By John Dobberstein, Editor
For decades, a collection of homeowners living on picturesque estates in south Broken Arrow have walked outside to enjoy plentiful wildlife and lush greenery. The FFA farm’s barns and buildings lended to the neighborhood’s rural character.
But that changed last year when PSO sold its 49-acre easement near 101st Street and County Line Road to Calara Land OK, a subsidiary of the publicly owned national housing giant Lennar Corp. The price was $2.2 million, after the tract previously had no listed value and was being rented out for soccer matches.
Last year, Calara unveiled plans to build more than 160 single-family homes on the tract, with no plans to leave a landscape buffer between the project and existing homes. A rezoning request was approved by the Broken Arrow Planning Commission and the City Council in June.
Once an earth change permit was approved by the city on July 30, bulldozers started tearing down the FFA structures and felling every tree on the southern portion of the property.
Earth changes are common practice between the various stages of land development and do not come before the City Council for review and approval. The city said it’s not unusual for land work to be done ahead of final plan approvals as long as nothing is added to the site.
For some residents, though, the tree clearing was the final straw after fighting for several months to ensure a tree line remained between their neighborhood and the new project. Resident Charles Rowland filed a petition in Tulsa County District Court asking a judge to put a halt to the project to prevent a large stand of mature trees on the property’s northern edge from being leveled.
“This zoning decision hurts me and is contrary to the public good,” Rowland said in the filing. “I researched and bought this property 20 years ago to raise my family in this culture known for established large lots and country living.”
Rowland continued by alleging the city was, “regulating the use of land without constitutional authority, which is contrary to the public good and violates my liberty. People created government for the public good, but Broken Arrow’s practice is to benefit the economic development authority without protecting private rights.”
The city said it has negotiated an agreement with developers for a greenbelt to buffer the new housing and neighborhoods to the north. Calara’s conditional final plat is on the Planning Commission’s meeting agenda Thursday.
Cathleen Doyle, a resident who has been leading opposition to the project, said there are 27 affected residents living adjacent to the proposed development on E. 96th Street, E. 97th Street and S. 190th East Ave. who would be affected and want a 50-foot green belt to buffer against the new housing.
Doyle noted many of her neighbors are senior homesteaders and said the project, “does not align with existing homeowner land use patterns and most certainly alters the existing character.”
‘Not Conducive’
Doyle also expressed concerns the Planning Commission and City Council are not consistent in their assessment of housing projects, pointing to a decision in April by the Planning Commission to refuse changes to the city’s Comprehensive Plan for a proposed project after former U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, now Department of Homeland Security secretary, and other residents complained at a recent meeting.
A developer proposed three options for residential units on 20 acres on the south side of Tucson Street, just west of Olive Avenue. Directly south of the property is a 30-acre estate that Mullin Realty, owned by the Mullin, purchased last August for $3.7 million.
The developers sought a change to the city’s Comprehensive Plan — which is an advisory document and not zoning law — from a Level 2 residential status to a Level 3 “transition area” because they planned to seek a zoning change to residential multi-family.
The owner of the property, Cenia Realty, proposed up to 190 “cottage homes” with options to develop townhomes or a gated single-family community instead after a decision was made on changing the Comprehensive Plan.
Mike Willis, CFO and general counsel for Ary Land Co. — the firm that represented Mullin in last year’s purchase — told the Planning Commission that Mullin objected to the proposal for three reasons.
Willis said he believed changing the Comprehensive Plan could lead to the property being zoned industrial, and he also objected to the proposed height of the new zoning – up to 35 feet, raising privacy concerns. Willis also voiced concerns about potential the increased traffic congestion.
“For these reasons, Senator Mullin is requesting that it be denied. In the alternative, if you decide to grant the request, he asks that it be conditioned upon an imposition of a height restriction of no more than 20 feet for the privacy concerns, and the inclusion of a buffer zone,” Willis said.
BAPC member Jason Coan said the requested change the Comprehensive Plan would not be “conducive” to the surrounding area.
“We sit here and tell the community, ‘Look at the Comprehensive Plan because these are the options within that plan that they can have.’ And then we turn around and say, ‘Sometimes we change it.’
“But that change is usually in a circumstance where we’re talking about a transitional area along a highway, or an area where there are many options. But when I look at the surrounding homes in the area, I do not see justification to change from a Level Two to a Level Three. That’s my opinion.”
The Comprehensive Plan changed was denied on a 5-0 vote, and the developers have up to 15 days to appeal their request to the Broken Arrow City Council.
Not a PUD
The city noted Calara’s project is a “straight rezoning request” and not a planned unit development (PUD), where the city could have negotiated additional items like tree buffers.
Assistant City Manager Kenneth Schwab told the residents last week that he negotiated with Calara to leave a 50-foot greenbelt between their homes and the new development. A meeting was scheduled for this week to discuss the plan, but once Rowland’s injunction was served the city cancelled the meeting due to the pending legal proceedings.
It’s unclear if the injunction will have any effect on the project immediately moving forward.
According to Tulsa County real estate records, PSO took control of the property in 2019 and it was being leased for hosting soccer matches.
Among other things, Rowland alleges that PSO’s sale of the property to Calara violated the franchise agreement approved by Broken Arrow voters in 2023, which Rowland said, “prohibits Public Service Company of Oklahoma from engaging in any other business within the city, other than the transmission and distribution of electric power in the city.”
The Sentinel contacted Calara and PSO Friday for comment but did not receive an immediate response. The city of Broken Arrow declined to comment Friday, citing the legal proceedings.
The Planning Commission on Thursday will consider another 61 acres of housing proposed in two separate projects. Before the BAPC is the final plat for 89 lots of single-family residential on 22 acres near West Tucson Street and South Elm Place.
BAPC will also host a public hearing to consider a request to rezone 39 acres of land from agricultural to single-family residential along County Line Road between Florence Street and the Creek Turnpike.
The developer has requested a lower-density zoning designation compared to its previous request for the highest density allowed.
“We believe the proposed RS-C zoning will alleviate the concerns voiced and allow the site to be developed as a quality residential subdivision that will provide a buffer between the estate-sized lots to the north and the planned commercial corridor along the Creek Turnpike to the south,” said Eller & Detrich, a law firm representing the developer, in a letter to residents.
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