By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
A seven-year-old agreement restricts how the City of Yukon may develop a 184.53-acre property near the southwest corner of Frisco Road and Main Street.
Yukon annexed an approximate 253-acre tract north of Interstate 40 from Oklahoma City “for the purposes of developing a sports complex,” according to a July 2015 memorandum of understanding signed by the mayors of both cities.
The City of Yukon acquired the Frisco Road property “for the stated purpose of developing a world-class soccer complex to become a premier destination for youth and adult soccer in the southwest,” the document indicates.
“It’s very specific about that,” Yukon City Manager Tammy Kretchmar recently told the Yukon Capital Project Advisory Board. “We have been working with Oklahoma City since last summer trying to get that changed.”
This specific language was included when Yukon city officials planned to develop the site “exclusively for a sports complex.”
However, some 73% of Yukon voters in March 2017 defeated a proposed $18 million sports park bond for the Frisco Road site.
Around that time, some 57 acres the 253-acre Frisco Road property was sold for a proposed water park.
“We had to de-annex that portion of that property back, and Oklahoma City had to annex that back in,” Kretchmar explained.
The City of Oklahoma City originally agreed to de-annex the 253-acre Frisco Road property so the City of Yukon would allow the developer of the Market at Czech Hall to construct street improvements and install a traffic signal on N.W. 10th to serve a 74-acre commercial development, according to the 2015 memo.
“The primary objective of the two developments is to promote economic and community vitality to both Oklahoma City and Yukon and to stimulate additional economic development in the area,” the memo reads.
The multi-phase Market at Czech Hall is west of Czech Hall Road and south of 10th Street in Oklahoma City limits. This approximate 700,000-square foot development is accessed from street frontage that lies in the City of Yukon.
Meanwhile, Yukon’s Frisco Road “sports park” property has sat undeveloped. In March 2021, Williams Family Investments started leasing 156.7 acres as pastureland.
The three-year lease is for $11,752.50 annually (paid monthly) but may be terminated with a 190-day written notice.
The City of Yukon has kept a 600-foot strip of land from Frisco Road to the west, not part of the agricultural lease, for future economic development in a Tax-Increment Financing (TIF) district.
A new $14 million I-40/Frisco Road interchange was completed in fall 2021.
PRIORITY PROJECTS
The Yukon Capital Project Advisory Board has been meeting bi-weekly to review priority capital improvement projects.
The board will make recommendations to the Yukon City Council, which could call an election to fund projects through a property tax or sales tax increase. Voter approval would be required.
Possible development of the Frisco Road property – possibly with a multi-use, multi-generational recreation facility and/or athletic fields – is part of the Yukon Capital Project Advisory Board’s study.
Other potential capital projects include a new community center, third fire station, public library, water/sewer infrastructure upgrades, and street improvements.
Widening a section of Garth Brooks Boulevard to five lanes is among a list of priority road projects being considered.
In March, the advisory board received a presentation from city engineer Joe Davis that included a proposal for a new southbound thru lane from Andrew Drive to Health Center Parkway along Yukon’s high-traffic commercial district.
Estimated price tag for that project is $1.9 million.
Kretchmar recently told advisory board members it would cost an estimated $800,000 more to extend the proposed Garth Brooks Boulevard fifth lane from Health Center Parkway to N.W. 10th.
