Tulsa’s park board recommends selling Mitchell Park, which made it onto a list of potential surplus properties.
The city’s asset management department determined the park can be sold within a month of Bishop Kelley High School stepping forward as a potential buyer.
Parks Director Lucy Dolman said after city councilors approve the surplus designation — if they do so — she needs to ask the state whether there are any outstanding obligations from a matching funds grant obtained decades ago for buying some of the land.
"And find out what we can to resolve that, whether it's pay the money back, whether it's another piece of land somewhere — I mean, we just have to investigate that," Dolman said.
The city purchased Mitchell Park from Bishop Kelley in 1963. Real Estate Manager Michelle Lester says the city will maintain a 17.5-foot easement around the perimeter for utility work and possibly building a sidewalk.
"We're really trying to determine what we need in the future now so that what we sell is sold with a view of what the city needs in the future," Lester said. "That it would maximize funds and try not to make money on something and then end up having to pay for it."
Bishop Kelley High School wants to purchase the land to build a tennis complex.
A local Christian nonprofit will present a lease-to-purchase proposal for Hawthorne Park next month.
