Norman residents weigh in on high-density developments

“We've been trying to gauge residents' comfort level with this type of development, mainly because of an increased demand for it from developers,” Planning Director Susan Connors said. “We've tried to talk about how we can absorb these higher densities, if we can.”

High-rise, high-density housing units, sometimes mixed with retail and commercial development, are becoming increasingly popular in urban areas, Connors said, but Norman's planning code currently doesn't allow for such developments.

Connors said developers have been submitting applications for multifamily developments with as many as 100 dwelling units per acre, most of them around the University of Oklahoma campus and all well above Norman's current limit of 26 units per acre. Norman's 2025 Land Use and Transportation Plan doesn't address the issue.

In a series of six public meetings that concluded Thursday, residents were given a crash course in city planning and high-density developments, including where they have been used in other cities and how they can be incorporated into urban living.

At the conclusion, residents were asked to vote on various scenarios that ranged from maintaining the status quo to incorporating medium-density housing units or choosing between mixed-use developments or high-density developments with or without restrictions.