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City combines newly acquired school property into Northeast Lions Park, will retire High Meadows Park name
Summary
Following a council-approved land swap with Norman Public Schools, parks staff proposed combining a gap parcel into Northeast Lions Park, moving a vandalized playground to a more visible location and retiring the High Meadows Park name; the board approved the consolidation and sign changes.
The Board of Park Commissioners on Dec. 4 approved staff’s recommendation to combine a recently acquired square of land with the existing Northeast Lions Park and to retire the High Meadows Park name.
James Briggs, park development manager, explained that a land swap approved by the city council transferred a roughly 3.23-acre square east of Eisenhower School to the city; that square fills a gap between what has functionally served as High Meadows Park and Northeast Lions Park. "We would like to propose here tonight to effectively make all that Northeast Lions Park, to combine them all into one contiguous piece of property and name it all Northeast Lions Park," Briggs said.
Staff said one driver is public-safety and maintenance: the existing playground on the park’s interior is poorly visible from the street and has been repeatedly vandalized. Moving the playground to the newly incorporated area would improve visibility from surrounding streets and reduce vandalism. Staff emphasized the city already performs mowing and routine maintenance in the area and that some parcels labeled as parkland have historically been maintained by neighbors as a greenbelt; staff said they will coordinate outreach with the Park Hill neighborhood about the change.
The board moved and approved the staff recommendation to merge the parcels, replace signage to indicate the land is part of Northeast Lions Park and proceed with planned equipment procurement and construction. Commissioners discussed continuing neighborhood communication about the name change and the precise playground siting before construction proceeds. The motion passed by voice vote with no roll-call breakdown recorded in the meeting transcript.
Next steps: staff will proceed with equipment procurement (bids expected after the holidays) and community outreach on exact playground placement and signage replacement.
