LAWTON — Lawton’s new master plan for parks gives the city a road map for upgrading the city’s parks system, recreation programs, trails and open spaces.
The Texas-based engineering firm Halff Associates, which produced the plan, presented a draft of the plan to the Parks and Recreation Commission Wednesday at the Owens Multipurpose Center. The commission did not take any action.
Halff, which spent nearly a year developing the plan, provided several opportunities for Lawton residents to weigh in along the way. Those included stakeholder meetings, a virtual open house and an online engagement room which has attracted more than 100 visitors so far.
“Throughout the entire process, we’ve had a project website that we’ve posted updates and documents to,” said Nate Clair, director of planning and landscape architecture for Halff. “That was lawtonparksplan.com. That’s still active.”
Clair said people may visit the project website to comment on the plan or voice their opinion when the plan is presented to the Lawton City Council. That meeting is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.
Outdated equipment
Halff found that Lawton’s park system includes several small spaces with limited or outdated amenities. Some of those parks have obsolete playground equipment that needs repairs, but the parts are no longer available.
The company also found that north-central Lawton has many small parks within a few blocks of each other, creating an overlap in park service areas.
“There’s also a surplus of acreage of neighborhood parks, but a deficit in community parks,” Clair said. “Your neighborhood parks are kind of your small, one square block within the neighborhood. Your community parks are your Elmer Thomas, your Greer – kind of your destination parks.”
Sports and recreation venues
Halff found that the city’s three recreation centers need major upgrades, updated amenities and additional programs. The company also found that Lawton residents want high-quality sports fields that could host tournaments, thus generating revenue for city coffers.
“It’s probably the biggest thing that you can do, have the most impact to your economy from a Parks and Recreation standpoint, is to develop more tournament-quality sports fields,” Clair said,
He said the city would also need more practice fields to reduce wear and tear on the tournament fields.
Clair also said the city’s proposed indoor sports complex would satisfy the demand for local and tournament play.
Operations and maintenance
Halff found that Lawton has a small number of employees to maintain about 700 acres of parkland, compared to other Oklahoma cities. The company also found that much of Lawton’s parkland requires a high level of maintenance, but the city spends about $1,520 less per park acre on maintenance annually than the national benchmark.
Clair said the company would put together some additional information on the issue to emphasize the point that the city isn’t spending enough money on park maintenance.
“There’s got to be some balance there of the budget,” he said. “Decrease the area that you have to maintain or find some happy medium.”