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Lord of the (River) Rings:
The Great Rivers Greenway District connects the region.
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By Sue Britt
In November 2000, when 68 percent of voters in the city of St. Louis, along with St. Louis and St. Charles counties, approved Proposition C, the Clean Water, Safe Parks and Community Trails Initiative, they probably weren’t thinking of creating economic growth. But David Fisher, executive director of The Great Rivers Greenway District, says that’s exactly what they did.
“It’s really a project designed to develop jobs,” Fisher says. “We want to be the jobs center.”
 The St. Louis region is defined by North America’s great rivers—the Mississippi and Missouri. Together with the Meramec and Cuivre rivers, the Mississippi River forms a three-quarter ring around The Great Rivers Greenway District. By joining these three rivers with the Missouri River through a series of interconnected greenways, parks and trails, the circle is completed, providing access to the River Ring throughout the St. Louis region. When complete, The River Ring will link three counties, join two states, and cover an area of 1,216 square miles. |
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Creating the River Ring, an interconnected system of more than 1,200 square miles of greenways along the Missouri, Mississippi, Meramec and Cuivre rivers, will not only enhance the social and environmental capital of the area, but also will be a catalyst for growth, Fisher says. Although Great Rivers (formerly called the Metropolitan Park and Recreation District) generates about $10 million a year from the one-tenth of one-cent sales tax, the long-term economic impact could be worth billions.
Fisher says building parks and trails will raise property values. More importantly, it will increase the quality of life and draw people into the area. “Look at MasterCard. Think about what’s really happening in our own region. Why are companies moving to where companies move?” Fisher asks. “It’s where the people want to live. So let’s develop an environment where you want to live, and the jobs will follow.”
Bob Lewis, principal of Development Strategies, a St. Louis consulting firm that provides research and planning for real estate, community and economic development, says it is widely recognized that the quality of life in a region directly impacts the region’s ability to attract and maintain a good labor force.
“Especially among the class of labor force that most economic development is longing after,” Lewis says. “Which really is the educated class.”
Great Rivers collaborates with the Metro East Park and Recreation District of Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois, both of which passed similar one-tenth cent sales tax legislation. This makes St. Louis’s efforts uniquely regional, Fisher says.
“It’s bigger than a city. It’s bigger than
a county,” he says. “It’s going to be more like Silicon Valley, and we’re going to do it, not through silicon wafers, (but) through natural systems.”
| David Fisher, executive director, The Great Rivers Greenway District, at the June 1 groundbreaking along the River Des Peres. |
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Fisher, who worked for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for more than 30 years before coming to St. Louis, says he saw the region’s potential when he first drove in. “I crossed the (Interstate) 270 bridge (and) I stopped and I thought, ‘My God, this is beautiful country,’” he says.
Now he’s sold on St. Louis.
“The culture and the history and the architecture—it’s unmatched in any city I’ve ever been in,” Fisher says. “Once we get this thing all built in the community, where we can draw the curtains back, there’s going to be a new gem in the United States.”
Recently, Great Rivers granted $5.5 million for the development of a four-mile greenway along River Des Peres. The path will be woven along River Des Peres Boulevard between Gravois and Morganford streets, as well as Christy Avenue. The entire distance will be buffered by trees, which Fisher says is important to increase the comfort levels of users.
“You can’t have a lot of on-street (trails),” he says. “It’s got to be separate, individual, in a pastoral setting.”
The project will include a 250-foot-long, 20-foot-high, bow-arch pedestrian bridge across the River Des Peres. The joint project by St. Louis City, St. Louis County, the Metropolitan Sewer District, the Army Corps of Engineers and the East-West Gateway Council of Governments was Great Rivers’ first major project in St. Louis City.
Twelve-foot trails will wind through the Christy Greenway, which parallels Rock Creek and ends at the Holly Hills bike path. This will create a connection to Carondelet Park and eventually may extend 11 miles, connecting Forest Park to the confluence of River Des Peres and the Mississippi River, and bring the River Ring vision a step closer to reality.
“The River Ring is designed to follow large and small regional waterways,” Fisher says. “River Des Peres will play an important part in creating the interconnected system.”
In Illinois, Michael Beulhorn, director of the Metro East Park and Recreation District, stands on the Chain of Rocks Bridge and looks down the churning Mississippi River toward the Gateway Arch. The bridge, the original path of Route 66, is just one of the Beulhorn’s priorities, along with the restoration of Chouteau Island.
“The Route 66 people are going to go wild over this,” Beulhorn says.
In downtown St. Louis, the new Busch Stadium will round out a much larger experience, which includes the proposed Chouteau Greenway, linking the downtown riverfront to Forest Park. “It becomes an amenity that office workers like,” Lewis says. “It becomes an economic development attractor. That’s a goal we’re after; to convince the world that this would be a great place to put a business.”
So far, planning has been the main focus of Great Rivers. “Now what you’re going to see is a lot of results of having that plan in place,” Fisher says. “A lot of dirt’s going to be turned and a lot of things are going to happen in the next three or four months.”
The massive plan, when broken down into its component parts, is quite doable, Lewis says. “The good news is we have somebody like Fisher,” he says. “His leverage is money. It’s a fascinating effort. I don’t know if it would have happened had not some sort of regional greenway group been formed.”
Some current projects The Great Rivers Greenway District, along
with many public and private partners, has contributed funds to:
Ted and Pat Jones Confluence Point
State Park (515 acre land acquisition and public access road).
Katy Trail Connector (extended from City of St. Charles to Machens area
in eastern St. Charles County).
Columbia Bottom Conservation Area (five-mile hiking and biking trail).
Old Chain of Rocks Bridge
(public access).
Portage Des Sioux Nature Area
(40-acre nature area).
Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing
(planning and design).
McKinley Bridge and Branch
Street Railroad Trestle (bicycle
and pedestrian trail).
Riverfront Trail (planning and design
to extend trail from the Arch south
to Chouteau Avenue).
Centennial Greenway (Katy Trail
to St. Peters Trail connector).
Chouteau Greenway (will restore
link from downtown riverfront and Forest Park).
Dardenne Greenway
(from Mississippi River to Busch Memorial Conservation Area).
Missouri River Greenway:
Phase I Planning (34 miles that will
parallel the Missouri River from the Mississippi River to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area to the Veterans Memorial Bridge in Maryland Heights).
Meramec Greenway (150 acres along greenway). River Des Peres Greenway (planning and design). |
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