Oklahoma City councilmembers commemorated MAPS 3 advisers and civic leaders Tuesday as the third iteration of the storied revitalization program was officially declared complete.

The council unanimously agreed to rename the lake at the city’s downtown Scissortail Park as “Lake McDaniel” in honor of former Oklahoma City University president Tom McDaniel, who’s served as chairman of the MAPS 3 advisory board since 2010.

Oklahoma City Mayor Holt said he had been talking recently with McDaniel about when it was best to wind down the MAPS 3 program. With the late May opening of the program’s final standalone project, the YMCA Healthy Living Center in the city’s southside, Holt and McDaniel agreed that it was the right time.

“It is time to salute MAPS 3 and move in fully to MAPS 4, but we wanted to take a moment to honor that history and that legacy,” Holt said.

Related: MAPS 3 officially completed in May with the south OKC senior center launch. See inside.

Holt and other councilmembers also thanked former Mayor Mick Cornett, former city manager Jim Couch, current City Manager Craig Freeman, former Public Works engineer Eric Wenger, and MAPS program manager David Todd, among many others, for their leadership in bringing MAPS 3 to fruition.

What projects were made possible under MAPS 3?

MAPS 3 was a $777 million, debt-free capital improvement program aimed at bolstering Oklahoma City with a new downtown convention center, a new downtown park and a new streetcar, among several other projects including senior health centers, sidewalks and trails. Like the previous MAPS For Kids program in 2001 and the first MAPS initiative in 1993, MAPS 3 was funded through a 1-cent sales tax approved by voters that started in April 2010 and ended in December 2017.

TIMELINE: History of the MAPS projects

City Clerk Amy Simpson read the 13-minute-long resolution into the record Tuesday morning, acknowledging a lengthy list of city leaders, community volunteers, MAPS 3 advisers and subcommittee members involved with the project. By the end of the resolution, about 70 people had been mentioned, and McDaniel had become visibly emotional.

“I didn’t realize this was going to be so hard,” McDaniel said, wiping his eyes and accepting a microphone. “While the rest of you were thinking that that was a very long resolution, I was kind of hanging on every word, because it was an effort by many. And as they read every name of every subcommittee and every project that we did, while it might have seemed laborious to you guys, to me it just brought so many memories rushing back.”

McDaniel thanked the councilmembers for the honor of the lake renaming. He also thanked his wife, Brenda, whom he’s been married to for 64 years, for accompanying him to so many MAPS-related events.

“We’re proud to have been a part of this, what I believe is, transformational and historic endeavor for our community that has transformed it for generations to come,” he said.

The mayor also commended other MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board, including Dee Morales, Susan J. Hooper, Michael Dover, Kimberly Lowe, Zane Boatright, Michael G. Adams, Nathaniel Harding, Wayne Williams, Gloria Griffin, Cecilia Robinson-Woods, Rusty LaForge and Bob Nelon for their “tireless efforts and invaluable contributions” towards the successful completion of MAPS 3 projects.

Related: MAPS 3 goals are well within sight, says Tom McDaniel

Former longtime mayor Cornett — Holt’s predecessor and for whom Holt had worked in the past — thanked the current city council for keeping the spirit of the MAPS program alive after he left office in 2018.

“Mayors get way too much credit for these MAPS proposals, because it takes so many people to build this legacy,” Cornett said. “You know, when you leave office, there’s no guarantee that anything you started is going to be continued. And all you have to do is talk with mayors around the country whose visions were not carried out, so I want this council to know how much I appreciate the fact that they have delivered the vision as the citizens voted upon.”

Ward 4 City Councilman Todd Stone agreed, reiterating how proud local residents are of the MAPS legacy and how it played a crucial role in revitalizing downtown after the crisis of the ‘80s.

“Really, the deciding factor on that is, it becomes the impetus for MAPS 4, right?” Stone said. “And you see how well MAPS 3 was completed. When we look at the vote margin we had in MAPS 4, it just really kind of demonstrates the great job that each and every one of you all did overseeing this program.”

More: What MAPS projects will start in 2024? Everything to know about ongoing OKC projects

Legacy of program continues with more than a dozen projects

The latest iteration of MAPS passed overwhelmingly in December 2019 and is still ongoing — with 16 projects and a $1.1 billion budget funded by a sales tax that won’t end until 2028.

What few remaining tasks remained for the MAPS 3 board — such as oversight of additional work for the Union Station project in Scissortail Park and overlapping resources for the new OKC Fairgrounds coliseum — will now be the responsibility of the MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board, chaired by Teresa Rose.

McDaniel recalled that there were a host of different opinions, spirited discussions, and close votes on key issues all throughout the MAPS 3 process. But the committees never fractured and they were committed to making sure the projects crossed the finished line. This, he said, was a reflection of the diversity of Oklahoma City.

“We may have started as strangers, but we come to the end of this process as very close-knit colleagues,” McDaniel said. “We all share a wonderful sense of accomplishment, and we also all share optimism for the future of our city, and I think it’s in that spirit that we’ll bid you all farewell.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC marks end of MAPS 3, start of MAPS 4 projects