugly, but it concerns me that if we have a body of people who aren’t making some sort of a payment,” Rightmire said, pivoting in mid-sentence to housing costs elsewhere. “But in real life outside of Sallisaw, for you to rent a house like that would probably be $2,500, $3,000 a month — you go to Northwest Arkansas. So I’m just concerned that we have a quality group of people. I’m concerned that if you change the zoning to multi-family, and I do believe with Mr. Gary, that could ultimately determine the value of our properties that are right next door.”

Similarly, Gary Ramm, who owns “a couple of homes over there,” added his concern about whether Redbird Smith Estates residents will be committed to maintaining their property.

“Do they just get a free house, or do they have to pay a percentage for their apartment; they just gonna build them and let them move in? If they put some green into it, they’re gonna take care of it,” he said, but believes “police is gonna be out there every night.”

Representatives from the Cherokee housing authority explained that “payments will be based on their income. These new houses that they’re building there, they’re running $600 or $700 a month rent.” They said the new three- and fourbedroom single-story brick homes will all have garages, and roads in the subdivision will be asphalt with concrete curbs. “Whatever the city requires us to do, that’s what will be in there. It’s just like a regular subdivision.”

It was also stipulated that the duplexes will be maintained by the housing authority, and that Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, in conjunction with Sallisaw Police Department, will patrol the new subdivision.

“As far as the mowing and cleaning are concerned, that’s something we do enforce, and we will enforce it, along with the Cherokee Nation,” Carter said. “We’ve worked with the Cherokee Nation on the enforcement of the mowing and cleaning, and they’ve helped us on a lot of their homes as well.”

“And they do have restrictive covenants for this subdivision,” Miller added. “And it’s platted and it is specified that the city can take action with this covenant.”

Carter said the homes being built “are better than they used to be. They’re a better-built home.”

“This property is already zoned R-1, so even if this doesn’t go through as a rezone, they could build houses in there. We can’t stop them, nobody can stop them from building houses. It’s already zoned for that [and] platted. All they have to do is build the roads, put in the water and sewer, and they can build,” Carter said.

“Well I hope for everybody, it’s a asset and for this town,” Ramm conceded. “I hope everything works out. It’s a development for the city, it’s a move forward. I hope it’s a positive move.”

The final word

Commission member Tim Brown then tried to summarize what he understood from everyone’s remarks.

“The Cherokee Nation is going to be maintaining the duplexes, so that alleviates the whole concern about the curation of the R-1s. The R-1s, the homeowners are gonna take care of those. The R-2, which is what we’re approving today, the housing authority has given us assurances that they would help maintain those properties,” Brown said.

When it was then pointed out that “right across the road, what does Redbird look like? They keep it looking like a park over there, that’s how they maintain their property,” a Richland Estates homeowner countered that the field north of Richland Estates is only mowed twice a year.

“So sounds like it’s gonna be a better deal for you then if it’s not a field anymore,” Miller concluded.

Brown then emphasized that “the other thing that you’re also leaving out is that the deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation is from Sallisaw, proud member of Sallisaw. I know him personally, and he takes pride in Sallisaw. In fact, this is probably Cherokee Nation wanting to give back to Sallisaw.”

“Well, when property values go down in our neighborhood, send me a check,” Osborne rebutted.

“I think your legitimate concerns have been addressed,” Brown told Osborne.

But Osborne remained adamant that he is not happy about rental property abutting his property.

“Are they going to be maintained at all?” Osborne asked, which Brown told him that question had been answered.

“I just don’t believe, based on their other neighborhoods, that in 10 years they’ll look as nice as they did, and it could affect us. Go look at some of the 10-year-old neighborhoods. If you look at the former neighborhoods up against ours …” That’s when Brown had the final word.

“My concern is that you have a lot of questions, but you don’t have a whole lot of facts,” he told Osborne. “We know what the Cherokee Nation will do. Cherokee Nation’s been a pretty strong partner. I’m not in love with the Cherokee Nation, but at the same time, I also have a lot of experience with the Cherokee Nation.

“I am here to help represent your concerns, but you’ve got to help me out a little bit and give me some facts. If you’re just afraid of what might happen based off something you might have seen, we can’t do anything about it. I think, ultimately, your concerns can be addressed by the city. The city’s going to enforce their rules, am I wrong? [Miller] is one of the chief enforcement officers, and he’ll get out there and he’ll get after people if they don’t maintain their property, if they don’t maintain their yards.

“Hopefully it’ll be better once it becomes residential. And if it’s not, then the city can go there and say, ‘Hey, you’ve gotta mow it now.’ Hopefully that’ll be better for you.

“I feel like the issues you have raised, I think they have been addressed. I think right now it’s just fear. I wanna help alleviate that fear,” Brown said. “But change is gonna happen. The city wants that property to be developed.”

Brown then made a motion that the rezoning request be approved, and was seconded by Ronnie Woodward. The motion passed unanimously.

Aviagen expansion

Carter outlined for the planning commission a replatting of Aviagen North America’s Sallisaw feed mill, located at 300 Drake Road at South Cedar Street, to accommodate a planned expansion of the feed mill.

“Their intent is to build, and they’re probably gonna double what they have there currently. Everything is good to go on this,” Carter told the commission.

“Is this just an expansion of the facility?” Brown confirmed. “So that’s a good thing, right?”

“More jobs,” Carter summed up.

Commission member Brady Bauer moved to approve the replatting, and Scott Looper seconded. The motion passed unanimously.