By Jack Money & Mac Bentley

Daily Oklahoman

City leaders' longtime dream for a more pedestrian-friendly downtown is becoming real on the wings of the Tulsa area's far-reaching Vision 2025 program.

A dozen or more so-called pocket parks are being built in and around the downtown area, many to complement and enhance more imposing projects the Vision 2025 tax initiative will fund. Voters a year ago approved the funding.

Development and maintenance of the parks will come primarily from donated money and services.

"Any time we can get more livable green space, that is something we want to try to do," said Ross Weller, Tulsa Parks' administration manager. "And this is an effort that won't affect the taxpayer either now or in the long run."

A pocket park, said Mark Sontag, project manager for Land Legacy, is designed more for "passive recreation," than traditional city parks.

"It's a grass setting, with trees, benches, mostly in a downtown area," Sontag said. "It's a place people can go to read a book, or throw a blanket on the ground and have lunch."

Linking the parks with trails will be important, Sontag said.

"They'll be connected either through the (proposed) Centennial Walk or easements," Sontag said, "even if it has to go through a parking lot, where someone gives up 10 or 12 spaces to put in grass."

"If you have isolated little pocket parks, you'll have limited use. If they're linked together somehow, where people can walk dogs or ride bikes, then you have a larger potential."

Land Legacy, a Tulsa-based nonprofit organization that has helped preserve urban and rural land all over Oklahoma, is the guiding and driving force for the Tulsa parks.

Land Legacy started working on plans in 2000 at the urging of city officials, said Robert Gregory, executive director. Most of the parks will be located on donated land. The organization also can write grants to obtain federal money to purchase land. Land Legacy also seeks maintenance agreements with nearby landowners to keep the parks maintained.

"Getting the maintenance sponsorship affects the designs," Gregory said. "If you can't find a sponsor, the improvements will be minimized."

One park already has been built. Downtown Tulsa Unlimited, a private, nonprofit group, has agreed to maintain the park.

Land Legacy helped Edmond preserve green areas last year, has worked with Norman and is assisting projects in Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Bartlesville and Lawton-Fort Sill.

Sontag said Land Legacy completed about a dozen projects in the last year, including farm and ranch lands, and has roughly two dozen more under way.