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ACROSS THE BOARD
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Forest
Park Forever
Big Board, Big Results
By Pam Droog
A big park needs a big board. At 1,370 acres, Forest Park is a big
park. And with 60 members, Forest Park Forever, the private, non-profit
organization working in partnership with the City of St. Louis and
the Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry, is a big board.
“All the books on board development would say it’s too big,” says
Jim Mann, executive director. “But it has led to healthy, varying
perspectives,” as well as remarkable accomplishments since the group
began in 1986.
Its model was the Central Park Conservancy, which had formed a successful
partnership with New York City in 1980 to improve that famous park.
“Today these public-private partnerships are a national movement,”
Mann explains, “since these large urban parks were all founded in
the late 1800s and they’re all in pretty bad shape. Yet they’re
often the center of the city and very beloved by the community.”
What distinguishes Forest Park Forever from similar public-private
partnerships is not just that Forest Park, established in 1876,
is 500 acres bigger than Central Park, and is used by nearly 12
million visitors a year. It’s also the fact that the City of St.
Louis under Mayor Bosley created a master plan for the park. “Generally
a city tries a project or two, but the City of St. Louis was really
bold,” Mann says. “They realized everything interacts, so you need
a whole plan.”
The master plan, “Restoring The Glory,” was approved by the Community
Development Agency and adopted by the City of St. Louis in December
1995. Major elements include transforming the park’s lakes and lagoons
into a river; planting 7,500 trees and preserving the park’s forests
and meadows; restoring Grand Basin at the foot of Art Hill, the
World’s Fair Pavilion, Jewel Box, Steinberg Skating Rink, Boat House
and picnic shelters; expanding educational and youth programs; improving
vehicular access; and building new walking paths.
The Phase I goal was $86 million to implement “Heart of the Park”
improvements. “The agreement with the city was, if Forest Park Forever
raised $43 million, the organization would raise it, too,” says
board president Lee Liberman, chairman emeritus of Laclede Gas.
“They’ve done it through taxes and federal grants, but we’ve had
to do it the hard way, asking for every dollar.”
Along the way, however, Liberman and the board discovered Forest
Park is one of the most popular places in the community. “Most everyone
who’s been in St. Louis awhile has some connection to or memory
about the park,” he says. That meant the board could appeal to people
with a wide range of interests. “There was something for everyone
to support, from gardens and golfing to summer musicals, art and
animals,” Mann says. “We’d go to donors and say, we’ve got a great
partner in the city, and the state also provided tax credits. So
donors knew they weren’t in this alone.”
As a result, last January—two years ahead of schedule—Forest Park
Forever and the City met their initial $86 million goal, and even
surpassed it by $6 million. Specifically, the board raised $43.1
million in private capital funds and $4 million for the Forest Park
Trust endowment, and the City of St. Louis raised $44.9 million
in public, capital funds. This $92 million total is the largest
amount of money ever raised by a public-private partnership for
an urban park anywhere in the U.S.
Other achievements include successfully fulfilling the Danforth
Foundation “Progress Plus” grant, which awarded $5 million to Forest
Park Forever for raising $10 million from non-Civic Progress companies
by the end of 2000. Also, the annual “Friends” campaign, which provides
maintenance funds for the park, beat its 2000 goal of $900,000 by
raising $1.1 million, partly due to the dramatic increase in Leffingwell
Society donors, who give $1,000 or more annually, from 25 members
in 1997 to 358 in 2000.
It all goes back to that big board of 60 elected members plus 12
designated members from the Mayor’s office. It’s big by design,
Liberman explains, to make sure Forest Park Forever represents a
variety of interests. Equally important, “we need a lot of expertise,
since there’s much more to it than just raising money,” he says,
like public relations and marketing, working with architects, designers
and contractors, coordinating volunteer and educational activities
and talking with city officials.
Board members can serve three three-year terms before rotating off
for at least one year. Some people ask to join the board, others
are asked to serve by the nominating committee. Mann explains, “It’s
the most diverse board in the city that I know of, geographically
and economically. What they all have in common is this unbelievable
passion for the park.”
At the moment, that passion is the driving force behind the Phase
II capital campaign to raise an additional $5 million to support
projects outside the original scope of the master plan. These include
restoring the central playing fields and Government Hill, adding
a children’s playground and picnic pavilions and redesigning park
entrances.
At the same time, several other major projects are in the design
stage. These include a new 27-hole golf course and clubhouse, and
the Jewel Box and Boathouse renovations.
“We’re doing the most visible things now,” Liberman says. “But after
we get the glory restored, we have to maintain it.” That’s why the
Forest Park Forever board recently voted to increase the endowment
to $10 million from its current total of $4 million. “People think
the park is funded by taxes or by the city exclusively, but it’s
not,” Mann points out. In fact, the City contributes $1.5 million
annually toward maintenance, “but we actually need $4 to $5 million
a year to do it right,” Liberman says. He hopes the city will agree
not to reduce its funding, “and we’re looking for ways to increase
public support, too.”
As the name of the organization implies, the board hopes, and works
hard to assure, that Forest Park does last Forever. But what about
the group itself? “I think in the foreseeable future there will
be a need for financial support from the group,” Mann says. “Beyond
that, I think the public-private partnership is important, because
it brings all kinds of people into the process, and that assures
they’ll care about the park and stay involved.”
In the short term, however, Liberman says, the board is focused
on completing each project. “As each one is done,” he promises,
“we’ll have a party.”
Pam Droog is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
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