OTA makes controversial vote as fight over ACCESS OK continues

NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) — The fight over the ACCESS Oklahoma Turnpike project continues. On Tuesday morning, the board took a controversial vote of approval in the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) meeting that took a step in the legal process of acquiring property needed to move the project forward.

"What you're doing is morally wrong," Pike Off OTA member Dave Moore stood up and said in the middle of the meeting as the OTA board was about to vote.

The board voted to approve something called a 'Resolution of Necessity.'

"This is one step in part of the acquisition of property process that, unfortunately, we sometimes have to go through," OTA spokesperson Lisa Shearer-Salim said.

The resolution is essentially a legal step that only paves the way for them to potentially go through condemnation proceedings in the future if they need to.

The properties in question are in the path of where they need to build the east-west connector in Cleveland and McClain counties, along with widening projects for the Will Rogers and Turner Turnpikes. Shearer-Salim said they're getting close to needing access to those spots.

"We are still continuing to negotiate with these landowners as is appropriate," she said.

"Taking people's property away from them merits a little more of a response than not even a discussion on your part," Moore said in the middle of the meeting before going back and forth with the board, telling him no public comment is being taken in the meeting.

Moore and Pike Off OTA have been fighting the projects for quite some time now. He said his goal is to get the legislature and the governor's attention so they'll step in.

"That's what we need them to do now, today, is they need to tell the state to stop," Moore said.

It's been a long fight for the group, but one that Moore said they will continue as long as they have to.

"We're here for the long haul. Whatever it takes," he said.

"We recognize the uncertainty and the concerns that this brings," Shearer-Salim said. "We try to provide them as much information as we possibly can."

Shearer-Salim said there's no certainty that they will condemn the properties in the future. They also said that some of the land involves cloud titles. That means it's not clear who the owner is, so from there, they have to go through court proceedings before they can continue the process.