By Carol Cole
The Norman Transcript

Gone was the acrimony. Gone was the backbiting.

Instead there were nine Norman city councilmembers working urgently together with city staff at a retreat Tuesday to put the city on the fast track on implementing its $54.7 million University North Park Tax Increment Financing District project plan.  Council approved the TIF District No. 2 May 23.

A little extra motivation was recently thrown in the mix, with hotel developer John Q. Hammons' desire to break ground on his $35 million, 10-story Embassy Suites hotel on October instead of the march 2007 date previously discussed.

"What I want to do is set the framework," said City Manager Brad Gambill. "And I want your guidance for staff. ... When we leave her tonight, we want to go to the starting line. And that's what it's going to take."

Council tackled potential timelines and priority of work for the district east of the Interstate 35 between Tecumseh Road and Robinson Street.

At the top of the "to do" list is creating a master operating agreement.

Planning Director Richard Massie said three things need to go on simultaneously.

First, council needs to work with staff and the developer and the University of Oklahoma Foundation

The developer needs to prepare lots of plans for infrastructure.  And thirdly, the city's review process needs to be worked through with a date of Aug. 14 for building plans.

"That's the last date we can have filed with the city the application for revision of the Planned Unit Development, a revised preliminary plat, the updated traffic impact analysis, which is a major, major effort on their part," Massie said.

He said there are many pieces of the puzzle to put together to make it happen.

"It is a work in progress," he said.

The developer reportedly had firmed up a site with Hammons for the hotel and conference center.

The city would need to have a final plat in hand by Sept. 11. Planning Commission would meet and determine whether to give its recommendation Sept. 14, with council's first reading on Sept. 26. The second reading by council would be Oct. 10.

"If all that can occur, in theory, they could start construction on Oct. 13," Massie said.

He said he expected building of the hotel is a "fairly standardized process" for Hammons, and he expected few problems there.

Hammons would also construct the conference center, with $15 million in funding from the TIF District and $5 million of his money. When he announced the deal, he said he would pay for any overages in construction costs.

City staff said they would work on also bringing forth an operating agreement.

Throughout the process, the Foundation's architectural committee will also be reviewing plans.

"This is not a rubber stamp group," said Massie of committee members who include local architects Bob Goins, Rick McKinney and others.

The University North Park development was presented this week at the International Council of Shopping Centers annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., causing lots of synergy for the project, Massie said. He said developers are excited about prospects of potential retailers perhaps moving up their timetable for the development.

The only real problem for the city is how rapidly their various projects financed by the TIF District No.2 can be completed.

"That's one problem that might create, when you compress that schedule," he said.

"There is not, at that early date, a revenue stream."

Massie said he planned to do the inspections with his own staff, with perhaps the exception of the concrete inspections.

Four elements could be coming forward at close to the same time, Gamibll said. Those would include the master operating agreement, conference center agreements and plans for Legacy Park.

The OU Foundation has said it would guarantee bonds for the road improvements.

City Finance Director Anthony Francisco said the priority of work is "a very dynamic thing," but city staff had determined the order of how things should have gotten compressed.

"That is both scary, overwhelming, intimidating, but also very exciting," Francisco said. "And all this stuff can happen in a relatively short period of time. ... In order to make this happen, we are going to have to work well together. We are going to have to trust each other individually and collectively.  What you cannot let happen is for this opportunity to go away, for this opportunity to get lost. Or this opportunity to happen without the proper controls in place."

Francisco said to think of the master operating agreement as the TIF's Constitution.

Councilmembers said they favored creating a new public trust that would just deal with TIF funds, instead of using an existing trust like the Municipal Authority.

They discussed the makeup of the TIF oversight committee, which will oversee expenditures of the district. Decisions on the committee will be discussed further.