Trees Sacrificed for Parking

Owners of this apartment complex in Edmond, Okla. had their plan to remove 45 trees to allow for more parking spaces approved by the city?EUR??,,????'?????<

Edmond, Okla. planning commissioners have approved removal of landscaping to provide 45 more parking places at Bryant Place Apartments.

Owners Place Properties LLC requested the site plan amendment for the property. The city of Edmond requires two parking spaces for each apartment, said Bob Schiermeyer, city planner.

“With the way they’ve rented the apartments, that doesn’t work too well,” Schiermeyer said. “We’ve changed the code since then but it’s too late for this one.”

The 108 apartments include 432 beds, Schiermeyer said. The total student housing project rents by the bedroom, said attorney Randel Shadid, representing Place Properties.

Parking tickets have been issued in the area due to a lack of parking. So landscaping would be removed along Bryant Avenue and near the Oklahoma City Clinic, Schiermeyer said. Additional parking would be scattered on site bringing a total parking volume of 392 spaces, Shadid said.

“We run about a 90 percent occupancy on this student housing project,” Shadid said.

Many of the existing trees will be lost without room to relocate them, said Ryan Ochsner, urban forestry coordinator. The removal of trees still will result in 25 percent landscaping of the area, which is enough to meet city codes, Shadid said.