On November 4, 2025, the Norman City Council convened a special meeting to address three primary agenda items: a proposed amendment to the definition of 'family' regarding unrelated persons, a discussion on a potential bond election for a permanent homeless shelter (potentially bundled with public safety infrastructure), and an executive session for real property negotiations. The council received detailed reports from Planning Director Jane Hudson and City Manager Pam Pyle, engaging in significant deliberation regarding housing affordability, enforcement mechanisms, and public sentiment on past and proposed ballot measures. Several council members expressed strong support for removing the 1954-based occupancy limit to aid low-income housing and students, while others emphasized the need for better enforcement of nuisance ordinances to address neighborhood concerns.
Three Unrelated Persons & Residential Zoning:
Proposed Bond Election (Homeless Shelter):
Executive Session:
All right, everyone, it's 5 30. So we'll go ahead and get started with the uh city council special meeting for Tuesday, November 4th, 2025. We have three items on the agenda, and the first one is a discussion regarding three unrelated persons and residential zoning. Uh long time policy and human normans. So we have uh planning director Jane Hudson here to talk about this. Thank you, Mayor. Council. So uh we're here tonight to go over what we actually talked about at uh community planning and transportation back in March, I think is when it was. I don't remember exactly, but this item is actually planned to go before planning commission next week. And so when we do have ordinance changes, I'd just like to come back to you one more time before you hear it on uh planning commission, and then you guys will obviously see this in uh upcoming meetings. So just uh a brief summary of what we went over uh previously. Um the three unrelated definition has been part of the zoning ordinance since 1954. Uh the complaints that you do get from your constituents uh are generally about traffic, parking, and noise. Uh the city addresses occupancy to help ensure health and safety of the residents and to protect the quality and character of the neighborhoods. That's our main concern. Life safety, obviously, is is number one. So we've had many people ask uh why eliminate this uh it's we say ordinance, but technically it's really the definition of family that we're looking at, but it is in the zoning code, so this is going to be an ordinance amendment. And you know, many of the discussions were about the the cities that are facing the housing crisis, the rising uh housing costs over the past several decades. It's been a huge discussion for many, many years. Um removing this or you know, updating this definition, it would allow a greater flexibility and affordability affordability in housing choices. Uh more often, I mean to refer back to the COVID, you know, things have changed greatly since that time, and so we are seeing many seeking to live in cooperative housing roommates. Uh and right now, the way we have it set up, many of those uh housing structures, you know, they're discriminated against under this current occupancy limit. Uh we have low-income who can't afford to live on their own and they struggle to find existing market rate affordable housing choices, so they try to cohabitate and share the rent, and sometimes we end up with four or five, and then that really does reflect back on this this definition of family. And I think probably one of the things that I talked to to you about this last time was um the enforcement of this is difficult. It falls back on the individual that's calling in. They call into code compliance, and um it requires a large amount of staff time to research and administer. It's difficult to prove the family relations. We've been through this many, many times over the years, and we do we run into that every time. As I said, the neighbors that call in, they're asked to spend time completing the investigation. We need uh logs of vehicles, tag numbers, dates, times, and it becomes a task, and it also creates an issue between them and the individual that they're you know reporting watching and reporting on. Right. And so also this uh you know impacts specific groups as I've kind of gone over, but we have multi-generational uh low-income houses, and then we also have the students. We are a college town. And to go back, it's frustrating to the residents that call in and think that you know we can just immediately do something about this, and it takes time, and then sometimes it's not even something that we can take to court and and get enforced, and so that's disappointing for them, and I get that. Um, again, the number of complaints, you know, in 2023, we had a total of 19. Uh none resulted in citations. They were either closed due to insufficient evidence, or uh the property owner provided proof of compliance. 2024, we had eight, same thing. Uh ended up in municipal court up at um the remaining cases were closed due to insufficient evidence, and then in 2025, we've had one, and it's my understanding that case is still active, or has it been closed? I believe it might have been closed due to insufficient evidence. Okay, so considerations to changes. Uh, the family definition is utilized within the code, included uh the zoning district. Um, and the code was adopted in 1954, so we do think that it is outdated. Uh, does it solve an issue? Probably, but there's also other city codes that could help alleviate some of the problems because, like I said, the complaints that we we get are parking, noise, uh, party houses disturbing the peace, and so we do have other ordinances in place that we can take care of some of those issues should they become a problem. Our existing uh definition of family. I won't read all of that to you, but I will show you what our proposal is. Family means a single family comprised of one of the following. It's a number of persons cohabitating in a single dwelling and includes a group home. So we've kept the group home so that doesn't fall between the cracks and we lose any of those uh abilities there.