In November 2016, an online magazine, Heliopolis, published an article on what seemed to be SPAR attempting to dismantle SWEPCO Park’s pavilion, speculating that the City may be trying to “un-park” the park. The claim could not be definitively proven until this past week, when evidence that the Mayor and SPAR were indeed trying to “un-park the park” emerged. John Perkins filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for city government documents on SWEPCO Park. Email correspondence among Mayor Tyler, SPAR employees and Providence Engineering dating back to at least April 2016 shows that the City was trying to close the park down for the purpose of getting an I-49 ICC route approved by the FHWA.

An April 2016 email from a SPAR employee said the SPAR Director wanted playground equipment, picnic tables, a walkway and the pavilion removed for “the demolition” of SWEPCO Park. Given that the playground equipment was removed in February 2016, Providence Engineering and the City anticipated the through-Allendale routes would not pass FHWA regulations at least seven months before Providence’s announcement at the September 2016 meeting, and began taking steps to remove public spaces from the routes.

On April 20th, 2017, NLCOG held a public meeting, so Providence Engineering could give the first update on the I-49 ICC since announcing last September that it couldn’t recommend any of the proposed routes. At the meeting, Providence announced it planned to complete the Environmental Impact phase of the project by further “studying” I-49 ICC Route 1, which has SWEPCO Park on it, in addition to Route 5, the upgraded Hwy. 3132 loop, which has Cross Lake below it. Specifically, Providence said it was examining the “significance” of SWEPCO Park and Cross Lake. “Significance” refers to one of the property criteria of public spaces or organizations in Section 4(f) of the U.S. Department of Transportation Act of 1966. If the FHWA determines the public space or organization meets all of the criteria, it will remove that proposed route from further consideration. The criteria are:

It must be publicly owned. It must be open to the public. Its major purpose must be for park, recreation, or refuge activities. It must be significant as a park, recreation area, or refuge

Although the FHWA had already determined that the public spaces and organizations on all five proposed I-49 ICC routes fit all the property criteria in Section 4(f), Providence had clearly decided it would try to get the FHWA to change its ruling that SWEPCO Park constituted a “significant” property. Not by coincidence, Mayor Tyler finally openly announced that the city planned to close SWEPCO Park at that April 20 meeting.

The day after the meeting, the Louisiana Department of Transportation (LDOT), posted an update of the I-49 ICC project’s progress on its website. It summarized the reasons for closing SWEPCO Park:

The City of Shreveport has determined that SWEPCO Park is not significant and plans to close the park based on its assessment as unsafe, no equipment is on site, and the community is served by other multi-use parks managed by the City. (emphasis added)

Providence has requested the FHWA review and approve the City of Shreveport’s determination that SWEPCO Park and Cross Lake do not fit Section 4(f) because they are not significant.