The Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners on Sept. 29 voted to approve and adopt the Project Clydesdale economic development project plan and its accompanying tax-incentive district under the Oklahoma Local Development Act.

The decision followed a second and final public hearing that drew developers, labor representatives, local elected officials and residents. Speakers praised the deal's potential economic benefits while raising concerns about long-term tax forgone revenue, local hiring guarantees and utility capacity.

Supporters said the project will bring large-scale private investment and jobs. Justin McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Tulsa Regional Chamber, said the project represents "a major opportunity to attract investment, create quality jobs, and strengthen the economic foundation of our entire county," and warned that "if this incentive doesn't pass, the project will simply pack up and go to another community elsewhere." Chelsea Furie, president and CEO of the Owasso Chamber of Commerce, and Margaret Coates, superintendent of Owasso Public Schools, also told the board the TID payments would provide resources to local schools and spur regional economic activity. Coates said the project could expand school resources and create pathways for students, and the county staff estimated that if all four phases execute, Owasso Public Schools could receive an annual average of about $4,000,000 in additional funding.

Opponents and some local trade representatives pushed for stronger, enforceable local-hiring commitments and disputed the local fiscal benefit calculations. Damon Anderson, who said he represents business managers for skilled laborers, asked the board to include in the tax-incentive agreement "a promise within this tax incentive agreement to hire some percentage of local people" and said labor asked for "a good faith effort to hire local people." Several speakers asked the county to require a 30% local-hire target and 20% apprentice hours. Jeremy Griffin, representing construction industry leaders, called a 30% local-hire ask "not a big deal" and warned about wage suppression if outside labor is brought in at lower rates.

Taylor Brown, identified as the developer's director of delivery, said the developer met with labor representatives and drafted a memorandum of understanding. Brown told the board the developer had "committed to open houses" and "working with approved apprenticeship programs," and said the company would adopt commercially reasonable efforts to hire locally but would not accept guarantees that could put delivery of the project at commercial risk.

Several speakers questioned the county's fiscal comparisons and present-value calculations. Joe Hart said the developer's revenue figures were shown in undiscounted dollars while the county's foregone-tax calculations used discounted present values, and that when both sides use comparable discounting the net present value to the county is much lower than the headline foregone-tax figure. Jeff Stable, representing INCOG and counsel on economic development, said the present-value calculations presented to the county came from valuation data and spreadsheets produced for the regional council of governments.

Residents and rate authorities raised infrastructure and environmental concerns. Felicia Russell, a Sperry utility board member, asked where the project would obtain large daily water volumes, citing an example figure of 5,000,000 gallons per day and noting local water-system outages. Susan O'Neil and other speakers said the project would be large when all phases are considered and cited a figure mentioned in the hearing of up to about 7,500,000 gallons per day budgeted across phases. Joan Gossbeck of the City of Tulsa Water and Sewer Department said the Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority had evaluated the request and "we currently have capacity both raw water and treated water and the infrastructure to serve it." Gossbeck also said the city had reviewed return factors for cooling water and estimated about half of that water would be returned to the wastewater system; she said the project would contribute to infrastructure upgrades if needed.

Environmental and public-health concerns also appeared in public comment. Nancy Moran said the county should consider greenhouse-gas and local air-pollution impacts, warning "we are signing the papers to hurt our kids' futures" if cumulative emissions, generator use and water impacts are not addressed. County staff and some commissioners noted those topics were also discussed in prior permitting processes and that federal and state environmental permits apply.

Board members acknowledged both the economic opportunity and the community concerns. Commissioner Dunkerley said the proposal was "complex" with "pluses and minuses" and indicated District 1 supported the project. After discussion, the board took a roll-call vote: Salee, Dunkerley and Sims each voted yes, and the resolution adopting the project plan under the Oklahoma Local Development Act was approved.

The board also noted the project had undergone months of review by taxing jurisdictions and that the 25-year term used in the incentive package is the standard term for comparable hyperscale projects in the state, according to county staff. The approved action does not itself modify state-level exemptions or federal permitting requirements; those remain subject to separate statutes and agencies.

Action taken: adoption of the Project Clydesdale economic development project plan and associated tax-incentive district; vote 3-0.

The board said some related items will be discussed further later in the agenda; county staff and the taxing jurisdictions will continue to coordinate implementation details and monitoring arrangements.