Oklahoma City 2013: MAPS 3 progress critical to voter confidence

“We've got those who were here originally that are still advising using best practices, using previous experiences, to make sure it's successful — and it's not just one or two people, it's a core group,” he said. “We built all the processes in MAPS 1 that are actually still used today.”

Balancing expectations

Mayor Mick Cornett said the dance of developing such a massive public improvements project requires balancing the expectations of the public with the guidance of experts.

Where city planners might be focused on the pedestrian potential of the proposed boulevard, for example, city engineers are concerned about the ease of getting traffic into and out of downtown.

In any case, Cornett said, Oklahoma City residents have become used to the process.

“They're patient, they're waiting for these projects to open up, and they're basing their expectations on the projects before,” he said. “The key is to ultimately meet their expectations, not to meet their expectations in 2013.”