The proposal to expand Klyde Warren Park between Uptown and downtown should be an easy yes for everyone in the city.

This being Dallas, nothing is easy. And we understand why certain elements of the plan proposed by Sheila and Jody Grant — the park’s greatest champions and truly its parents — are raising some concern.

The Grants want a portion of the $76 million deck park expansion to be devoted to a building that would provide a much-needed revenue source to sustain the park in the years to come.

We leave it to others to debate the architectural merit of the building. We acknowledge that it would take up a significant portion of the expansion, something that might bother critics of urban design.

But it’s important to say, too, that there would almost certainly be no park at all absent the tremendous effort, first of the Grants, but also of countless others who have devoted themselves to restitching Dallas’ urban fabric with this deck park. It is also important to say that projects such as this need to maintain forward momentum. There is always a reason not to advance a good project, but in this case, there is good reason to move forward with the expansion as planned.

There is no question that the park needs a better long-term revenue source to pay for its maintenance costs. And it seems clear to us that the building will help generate revenue. It’s also fair to give the Grants the benefit of the doubt when they say the current plan is what is both needed and possible.

But we have to stop here and say that we do have a major concern about this project.

It centers on what appears to be a handshake deal involving $30 million in public funding to construct the concrete deck that will support the park expansion. The $30 million can only be used for the deck construction — not the park or any building to be constructed atop the deck.

However, Michael Morris, transportation director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, explained that the COG, as it is best known, decided to make the $30 million for the deck contingent on the plan to construct the building and to use the building as the new headquarters for the embattled tourism agency VisitDallas.

Our concern is twofold.

First, the contingency agreement doesn’t clearly appear in the December agenda of the Regional Transportation Council’s meeting where the $30 million was approved. If those funds are to be contingent on the building, then that contingency should have been plainly noted in the public approval of the funding. That way, it could have been debated in a transparent way.

Second, Morris’ case that his agency should be involved in what is built atop the expanded park is unpersuasive.

The federal government does give the COG a mandate to support tourism, among many other mandates. But it’s hard to believe that what the feds had in mind was tying the funding for beams, bents and columns to support a deck park to the construction of a sparkling new headquarters for the local tourism agency.

VisitDallas gets some $30 million in city funding each year to boost tourism. It is presently under the sharpest scrutiny at City Hall for failing to adequately account for how it has spent its money. It’s baffling why anyone would think it is a good idea to connect the expansion of this critical park to the future of VisitDallas, which may or may not have a future at all as its troubles play out.

In any case, imposing this contingency would set a bad precedent that would allow the COG to broaden its reach into other projects. You might say that we believe the COG should stay in its lane.

Our bottom line is that the expansion should go forward but the COG should stay out of Dallas’ debate over what is or is not built atop the Klyde Warren Park expansion.

The highway dividing Uptown and downtown has done enough damage. Morris should satisfy himself with seeing that funding is available to undo the damage that’s been done.

Whatever is built on top of that deck, the money should be released to get the deck built.

This editorial was written by the editorial board and serves as the voice and opinion of The Dallas Morning News.