Two major projects in Kingfisher now have the green light to move forward after the city commission reversed course on a pair of previous city stances.

In a special meeting Monday night, commissioners approved the rezoning application for a property on Main Street and waived the fees for electric infrastructure installation of a housing project in the southwest part of the city.

Both had previously been requested by Mike Matthews on behalf of his company, Mike Matthews Properties LLC.

Monday’s votes allows Matthews to proceed with construction of a retail strip mall at 1000 S. Main St. and to begin selling lots in the 74-plot Hannah’s Place housing addition, for which all preliminary work had already been completed, including concrete curbing and streets, earth moving, leveling and drainage.

In the first move of a three-item agenda Monday, the commissioners first voted to rescind the commission’s decision to not allow for the commercial zoning of the Main Street property.

The move failed that day after a 2-2 vote of commissioners as Jeff Wittrock and Kyle Mecklenburg voted in favor while Mayor Geoff Covalt and Dawn Taylor voted against it.

Tammy Sammons, sworn in just minutes earlier after being appointed to fill the unexpired term of Debbie Burpo, abstained from the vote and later told the KT&FP that she didn’t have enough information to make an informed vote.

Therefore the vote failed due to the lack of a majority.

Matthews was in attendance at the September meeting and left with the objective of recalling the four commissioners who voted and filing suit against the city.

He has since collected signatures to begin the recall process, though he had not turned them into the city clerk.

The vote on Monday to rescind the September action was 4-0 with Wittrock, Sammons, Mecklenburg and Covalt all voting in favor.

Taylor arrived late to the meeting and didn’t vote on the first item.

The second agenda item called for the commissioners to vote again on the rezoning, which was previously approved and recommended by the city’s planning and zoning board.

That measure was approved 4-1 with Taylor casting the dissenting vote.

The third agenda item dealt with Matthews’ other disagreement with the city.

While developing Hannah’s Place, he received a $223,000 invoice for the installation of the electric distribution system, which came as a surprise to Matthews.

He said it had never been communicated to him that he would have to pay prior to receiving the invoice.

Matthews said if he had known he would have to pay the fee, he would have installed asphalt streets, rather than pouring much more expensive concrete streets.

Kingfisher resident and business owner Brian Walter said he spent the better part of last week individually visiting with Matthews, Covalt and City Manager Jim Thomas, attempting to bridge the gap in communication and laying the groundwork for the special meeting and addressed the commission Monday before the votes.

He commended all parties and thanked them for coming together and finding common ground to actively address and solve problems for the betterment of the community.

Walter and Kurt Bollenbach, who no longer resides in the city, but asked to speak as well, both presented prepared statements to the commissioners that pointed out the overall longterm economic benefit to the city to approve the commercial zoning and waive the electric infrastructure fees.

Bollenbach said the houses Matthews intended to build in the addition were in the $280,000 to $400,000 range and there is a lack of homes in that price range available in Kingfisher.

He said, as an example, his oil and gas businesses employed several people who would like their families to reside in Kingfisher, but now must drive to work from other communities because there are no homes for sale that fit their desired style and price range.

He said another of Matthews’ additions, Hayden’s Place, contained exactly the homes that segment of population desired and could afford.

One recently came onto the market, and sold almost immediately, Bollenbach said, adding he felt the new addition would continue that trend.

Linda Garcia, Kingfisher’s community development director and building inspector spoke before the vote as well.

She said the city should continue forward with the current commercial and residential zoning ordinances on record and she felt spot zoning should not be allowed.

Garcia also said that she felt it was unfair to “push off” the $223,000 costs to the rest of the citizens of the community by waiving the fee.

Mecklenburg said that the city should “completely revamp our zoning,” but he added that he was not willing to hold up the Matthews strip mall development to wait for that.

Also at the meeting were City Attorney Jared Harrison, City Clerk Brittney Hladik and City Treasurer Anita James.

Thomas was at a meeting in Florida this week, but took part in the proceedings through via cell phone and was placed on speaker phone to voice his sentiment to those assembled as well.

He said that for the community to move forward with the city’s business and not become “bogged down with legal battles and depositions,” he felt that the commissioners should allow the commercial zoning change and waive the electrical fees.

Thomas added there had been a lack of “clean communication” regarding the issues from the beginning.

Garcia was not employed by the city when Matthews began the Hannah’s Place project. Jon Friesen was the building inspector for the city at the time and has since taken a job with Cimarron Electric.

Ultimately the commission voted 4-1 to waive the fees.

Taylor objected to both votes and said it was nothing personal against Matthews, but she felt the city should stand by it’s initial position.

She said it was a matter of principle to her and that the implied threat of legal battles over their September votes should not be the deciding factor of changing the vote.

“I’m only one vote and think I see the way this is going and I haven’t changed my mind,” Taylor said. “I’m voting no again.”

Sammons said she applauded Thomas for stating that the lack of communication was at fault from the beginning.

“We can all do better,” Sammons said. “We need to take out the emotion and come together as a community.”

She said she felt the decision by the commission was a positive step in that direction.

Following the meeting, Matthews was asked if he still planned to submit the signatures of his recall petition.

He said he definitely would not…and never wanted to.

“We live here. We raised our kids here. We all love this town,” Matthews said. “Our son can now proceed with his project. This is his home too. We could have built a housing addition or strip mall in another city, but we want to do it here, because it betters our community.”

He added that he was very happy to see the commissioners vote to allow his company to move forward with the projects which he strongly feels will provide longterm economic benefit to the community.