Mark Twain Park, at 2402 NW 1st Street, is slated for playground surfacing, shade, picnic tables, seating nodes and a grill. Booker T. Washington Park, at NE 4th Street and N. High Avenue, is getting four basketball courts, two tennis courts, three pickleball courts, a futsal court, a splash pad and a plaza, all on a $5,134,560 budget. Both are in the same first round of MAPS 4 park work. They got there for the same reason, and size and popularity had nothing to do with it.
Oklahoma City plans to improve all 105 of its neighborhood and community parks with MAPS 4 money, according to MAPS Program Manager David Todd. Twenty parks go first. The city chose them by how worn out their amenities were and how close they sat to other worn-out parks. If your neighborhood park is on the list, it most likely graded poorly in the city's field assessment or had 2017 bond money waiting to be spent.
How a park got in line
The city's parks master plan, adopted in January 2025, sent crews to grade every existing amenity in every park from A to F. Low grades came first because those amenities were the most likely to become safety hazards. More than 3,700 public comments and 650 survey responses were used to check those field grades and point out amenities residents felt were missing.
The plan then turned the grades into construction packages:
"The grouping of park bid packages was determined based on two factors: proximity to each other and existing conditions scoring. The parks with the lowest existing conditions scores that were located near each other were given priority and included in the first phase."
The same passage adds one more rule. Parks holding money from the 2017 General Obligation Bond, which had to be spent within three years, also went into the first phase.
Grouping parks by location was a practical choice for contractors. In The Journal Record's December 2025 report, Scott, who was quoted on the city's approach, said, "We really wanted them to be close enough so we could get good bids and not have contractors going from one end of the city to the other." The paper also reported that splitting the first phase into three packages let smaller contractors bid.
That plan produced two clusters of neighborhood and community parks plus one stand-alone project in northeast OKC. City Council approved final plans for the 19 parks in the two clusters on August 18, 2026, with a total Phase 1 construction budget of $20.5 million. That figure includes $3.6 million from the 2017 bond.
The southwest cluster
The first package covers seven parks in the southwest quadrant. The city's bid documents list these seven by name. Kimley-Horn of Oklahoma City designed the work, and its concept pages show the planned amenities:
Park | Address | Planned highlights |
|---|---|---|
Draper Park | 3816 S. Robinson Ave. | Basketball/futsal court, playground, shade, grill, pedestrian bridge, restroom enclosure |
H.C. Schilling Park | 539 SE 25th St. | Splash pad, playground, baseball/softball backstop, shade, picnic tables |
Youngs Park | 4610 S. Youngs Blvd. | Splash pad, playground, picnic tables, seating |
Zurline Park | 2800 S. Woodward Ave. | Playground, basketball/futsal court, pedestrian bridge, shade |
Shallowbrook Park | 4901 S. Shallow Brook Drive | Playground, baseball/softball backstop, shade, picnic tables |
May Park | 2817 SW 34th St. | Playground, basketball/futsal court, seating, sidewalk connections |
Oliver Park | 65 SW Grand Blvd. | Fitness station, basketball court, shade, picnic tables |
Futsal stands out on this list. Three of the seven parks, Draper, Zurline and May, are planned with combined basketball and futsal courts. Two of the southwest parks, Youngs and H.C. Schilling, are getting splash pads. You can open the design concept for each park to see where each piece sits on the site.
The second cluster, mostly north
The second package covers the remaining 12 parks, which The Journal Record described as "primarily in northern parts of the city." The paper also reported that nearly $3 million in 2017 bond money adds to the work at four of them. Here is what the concept plans show:
- Louis A. Macklanburg Park, 2234 NW 117th St.: splash pad, playground, baseball/softball backstop, tennis court repair with pickleball
- North Oklahoma City Rotary Park, 5708 N. Tulsa Ave.: replacement basketball court, tennis courts resurfaced for pickleball, backstop, parking lot, shade
- Winans Park, 2100 N. Broadway Ave.: basketball/pickleball court, shade, decorative fencing, crosswalk
- Melrose Park, 7800 Melrose Lane: splash pad, playground, picnic tables, seating
- Taylor Park, 1115 SW 70th St.: playground, basketball court, bike rack, parking lot, splash pad improvements
- Woodland Park, 730 NE 50th St.: playground, shade, pedestrian bridge, dog-waste station
- McNabb Park, 901 NE 33rd St.: playground, shade, picnic tables, grill, protective fencing
- L.D. Lacy Park, 1114 NE 43rd St.: basketball court, shade, parking lot work, educational sign
- Riley Leroy Pitts Park, 1920 N. Kate Ave.: playground, backstop, parking lot resurfacing and restriping
- Highley Park, 1934 NW 8th St.: playground surfacing, basketball court, shade, grill
- Nichols Court Park, 1901 Culberston Drive: playground, shade, picnic tables, grill
- Mark Twain Park, 2402 NW 1st St.: playground surfacing, shade, picnic tables, grill
Pickleball shows up mostly on this side of the list. Macklanburg, North OKC Rotary and Winans are all planned with pickleball. At Macklanburg and North OKC Rotary, the plans add it through tennis court repair or resurfacing, and at Winans it shares a court with basketball.
The scopes also vary a lot. The plan for Mark Twain Park is mostly shade, seating and new surfacing under the existing playground. Macklanburg is a community park that gets a splash pad, a backstop and court work. A grading system that targets failing amenities explains the difference. Some parks need a few fixes, and others need a lot.
Booker T. Washington Park stands alone
The third package is a single park. Booker T. Washington Park received its own final-plan approval on October 13, 2026. In the City of OKC's announcement, Parks Director Melinda McMillan-Miller said, "We know it will be a focal point and serve as a gathering place for members of the community." Its plans also include shade structures, seating, artificial turf berms, a hammock and reading nook, and new signage. The $5,134,560 budget includes $650,000 from the 2017 bond.
The Journal Record reported two more details. The existing football field will be upgraded for multipurpose use, and a new plaza entrance on Fourth Street will connect the park to Page Woodson Plaza across the street. The paper also noted that the MAPS resolution set aside $1.47 million specifically for this park. The city says construction is scheduled to begin in December. The Journal Record covered the approval on October 19.
Where the bids stand
In August, the city said Phase 1 construction would begin "this fall." The next step is awarding contracts. Bids for the southwest package closed September 30, 2026. Downey Contracting's total was lowest at $9,124,967, ahead of Rudy Construction at $9,276,356.50 and Wynn Construction at $10,630,934.50. Bids for the second package closed October 14, 2026. Rudy Construction's total was lowest at $11,322,225.50, followed by Downey Contracting at $11,664,051.50 and Wynn Construction at $12,538,000.
Each total covers a base bid for every park plus a list of optional items called alternates. At Draper Park, for example, Rudy bid $1,806,090 for the base work, and its alternates for the park started at $285,350. Alternates let the city pick extra items one at a time once it sees the prices. The final scope at each park depends on which alternates the city chooses. The bid tabulations the city posted list both packages as "Not Awarded Yet," and the city has not published a start or finish date for any individual park.
If your park isn't on the list
The city's MAPS 4 timeline lists Phases 1 through 3 of the neighborhood and community parks work in 2026, Phase 4 in 2027 and Phase 5 in 2029. The January 2025 master plan maps out the next set of parks, under labels that predate the delays in the first round:
- Phase 2A: E.B. Jeffrey, Edwards, Grant Corbin, J. Brayden Black, Lakeshore Estates, Lela, Mayfair, Mayview, Saint Clair, Wayman's and William O. Lytle parks
- Phase 2B: Brookwood, E.M. Sellers, Frank Hathaway, Lippert, Siler and Syl Goldman parks
- Phase 2C: Lake Stanley Draper
The master plan expected the first phase to start in 2025, and that phase is still waiting on contract awards in late October 2026. Read the Phase 2 years as an order of work, not a calendar. For the latest updates, check the city's MAPS 4 parks page.
A new splash pad, futsal court or pedestrian bridge down the street can raise questions about your own street. If you'd like to know how a MAPS 4 project near you fits your plans to stay, sell or buy, Carpenter Parham can walk you through it and share what we're seeing around Oklahoma City. Contact Us anytime that works for your schedule.
