Full list of proposed MAPS 4 projects

[Plutonic Panda]

“ Interstate 44 from Portland Avenue to Classen Boulevard”

Why are they going to invest here when ODOT fully intends to completely reconstruct and widen this section of freeway within the next 10-20 years?

[Pete]

^

They are working on redoing that stretch (the road anyway) at this very time.

I believe the plan is to improve the Penn underpass and spruce up the roadway in general. It's now just a rusted, broken chainlink fence and lots of weeds and trash.

[Plutonic Panda]

The Penn underpass can definitely use some sprucing up. I think there are a lot more pedestrians in this area than people realize.

[LocoAko]

Between the beautification of the OCU stretch of 23rd to Classen and the impending streetscape project from Classen to I-235, the majority of the commercial stretch of NW 23rd will (hopefully) look quite different in a few years from now.

[ChrisHayes]

I saw about beautification along I-240. Any ideas on what that will entail?

[Laramie]

MAPS 4 - Parks ($140 million budget) . . .

Passed two parks this week; from Portland Avenue there is infrastructure work being done to the creek at Will Rogers Park and Wiley Post Park on 2021 South Robinson is closed, with total roads being resurfaced; no vehicles permitted entry.

Both parks appear to have heavy construction apparatus & equipment on site.

Honestly, don't know if the work is being done from our present MAPS 4 penny sales tax collections budget or the city doing basic maintenance.

.

[Plutonic Panda]

Maps 4 has an official Twitter account now:

https://twitter.com/maps4okc?s=21

PS, not sure if this is the right catch all thread for it. This last post here was awhile ago but it was the only MAPS 4 thread to pop up after a search.

[Pete]

The city leaked the implementation plan to the Oklahoman before making it available to the pubic, so rather than taking the trouble to paste 100 pages of the report, their summary is below.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...kc/5415824001/

To no one's surprise, Paycom Center, the new State Fair arena, and the Innovation Hall (part of the proposed Innovation Plaza) will go first in order.

The MAPS4 Board will vote to approve next week and then City Council will vote 2 weeks later.

• A city-matching grant of $10 million for construction of an innovation hall is scheduled for later this year.
• Construction of the $63 million State Fair coliseum, replacing the Jim Norick Arena, is set to begin in mid-2022.
• The first phase of upgrades to Paycom Center, at $110 million, will begin in the third quarter of 2022. Updates to the practice facility are scheduled for the second quarter of 2026.
• Beautification and a fund for beautification staff will begin in early 2023 and will continue over five phases through 2029.
• Neighborhood connectivity in the Innovation District will begin in the second quarter of 2023.
• Conversion of the Foster Center into an innovation hub will start in fall of 2023.
• Sidewalk and bike lane construction will start in late 2023. Bus stop construction will start in early 2023. Park and rides will start in late 2022.
• Investment in parks across the city, the largest MAPS 4 project at $140 million, will begin in phases starting in fall of 2023. Work on parks along the Oklahoma River will start in the third quarter of 2024.
• The Palomar Family Justice Center's $38 million building will begin construction in early 2024.
• Soccer fields construction will start in early 2024 and will be done over three phases.
• Construction of a restoration center will begin in the second quarter of 2024. Start on transition housing is schedule for late 2025. The first mental crisis center will be built in the second quarter of 2024, followed by construction of a second mental crisis center in the third quarter of 2024.
• Building of the new $17 million Diversion Hub will begin in the first quarter of 2024.
• Expansion of EMBARK’s bus fleet, including increased frequency, will begin in the second quarter of 2024 and will continue through mid-2029.
• Construction of a civil rights center and renovations to the existing Freedom Center is set to start in fall of 2024.
• The new $38 million animal shelter, intended to bring the city to a no-kill status, will begin construction in late 2024.
• Construction of the $37 million multipurpose stadium, the future home for the Oklahoma City Energy FC Soccer team, will begin in mid-2025.
• Construction of youth centers will begin in mid-2025, also to be done in phases.
• Construction of a bus rapid transit line in northeast Oklahoma City will start in late 2026. Construction of a second bus rapid transit line will start in the second quarter of 2028.
• Senior wellness center construction will be built in phases starting in early 2026.

[Pete]

[Richard at Remax]

Not surprised about the items first up. They are your biggest money makers

[Laramie]

My major concerns about the State Fair Coliseum: It won't be large enough to handle 4A OSSAA basketball classes and below. This will be another gift to Tulsa along with the FFA (future plans) that will help boost their economy.

Need to add wrestling, not sure how this format is set up. My visit to the old State Fair Arena surprised me as the state high school popularity/support of the sport. State Fair Arena at the times I visited was packed. The inner concourse of the arena was sectioned off with mats donated by various schools to put on the state high school wrestling tournament. State Fair Coliseum scheduling matrix will be maxed out upon opening calendar year.

Hope city leaders consider a maximum seating capacity of 12,500; with 10,000 permanent seats for new the State Fair Coliseum. Have partitions available to hide sections if you need to separate the coliseum for smaller horse shows requiring less than 4,500 seats.

Ice hockey on minor league AA level, forget it. The city will never return to this sport unless its held downtown at the old Myriad (Now Prairie Surf Media).

State Fair Park coliseum will be horse shows & trade industry exclusive . . .

[Laramie]

A review of the $115 million for Arena upgrades:

Includes $104 million for Paycom Center & $11 million for Thunder practice facility upgrades. Many of us think the practice facility upgrades should be funded by the Thunder. However, this is what was apart of the MAPS for Hoops/Big League City extension vote approved that was a condition of the relocation agreement.

The Thunder Practice facility IIRC construction costs were around $10.1 million completed in 2011. Eleven years later we have planned renovations/upgrades for this city owned venue budgeted for $11 million.

The Integris Health Thunder Development Center, the Thunder's practice facility is located at 9600 North Oklahoma, near Broadway Extension & Britton Road. As part of the building's lease agreement, the Thunder will make an annual $100,000 rent payment to the City of Oklahoma City.

[shawnw]

This will be cool and all but kinda crazy that these upgrades are more than the original cost of the arena itself.

[Laramie]

This will be cool and all but kinda crazy that these upgrades are more than the original cost of the arena itself.

Good recall & observation Shawnw:

At $89 million original MAPS budget, you reminded us of the bargain the NHL said OKC couldn't achieve. Sure we needed more to attract the NBA, but the land acquisition for original MAPS was $16 million. Now you're lucky if you can acquire 5 acres for that price anywhere in the core.

[Urbanized]

Not surprised about the items first up. They are your biggest money makers

Critics never seem to acknowledge (or maybe even get) this part, but it is simply math at work here. The projects with the best opportunity to generate new sales tax revenue should be on the front end of every MAPS implementation. More tax revenue generated also means more MAPS tax generated, during the life of the tax. This means the tax generators are themselves helping to pay for the other projects, further down the slate.

Any other ordering of projects would be bad business and would frankly border on malpractice from a policy standpoint, barring the filling of a specific critical need.

[shawnw]

I would have agreed with you a bit more regarding every other MAPS, but this one was sold a bit differently. I get that we still needed anchors of that type to pull in those votes, but all of this stuff is going to get built in the next decade or so regardless. I'm not sure a few years of delay is going to have as much adverse impact to those larger projects as the positive impact of having the social projects built/done faster will have.

[Urbanized]

That's the most fair of all of the arguments; the challenge is that the other approach is pretty clearly quantifiable.

[soonerguru]

Critics never seem to acknowledge (or maybe even get) this part, but it is simply math at work here. The projects with the best opportunity to generate new sales tax revenue should be on the front end of every MAPS implementation. More tax revenue generated also means more MAPS tax generated, during the life of the tax. This means the tax generators are themselves helping to pay for the other projects, further down the slate.

Any other ordering of projects would be bad business and would frankly border on malpractice from a policy standpoint, barring the filling of a specific critical need.

Agree with this take for the most part. However, there are certain projects in the past that were not held to a high standard of budget discipline. Hopefully these front-loaded projects will not only generate the promised revenue of which you speak, but also can be built on budget, avoiding certain disaster to projects later in the overall slate.

I'm a little annoyed with where they are putting the bus rapid transit, however. There is no reason to delay that so much. I am prepared to raise hell about it unless there is a sound argument in favor of delaying it so long.

It is somewhat disturbing that the projects that generated the least amount of public support are pushed ahead of items deemed far more critical by Oklahoma City voters. Such is the city we live in.

[HOT ROD]

why do we constantly put our youth and projects that would truly benefit the city, as a city, on the backburner? This was supposed to be the MAPS for neighborhoods yet you still see the same player - the Fairgrounds in particular, not only as a recipient but also wanting to always be first claiming some sort of economic benefit.

I say again - if they benefit the city so much then they can afford to pay for their own things. No - instead they used their "profit" margin to tear down the historic OKC Fairgrounds to create a specific use facility for horse shows that again the city has/d to build for them. So where is this $$ their making?

THIS is my opinion of how MAPS IV should be started:

1) Youth Centers - we need to invest in our youth NOW, not wait for 8 more years when they're like out of school. This could be a bit part of the educational focus for OKC yet we keep kicking the can.
2) Sidewalks - connecting Youth Centers to transit to libraries to schools to shopping areas to neighborhoods. No idea why OKC even allowed developers to forgo sidewalks but it needs to be a focus - again, not just a back item
3) Beautification - specifically large scale art/features and lighting at freeway gateways and interchanges and trees along roadways separating sidewalks from the street. Don't forget the Operations budget to water them!
4) Transit - no, Im not talking about some fake BRT crap (let RTD focus on that and commuter bus/rail). I'm talking about real transit buses to run real routes throughout the city, stopping at sheltered bus stops that are fully lit and ADA sidewalks (see 2)
4a) Airport bus - one Express line from Downtown (via the interstate) during the normal operations and one local line that also goes from downtown but stops along the way, 24 hours-a-day or close to it; so people could bus to work at the airport. Oh, and go to the FAA school as well - finally!!! connecting it with downtown and the rest of the city.
5) Paycom Center -
6) Freedom Center - this would be before transit IMO if they were shovel ready but since they arent they're here. This should not be an afterthought because this is one of the main elements of the revitalization of the Eastside and continued momentum of such. This could also become yet another tourist attraction showcasing OKC's Black community and heritage
7) Innovation Center
8) Animal Shelter
9) Palomar
10) Justice Center
11) Fairgrounds - I have them here because they need to get their own funding FIRST before the city chips in (rather than the other way around)
12) Stadium
13) Senior Center - this is appropriately last since there are existing and new ones already being built

to me this is a much better phasing that would make the best impact to Oklahoma City and not just a slush fund for the fairgrounds and well-to-do while the CITY keeps waiting to get better. Again, if fairgrounds were shovel ready and had their funding in place then I'd move them sooner but they're using the exact same playbook they've done for years. It's time to wean this so called economic "powerhouse" off the MAPS teat and let it fund itself going forward.

[Laramie]

Like it or not, get the coliseum built before you lose the economic impact revenue from out-of-state visitors; that's why Tulsa will get all the state tournaments they want because they are a pain to police & host; plus they don't generate the 'big bucks' long-term hotel-motel stays. Remember, the coliseum will be getting the hotel-motel room sales tax revenue generated by these events.

Crossroads Consulting, a nationally recognized expert in large public venue (LPV) consulting, found a new State Fair Park Coliseum would generate more than $230 million a year in direct spending and more than $400 million a year in total economic impact.

Study Shows Benefits of Replacing Jim Norick Arena - https://okcfairgrounds.com/new-colis...shows-benefits

This goal is accomplished by hosting 200 events annually. For the past three years, these events have produced over $325 million annually in direct spending into the Oklahoma City economy. For that same time period, our attendance has averaged more than 2.15 million visitors annually. Surveys have shown that of the visitors to the OKC Fairgrounds, 53% are our neighbors from right here in the Oklahoma City community and 47% are out-of-town guests. In all, over 170,000 hotel room nights are generated annually from events at the OKC Fairgrounds.

These improvements were funded through the Hotel Occupancy Tax and MAPS 3 dollars. The direct spending amount in 2005 was just over $244 million, therefore it’s evident that the improvements made to the property have allowed our economic impact to grow significantly. Certainly, money well spent.

What you probably didn't know about the OKC Fairgrounds: https://www.velocityokc.com/blog/eco...ack=super_blog

Source: https://okcfairgrounds.com/new-colis...shows-benefits

[WheelerD Guy]

Definitely more than a few projects that should be scratched from the list. Most of the social justice stuff is just loose pandering so Holt can coast to a victory in 22’. But I do agree with Holt: shiny trinkets are a reasonable way to distract the tax payers from the many boondoggles being run (i.e., Prairie Films; the Street Car; the Boathouse District; all of the goofy TIFs).

Big risk, though, that the city’s general fund will be increasingly eroded as the MAPS endowments continue to fall short of covering the various projects’ operating costs.

[dford2]

This may be a little off subject, but like our parks, medians, highways, and fairgrounds, I just wish more time and money was spent on landscaping and maintenance there of.

[BoulderSooner]

OKC Fairgrounds to create a specific use facility for horse shows that again the city has/d to build for them. So where is this $$ their making?

.

the City building a facility to replace a City facility that will be owned by the City ................... what a crazy concept ..

[TheTravellers]

Definitely more than a few projects that should be scratched from the list. Most of the social justice stuff is just loose pandering so Holt can coast to a victory in 22’. ..

Seriously?

[Laramie]

Didn't like the fact that OKC switched the MAPS structure to human needs; however we do need to address a variety of aspects to improve our city like Infrastructure, transportation, affordable housing and homelessness. Whenever I see these people on the streets as beggars, the terrible thought occurred 'that could be me.'

We TALK about christian-like virtues; but when given the opportunity to do something about it, we WALK a different route.