OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Norman City Council Business and Community Affairs Committee Meeting - August 6, 2026

Public Meetings & Live-Streams — Thursday, August 6, 2026
BodyNorman, Oklahoma
SessionPublic Meetings & Live-Streams
DateThursday, August 6, 2026
StatusNEW · FILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:03:56
Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Uh we think we're recording.

0:01

It's uh four o'clock.

0:02

Um see we're gonna um call to order the uh city council of business and community affairs uh committee meeting uh August 6th, 2026.

0:15

It's four o'clock.

0:16

We have a presentation from staff.

0:18

Uh the first one is going to be report on special events and visitors.

0:22

So Mr.

0:23

Honorable Director Olson, please.

0:26

Thank you, Councilmember Jason Olson, Director of Parks and Recreation, and my lovely friend over here, Dan Shim, um, with Visit Norman.

0:34

We're gonna talk to you what has happened over the last quarter or so here with visitation and special events here in the city of Norman.

0:42

Uh this happened, we're got a little bit out of whack.

0:46

We were trying to do it every quarter, and we end up doing this two months uh later.

0:49

So we're we're trying to pack in a little bit more information than what we have in our past few months, but we'll try to do the best we can, trying to give you a full understanding and scope of everything that's happened over the past uh what would be five and a half months or so.

1:04

So this is the the very first chart you see right here is visitation inside of Norman.

1:09

So your one constant uh that you have if you look at that blue line right there in the middle, that is the line of residents that go all the way uh through there, and you can see it's pretty consistent.

1:20

Uh since uh this is a over the last few years.

1:25

You can see you go all the way back to June of uh which I can't see.

1:30

I'm actually uh I probably should have worked less.

1:32

That's 12 months.

1:33

Thank you, Dan.

1:34

Dan actually has his classes on.

1:35

Yeah.

1:36

Uh so that blue line right there is the resident line, that orange line you see um hopping up and down.

1:41

That is uh out-of-town visitors.

1:42

So when you start talking about out-of-town visitors, these are people that actually spent um some significant time inside the uh the city.

1:50

Uh, like if you're on the interstate or you get caught a uh they see you going through getting caught at a red light or something like this passing through to grab graphic gas.

1:58

They try not to pick you up on on that line.

2:00

Uh, but you'll you'll see all these spikes that happen throughout the year, and I think this one's interesting.

2:06

I was trying to think, oh, why do we have a super low spike um January 21st?

2:10

I'm trying to remember maybe that was our snowstorm that we had, so there wasn't a whole lot of people on the road at all.

2:15

But it's uh you do get to see the interesting um I would expect these are the weekends uh that you start seeing festivals.

2:24

So uh you need more of your bigger festivals happening in this area.

2:29

These spikes over here, I would think would have more to do with the football games that we had in the the last fall.

2:35

Um so it's always interesting to see how that goes.

2:40

It's almost a little bit like a little heartbeat.

2:42

Um I wouldn't hope our our hotel data would go along with that um to show some representation of the spikes.

2:49

But we like to also go through there and um hop into a lot of our Norman Ford parks.

2:56

Uh these are our Griffin, Reeves, Westwood Family Aquatic Center, the Young Family Athletic Center.

3:03

This big red spike you see at Reeves, uh, that is the medieval fair.

3:08

Uh and then you'll see the blue line right here.

3:11

That uh correlates with your your fall season of soccer NYSA out there, and you also have your your fall season of baseball.

3:20

And you can see that the WiFact um always pretty decently consistent, um hovering about 50,000 visitors a month in that range.

3:30

Uh typically when we start school, and we'll we're hitting this period.

3:33

We actually talked about this today in a meeting.

3:35

We're going through our slow period, which is the fall, when kids get back in school and you start seeing those more of those outdoor sports, uh uh baseball and fall ball that happens outside your fall soccer.

3:47

Uh you see those dips in numbers of our visitors out there at the young family athletics center.

3:53

Uh more specifically, uh hopping into Griffin, and you have your past uh four years of data.

4:01

You can see that we've gone up a little bit uh in the past 12 months, uh about over 400,000 visitors out at Griffin Park.

4:10

Uh Dan, going back in your memory banks.

4:13

What is uh what do you think this spike is here in February?

4:16

Griffin, February 27.

4:18

That they do a tournament, uh, but that's not full.

4:21

Yeah.

4:21

Um I would have to go back and look, Jason.

4:25

That's interesting.

4:25

So we would have to uh figure out what that was.

4:28

But as you can see, we're steadily growing every single year with the amount of people that are going out and visiting uh uh Griffin.

4:35

That means that our soccer program is constantly growing, and also um visitors to uh dog park and and disc golf and everything else that happens in uh in that area of town.

4:48

Rees Park, uh your big spike you see right here with the uh the medieval fair.

4:54

As you can see, there's a little bit more M flow happening out there at uh Reese Park.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Economic Development███████████████████████████████31%
Tourism█████████████████████████████29%
Lighting Ordinance████████████████16%
Tax Increment Financing████████8%
Lighting Regulations████4%
Public Transportation███3%
Parks and Recreation██2%
Noise Ordinances██2%
Public Safety██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Norman City Council Business and Community Affairs Committee Meeting - August 6, 2026

The meeting was called to order at 4:00 PM on August 6, 2026. The committee received a detailed presentation on visitation, special events, and tourism metrics, followed by a discussion on economic development program strategies, and a discussion on potential residential outdoor lighting regulations. No formal votes were taken, but direction was given on next steps for both the economic development advisory board and a lighting ordinance amendment.

Discussion Items

Report on Special Events and Visitors

  • Visitation Data: Jason Olson, Director of Parks and Recreation, and Dan Shim from Visit Norman presented visitation data from the past five and a half months. A chart showed a consistent blue line representing residents and an orange line of out-of-town visitors with spikes corresponding to festivals and football games. A notable low in January 2021 was attributed to a snowstorm. Park usage data: Griffin Park saw over 400,000 visitors in the past 12 months with steady growth. Reeves Park showed a large spike for the Medieval Fair. Westwood Aquatic Center had around 5,000 pass holders last year due to cool June weather, rebounding this year. Young Family Athletic Center hosts weekend tournaments year-round.
  • Festival Attendance: Medieval Fair ~94,000; Norman Music Festival ~62,000; Pride Festival at Andrews Park ~2,900; Norman Arts Festival ~6,500; Jazz in June ~6,800; Juneteenth at Reeves Park ~3,600. Fourth Fest: 13,000 on July 4 before cancellation due to storm; makeup day 9,200.
  • Concessions Revenue: The city took over concessions nearly a year ago, generating approximately $400,000 in revenue, with a profit margin around 30%.
  • Shopping District Visits: University Town Center remains one of the most visited shopping centers in the state. Downtown Norman saw an increase of approximately 400,000 visitors over four years. Campus Corner and other districts showed growth.
  • Guest Tax Revenue: FY25 ended with a 15% increase; FY26 up another 12%, attributed to SEC impact. Voters recently increased guest tax to 10% effective July 1, 2026.
  • Hotel Data (from Dan Shim): Occupancy for all Norman hotels (12-month avg) is 41.3%, but without the Postal Training Center (NCD) it rises to 54.2%. Key data hotels (top branded properties) show 58.3% occupancy with Average Daily Rate (ADR) $150 and RevPar $87. A new downtown hotel, The Graduate (Hilton flag), is planned with 120 rooms and a five-story parking garage.
  • Marketing: Normans new visitor guides distributed to 70,000 locations. A USA Today contest recognizes Norman as one of the best college game-day towns (currently 5th). Digital ads target specific events and markets.
  • Council Questions: Councilmembers inquired about out-of-town visitor tracking (cell phone data), concessions performance, drivers of downtown growth (e.g., new businesses, Winterfest, Fall Fest), spending data availability, hotel occupancy comparisons with Oklahoma City, leakage to other cities during football season, and the impact of the planned downtown hotel.

Discussion Regarding Economic Development Program

  • Overview: The city manager and staff outlined components of an economic development program: strengthening fiscal capacity, creating quality jobs, and addressing disparities. Current investment includes one employee and a $208,000 budget for community and business relations (retail recruitment, special events). Additional staffing for employer recruitment/expansion could be funded using the $125,000 normally contributed to the Norman Economic Development Coalition (NEDC).
  • Quality Jobs Definition: Jobs paying $17.50/hour plus benefits are considered quality jobs.
  • Incentives: The existing Economic Development Incentives Policy (2013) targets specific industries but has no dedicated funding. Past deals like Immuno-Mycologics (Emmy) used TIF funds. There is no retail incentive policy; a recent request from Sooner Mall highlighted the need.
  • EDAB (Economic Development Advisory Board): Currently seven members, at least four with relevant expertise. Proposed expansion to nine members, with at least five having specialized knowledge and representation from each ward (or eight wards plus at-large). The board would work on policy development.
  • Other Tools: Center City TIF for infrastructure, parking authority, transportation bonds, transit sales tax, federal affordable housing funds. Consideration of a Cleveland County Economic Development Coalition membership (hybrid model), urban renewal authority, film-friendly city designation, sports tourism tied to 2028 Olympics in OKC, and micro-business incubators.
  • Council Positions: Multiple councilmembers expressed support for expanding EDAB to nine members with ward representation and not removing current members. Support for requiring quality job thresholds in incentives. Interest in incentivizing redevelopment of vacant buildings (e.g., using county property tax abatement or mini-TIFs). A cap on tax incentives (e.g., 70% city share, 30% immediate benefit) was suggested. The mayor emphasized public infrastructure improvements (like TIF) as a primary incentive and the need for measurable outcomes from any county coalition membership. Councilmember Barry (Ward 6) supported exploring arts and culture, film-friendly policies, and SEC city collaboration.
  • Next Steps: Staff will bring forward an ordinance to update the EDAB structure (increase to nine members, adjust qualifications). EDAB will be tasked with developing specific economic development policies for council consideration.

Discussion Regarding Potential Regulations Related to a Residential Outdoor Lighting Ordinance

  • Background: City Attorney presented history: attempts in 2006 and 2019 failed. A current complaint at 3500 Grand Canyon Drive involves extremely bright lights (photos shown). A 2011 commercial lighting ordinance exists.
  • Proposed Approach: Two options: a freestanding code enforcement ordinance (burden on code compliance with four inspectors, nighttime enforcement) or an amendment to the existing disturbing the peace ordinance (Article 24) to include light trespass. The city attorney recommended the latter, using a definition: "light trespass" means artificial lighting extending beyond property boundaries that substantially interferes with reasonable use and enjoyment of neighboring property. Enforcement would be by police via citizen complaints, with mediation encouraged.
  • Mediation Benefits: Examples cited: barking dog case resolved by neighbor communication; commercial lighting case at a car dealership mediated successfully. This approach avoids criminalizing neighbor disputes and fosters amicable solutions.
  • Council Positions: Councilmember Kirby provided the photos and noted the lights also affect public safety on roadways. Councilmember Ward (Ward 3) supported the Article 24 approach, emphasizing reasonableness and cut-off lighting. Councilmember Bruce (Ward 4) agreed, noting the lights appeared intentional and egregious. Councilmember Renn (Ward 6) asked about applicability to HOAs, mixed-use PUDs, and public safety; requested language addressing lights that impede driving. Councilmember Stadt (Ward 5) supported public safety language. Multiple councilmembers favored the reasonableness standard to avoid over-enforcement.
  • Next Steps: City attorney will draft an ordinance amending Article 24 (disturbing the peace) to include light trespass, with potential public safety provisions, and bring it to the full council for consideration.

Meeting Transcript

Uh we think we're recording. It's uh four o'clock. Um see we're gonna um call to order the uh city council of business and community affairs uh committee meeting uh August 6th, 2026. It's four o'clock. We have a presentation from staff. Uh the first one is going to be report on special events and visitors. So Mr. Honorable Director Olson, please. Thank you, Councilmember Jason Olson, Director of Parks and Recreation, and my lovely friend over here, Dan Shim, um, with Visit Norman. We're gonna talk to you what has happened over the last quarter or so here with visitation and special events here in the city of Norman. Uh this happened, we're got a little bit out of whack. We were trying to do it every quarter, and we end up doing this two months uh later. So we're we're trying to pack in a little bit more information than what we have in our past few months, but we'll try to do the best we can, trying to give you a full understanding and scope of everything that's happened over the past uh what would be five and a half months or so. So this is the the very first chart you see right here is visitation inside of Norman. So your one constant uh that you have if you look at that blue line right there in the middle, that is the line of residents that go all the way uh through there, and you can see it's pretty consistent. Uh since uh this is a over the last few years. You can see you go all the way back to June of uh which I can't see. I'm actually uh I probably should have worked less. That's 12 months. Thank you, Dan. Dan actually has his classes on. Yeah. Uh so that blue line right there is the resident line, that orange line you see um hopping up and down. That is uh out-of-town visitors. So when you start talking about out-of-town visitors, these are people that actually spent um some significant time inside the uh the city. Uh, like if you're on the interstate or you get caught a uh they see you going through getting caught at a red light or something like this passing through to grab graphic gas. They try not to pick you up on on that line. Uh, but you'll you'll see all these spikes that happen throughout the year, and I think this one's interesting. I was trying to think, oh, why do we have a super low spike um January 21st? I'm trying to remember maybe that was our snowstorm that we had, so there wasn't a whole lot of people on the road at all. But it's uh you do get to see the interesting um I would expect these are the weekends uh that you start seeing festivals. So uh you need more of your bigger festivals happening in this area. These spikes over here, I would think would have more to do with the football games that we had in the the last fall. Um so it's always interesting to see how that goes. It's almost a little bit like a little heartbeat. Um I wouldn't hope our our hotel data would go along with that um to show some representation of the spikes. But we like to also go through there and um hop into a lot of our Norman Ford parks. Uh these are our Griffin, Reeves, Westwood Family Aquatic Center, the Young Family Athletic Center. This big red spike you see at Reeves, uh, that is the medieval fair. Uh and then you'll see the blue line right here. That uh correlates with your your fall season of soccer NYSA out there, and you also have your your fall season of baseball. And you can see that the WiFact um always pretty decently consistent, um hovering about 50,000 visitors a month in that range. Uh typically when we start school, and we'll we're hitting this period. We actually talked about this today in a meeting. We're going through our slow period, which is the fall, when kids get back in school and you start seeing those more of those outdoor sports, uh uh baseball and fall ball that happens outside your fall soccer. Uh you see those dips in numbers of our visitors out there at the young family athletics center. Uh more specifically, uh hopping into Griffin, and you have your past uh four years of data. You can see that we've gone up a little bit uh in the past 12 months, uh about over 400,000 visitors out at Griffin Park. Uh Dan, going back in your memory banks. What is uh what do you think this spike is here in February?

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