17-02-2025
An ambitious MAPS 4 plan to improve OKC parks was approved. Which parks get what?
An expansive and expensive plan is moving forward that would upgrade more than 100 existing neighborhood and community parks in Oklahoma City, but advocates for some specific parks are trying to negotiate other amenities they believe might service the communities better.
The city is planning to upgrade existing neighborhood and community parks throughout OKC as part of the ambitious MAPS 4 Neighborhood and Community Parks Master Plan. At 490 pages and a $154 million overall budget, the parks plan is the largest MAPS 4 project in terms of both scope and budget, according to MAPS Program Manager David Todd.
Approved by the Oklahoma City Council in January, the plan includes input from park users, operators, stakeholders, residents and city staff. Engineering consultant Kimley-Horn, a longtime partner with the city, was hired to assess current and future needs at each park based on existing conditions, accessibility and neighborhood feedback.
Darran Scott, a landscape architect with Kimley-Horn, said Wards 2, 6 and 7 requested some revisions to the plan in recent months, which the consultant has been able to accommodate.
'Some of the things were just shifting dollars around from one amenity to the other, but it all stayed within that ward itself,' Scott said. 'Of the plan's 105 parks, 56 received playground updates. We added 66 multi-use courts. All of the splashpads were updated and will be replaced — a lot of park signage, shelter. And one of the big comments across several of the wards was lighting, so 188 of the solar lights — a lot more lighting going into these neighborhood and community parks as well.'
Of the budget, $66 million will be devoted to neighborhood and community parks, with $51.5 million going toward construction broadly at the parks as a whole. The plan also allocates $22 million for several park-specific improvement projects, including four new $2.5 million parks; community gardens; outdoor basketball and pickleball courts; $5.57 million renovations at Booker T. Washington Park; $2.78 million in improvements to Lake Stanley Draper; and $2.2 million in enhancements at Northeast Park.
Related: Can $154 million save Oklahoma City parks? See what is being planned
Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2025.
"Neighborhood and community parks are critical to the health and well-being of our city," OKC Parks and Recreation Director Melinda McMillan-Miller said in a statement. "Investing in and revitalizing these parks into more vibrant spaces will encourage residents of all ages to get outside, connect with nature and build stronger relationships with their neighbors."
Pavilions, a new playground, splash pad and more are also currently slated for Minnis Lakeview Park in far northeast Oklahoma City through the plan. MAPS 4 master plan funds for the park's amenities run $1.37 million, supplemented by $556,748 in park-specific funding.
According to an assessment detailed in the plan, Minnis Lakeview is in need of various repairs. While the outside basketball court's concrete pad is listed as in good condition, consultants observed that its paint is fading. Both wooden and metal benches at the park are deteriorating, and its wooden picnic tables are in poor condition. Playground equipment, especially the swing set, is sun-faded and rusting, while large cracks have spread in the northwest side of the parking lot.
The master plan's announced upgrades follow months of sessions with the Minnis Lakeview Advisory Committee, a volunteer group of community leaders who meet with park staff regularly on how to best maintain awareness of the park's activities. The committee was formed after fears spread in Ward 7 that the Minnis Lakeview Recreation Center could close after the city's budget cuts last year.
More: See inside the Minnis Lakeview Recreation Center in northeast OKC
Troy Beasley and Delbert Laskey, chair and vice chair of the committee respectively, are adamant that consultants are likely missing out on feedback from their community for the MAPS program and other initiatives due to the city's reliance on online outreach. The Minnis Lakeview Park sits at a somewhat remote location in a more rural area with lower population density than the city's core, so the advisory committee believes they might be able to voice the needs of the surrounding community better in one-on-one meetings.
Beasley, Laskey and others have tried to spearhead local programs for both youth and seniors to increase attendance at the park and usage of its facilities. But they are still worried about disparities they see in prioritization and funding of parks elsewhere in the city while resources are thin in their own community.
"We've been informed that we have one of the larger children's program enrollments," Beasley said. "I would imagine there would be some different distribution for the parks that I would say are high priority, meaning that they serve more people. It seems like Oklahoma City Parks and Rec says that the larger the number, the more the accommodation, as far as services and whatnot. So if there's a park that's serving more people, it would seem logical that they would receive more accommodation to boost or bolster their programming, when you have a similar-sized park that may not have half the traffic."
Advisory committee members also were skeptical if some of the plan's recommendations, such as two new smaller-sized pavilions and the removal of a splashpad, are necessary.
"There were a few other smaller pavilions that I don't foresee that we need, because we'd have a large pavilion and that would suffice," Laskey said. "I've never seen even 200 or 300 people outside at the park ever, and that pavilion that they're building is large enough to house 200 people or more."
Meanwhile, there were no improvements recommended in the plan for the existing basketball court, a major upgrade that the committee believes is needed. Committee members suggested removing some of the recommended areas from the park-specific plan and allocating that funding toward other improvements.
MAPS 4 Office Project Manager Tony Ochoa said that, while park-specific funding has already been allocated in the budget, there would still be some room to make adjustments during the design phase. According to the plan, Minnis Lakeview Park improvements might not begin construction until 2029, during the overall project's fifth phase.
"Once we get into design is when we will meet with the user group, parks operators and stakeholders, and we can get more input," Ochoa said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC's MAPS 4 plan to improve parks was approved. Which parks get what?
