MAPS 4 one step closer to being enacted

Plan would guide OKC’s $1B improvement project

A plan meant to guide Oklahoma City’s nearly $1 billion improvement project is moving forward as the MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board signed off on the revised agenda after a month-long delay to address timeframe concerns.

Since the board’s last meeting in early August, consultants and board members met several times to alter the timeline of the project to move up completion dates of four planned youth centers while trying to limit the impact the move may have on other projects.

“The great thing about this accelerated youth center schedule that we’ve shown, we would not be required to move any of the other projects back,” said ADG director of program management Jason Cotton.

Originally, the construction of the first center was to begin in January of 2025. Now, the first project has been bumped up to start in the third quarter of 2024, which according to the project’s consulting firm, ADG, will move the entire youth center schedule up by 21 months with the final center being completed in November 2029.

“It’s probably not fast enough for some, but it’s a vast improvement compared to what we originally presented in August,” said Cotton.

The measure was adopted unanimously by the advisory board’s eight present members after brief discussion. Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher did not attend the meeting or cast a vote.

MAPS 4, passed by voters in 2019, contains 16 projects that address things like homelessness, post-incarceration programming, youth and senior wellbeing, along with traditional MAPS projects like the fairgrounds coliseum, updates to the NBA Thunder’s arena and a multipurpose stadium.

The coliseum and arena updates will be the first to begin construction, while 12 other projects will receive money by the end of 2022 for things like design, site acquisition and planning.

In the revised plan presented to the advisory committee during their Sept. 2 meeting, 14 of 16 projects would start before the end of 2022 and a change in language regarding the city’s $50 million homelessness project is intended to help ease and speed the effort.

The altered plan will be heard by the Oklahoma City Council for approval at its next meeting on Tuesday.