Council approves MAPS 4 timeline
Nearly $1B improvement plan contains 16 projects
The Oklahoma City Council approved plans Tuesday for the city’s nearly $1 billion MAPS improvement program that was originally scheduled to begin last month.
After a delay to hash out details and adjust the project’s timeline to speed up construction of the program’s four youth centers, the council passed the measure with seven votes. Ward 3 Councilwoman Barbara Young and Ward 5 Councilman David Greenwell were not present during the vote.
“The pace at which this has been accomplished is amazing,” said Mayor David Holt while comparing the project’s planning phase to that of the previous MAPS 3 process. “This one is going to end up taking about 19 or 20 months, but there’s been a global pandemic during the middle of that and everyone’s done a great job.”
MAPS 4, passed by voters in 2019, contains 16 projects that address things like homelessness, post-incarceration programming, and youth and senior well-being, along with traditional MAPS projects like the fairgrounds coliseum, updates to the NBA Thunder’s arena and a multipurpose stadium.
The new fairgrounds coliseum and updates to Paycom Center will be the first projects to begin construction using MAPS 4 money, but most projects will receive money for planning purposes next year.
From a nearly $1 billion total budget for the voter-approved projects, $63 million collected from the 1-cent sales tax will be allocated to replace the aging Jim Norick arena starting early next year. That will be followed by $115 million in four upgrades to the Thunder’s arena beginning in 2022.
Six MAPS 4 subcommittees will
oversee the implementation of individ- ual projects that range from mental health services, transportation and sidewalks to new venues, beautification and parks.
Each subcommittee will be made up of seven to nine members of the community, but the selection and vetting process of those members is still a question.
“As far as the projects themselves, we need a more intense look of who and how many of the members of our community should have input for those particular plans,” Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice said.
Nice said she wants committee members to have direct knowledge of the community where the projects are assigned, hoping to avoid someone representing a project who may not know the nuances of the area.
“This is a grave concern of mine,” she said.
Similar concern focused on the bidding process and a desire to allow opportunity for smaller contractors to be involved in addition to contractors that can take on bigger, more expensive projects.
MAPS Programs Manager David Todd said the projects are intentionally broken into multiple phases with the goal of earlier starts and attracting more competitive bidding.
“We feel like we’re giving opportunity to those smaller and disadvantaged businesses by breaking up those projects,” Todd said.
While the project’s schedule was meant to start in August, the city’s contractor ADG expects little impact from the delay and anticipates being able to make up time along the way.
“We’re not too late that we can’t course correct, and so we feel confident that the plan you see today, even though it identifies an August start date, we can quickly get back on track,” said ADG’s director of program management, Jason Cotton.