News & Updates

At the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma, we know that strong neighborhoods need strong partners. One of these strong partners is Johnson and Associates (J&A), a local civil engineering firm. J&A has worked on projects all over OKC, including iconic landmarks like Scissortail Park and The Bricktown Canal. They have provided engineering and surveying services for over 30 years since they opened in 1988.  

This past spring, J&A partnered with Neighborhood Alliance to offer our Neighborhood Alliance Leadership Academy, as part of their efforts to build a stronger Oklahoma City and be an all-around good neighbor. Mark Zitzow, a principal Urban Planner at Johnson and Associates, sat down with us to share other ways J&A strives to be a good neighbor.  

“We’re very rooted in the community,” Zitzow told us, “We have been very involved in projects a lot of people that don’t know we have done… Our firm did Scissortail Park, Bicentennial Park, and the Chesapeake campus. So many other great projects I think that people love spending time in. We’ve done The Half at Chisolm creek. We’ve played a part in the Innovation Hub project and the OKANA project on the river. So, from that standpoint, I think a lot the community interacts a lot with the projects we work on and designs we play a role in. Now I don’t know that we are ever the front facing entity of that, cause a lot of people don’t realize that we do that.” 

Jonhson and Assoicates plays a key role in developing community spaces in our city, many of which are open to the public. NACOK understands the importance of third spaces outside of the work and home for people to gather. They are an integral part to healthy and thriving neighborhoods. Carverdale, a strong Northeast side neighborhood, utilizes Scissortail Park every Saturday morning for their walking group, Sisters in Motion. This is just one example of how good development can create positive change in a community.  

“We also do a lot of neighborhood design…. We work heavily with neighborhood associations, primarily through the zoning” Zitzow continued.  But neighborhoods are personal. They are where people live and build families. Mark expressed some of the difficulties that come with developing in neighborhoods. “You know, when you are dealing with people’s homes, their home values, and their largest investment, they are automatically going to be skeptical of who we are and what we do. We try very hard to find a happy medium between the projects goals and what the neighborhood is asking for… I think overall the increase in density is proving out what great urban neighborhoods can be when done right. And that’s little retail nodes coming back and getting small businesses back”  

When asked how Johnson and Associates bridges the gap with the community in neighborhood development? 

“We try to reach out early. For the most part we set up a neighborhood meeting and start out by telling them why a site was chosen and why the type of project was decided upon. We talk them through the design elements, what’s in the SPUD, and walk them through the timing… Communication honestly gets us most of the way there. Being responsive, explaining to people, being honest with people. I don’t try and tell them it’s a project that it’s not…  Some people absolutely think I’m a developer. My role in a lot of ways is to be a mediator between a developer and neighborhood.” 

While working on developments across OKC, Johnson and Associates is a generous contributor to many community organizations. J&A’s support of Neighborhood Alliance allows us to continue are work of creating safe, healthy, and attractive neighborhoods for all.