MAPS 3 WISHES, DREAMS
Volunteers and civic leaders advance the renaissance OKC voters first approved in 1993
Oklahoma City has an extra $31 million to spend on MAPS 3, thanks to sales tax revenue that accumulated at a rate well in excess of the original 2009 projections.
City Manager Jim Couch calls it "a good problem to have."
With wants and needs approaching $51 million, though, the city council soon will find itself in the position of picking winners and losers.
The coming skirmishes could pit senior centers against zip lines, Union Station renovations against streetcar line enhancements, trails and sidewalks against the State Fair.
Dozens of oversight committee volunteers and civic leaders are invested, often emotionally, in MAPS 3, and projects do not lack for friends, nor for ideas on how to spend the millions.
Voters approved the 1-cent MAPS 3 sales tax in December 2009.
Originally projected to raise $777 million by the time it expired on Dec. 31, 2017, MAPS 3 will take in more than $820 million in sales tax and interest before the books are closed.
MAPS enhancements
MAPS 3 is advancing the renaissance Oklahoma City has become known for since voters approved the first Metropolitan Area Projects initiative in 1993.
MAPS financed the debtfree construction of the arena where the Thunder plays, the Bricktown canal and ballpark, and the Norick library downtown.
MAPS for Kids renovated public school buildings throughout the city.
MAPS 3 is building trails and sidewalks, senior health and wellness centers, a streetcar system, downtown park and new convention center.
A new expo center opened at State Fair Park and a whitewater rafting and kayaking center opened in the Boathouse District, on the Oklahoma River.
Now, the subcommittees overseeing MAPS 3 and their parent entity, the MAPS 3
Citizens Advisory Board, are developing a strategy for how to divide the bounty dropped into their laps.
“We’re just trying to think of how to do this and make sure that we get all the projects done,” Tom McDaniel, former president of Oklahoma City University and chairman of the Citizens Advisory Board, said at a fairgrounds subcommittee meeting last month.
As it stands now, priority lists drawn up by the subcommittee network are set to be finalized later this month and reviewed by the Citizens Advisory Board.
Ten of its 11 members are drawn from the subcommittees. Eight represent each of the eight city council wards, one serves at-large and McDaniel chairs the panel.
The 11th seat is filled by a city council member.
Once the board settles on priorities, its recommendations will go to the city council for review, perhaps as soon as September.
“How the advisory board has been looking at it is: if there are some good ideas out there about how you can enhance a project as part of the MAPS 3 endeavor, then we’ll look at all of those,” McDaniel said.
He said the board would “then try to set our own priorities and give it to the council” but emphasized the council has the ultimate decision-making authority.
“They could definitely decide to do something different,” McDaniel said.
Ideas abound
Requests are adding up: • The downtown park
subcommittee is seeking $10 million to renovate historic Union Station, at the juncture of the upper and lower sections of the park.
Renovations are seen as vital to the park’s success.
The city’s operating partner for the park has language in its management agreement allowing it to withdraw from the deal if funding to renovate the 1930s-era depot is not found.
• The senior health and wellness centers subcommittee is asking for $15 million for a fifth center.
Four centers are planned but subcommittee members point out that voters were promised “four to five.” Two have opened so far and proved to be popular with the citizenry.
• The Oklahoma River subcommittee has proposed $7.9 million to finish the second floor of the whitewater park’s main building, and add features including a zip line.
Upgraded electrical equipment for the park’s massive pumps would reduce the monthly electrical bill and a new filtration system would clear up water clouded by blowing dirt.
The Boathouse Foundation, operator of the whitewater park, says its proposals are designed to bring in additional revenue and save money.
Its plans include an executive leadership program in the new main building space.
• The fairgrounds subcommittee has proposed $9.7 million in enhancements for the Bennett Event Center, the new expo center with an exhibit hall the size of three football fields.
Proposed enhancements include lighting, sound systems, electrical upgrades, video screens, golf carts and forklifts.
Though the center opened almost two years ago, the city remains in discussions with the general contractor over deficiencies, including a leaking roof.
• The streetcar subcommittee’s $5.6 million list includes the “5th Street turnback,” a segment of track that would give the system additional flexibility.
Also recommended is additional equipment to give streetcars “signal prioritization,” the ability to manipulate traffic signals in order to maintain schedules.
An emergency generator, parts and equipment, and expansion of the maintenance facility are listed.
The convention center construction bid came in well under budget, and excess money in that budget could find a home elsewhere.
“Even if we have money in the convention center budget that’s unused, I wouldn’t want to just try to dream something up to do with it,” said McDaniel, who chairs the convention center subcommittee.
“I’d like to see it used for the overall completion of MAPS 3 projects as a whole.”