UP City Council Talks Snider Plaza Design, Landscaping

Plans for paving and landscaping improvements in Snider Plaza are in the works.

City staff began constructing a mock-up of the proposed design at a lot the city owns on Rankin, just west of Snider Plaza, and sought input on the design from city council members during the Dec. 6 University Park City Council meeting. 

City Engineer Katie Barron said staff has completed 90% design documents and provided an updated opinion of probable construction costs, which total $15.7 million, for the Snider Plaza improvements based on the updated plans.

“This … has some additional scope pieces from what we had in our 60% OPCC. Specifically the inclusion of the pavement and intersection improvements at Daniel and Hillcrest. That was not in the 60% plan because the design team had not gotten that through,” Barron said. “So that’s … an increase in quantity for paving, for striping, the traffic signal itself, sidewalk … the increase in the number of pavers is also included in here …This also includes a lot more lighting and some updated drainage pieces for some of the landscaping that was not included in the previous estimate.”

City councilmember Mark Aldredge and councilmember Liz Farley proposed some color changes to the proposed sidewalk pavers, potentially moving away from the proposed rock-salt-finish concrete along storefronts and curbs, among other design tweaks.

Next, Barron said the city is working to obtain sidewalk easements on the north side of the project area. Then, proposed changes in the public right-of-way will be heard in zoning cases before the planning and zoning commission and city council before the plans are finalized, the contractor is selected, a neighborhood meeting is held, and construction can begin.

City Manager Robbie Corder said city officials also plan to publish a new webpage with the mockup of the design and additional information about the Snider Plaza project.

In other news, the city council:

  • Approved a pay increase for Holmes Aquatic Center employees, raising the total budgeted for employee pay at the aquatic center from $316,870 to about $470,924.
  • Approved a single-source resolution and five-year agreement with Bold Group for an amount not to exceed $199,335 for software and services needed to maintain the city’s Direct Alarm service.
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Rachel Snyder

Rachel Snyder, former deputy editor at People Newspapers, joined the staff in 2019, returning to her native Dallas-Fort Worth after starting her career at community newspapers in Oklahoma. One of her stories won first place in its category in the Oklahoma Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest in 2018. She’s a fan of puns and community journalism, not necessarily in that order.

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