LaBrie said he hoped another solution would be found for the parking problem.

"I do agree that if you chew into one, we will be asked again next month. Pretty soon, you have a domino effect you can't stop," he said.

Attorney Will Mattoon said he believed keeping the businesses healthy on Porter is important to the core area and downtown.

"And I think anything we can do to generate additional revenue and sales tax is certainly a plus," Mattoon said.

Rieger claimed the city's long-range plans showed the two houses in question as R-3 or multi-family dwelling district.

"It's a conscious decision to leave that buffer in R-3," Rieger said.

But the city's Revitalization Manager Linda Price shot that argument down, saying she was involved in how the lines were assigned in the plan.

"Neighborhoods have reiterated that they don't want further commercial intrusion," Price said.

The Sutton Creek Addition vote was equally controversial, with about a dozen speaking against the development proposed for a 53-acre tract one-half mile east of Porter Avenue on the south side of Rock Creek Road. The 134-unit development would abut Sutton Urban Wilderness on the east and the IOOF cemetery on the west. It is bisected by a creek with a floodplain running through it.

Attorney Harold Heiple, representing applicants John Mertens and Doug Greeson, told planning commissioners he didn't know of any other city that reserved a large space for a wilderness park.

"One-hundred and forty acres is an enormous natural space in an urbanized area," Heiple said.

Heiple said the use of the Sutton Creek Addition property was consistent with other low-density developments in the area.

Greenbelt Commission chairperson Diane Fitzsimmons asked that the property not be rezoned from A-2 or rural agricultural district to a Planned Unit Development or PUD, citing the addition's potential impact on Sutton Wilderness.

Fitzsimmons said if a greenbelt system is going to go through Norman, "then Sutton Wilderness is one of its biggest jewels. ... The Sutton Wilderness Park was identified as a cornerstone of the greenbelt system in 2002."

She said there would be damage to the riparian area with increased runoff, more pets in the area and suggested the development be limited to west of the riparian corridor of the creek.