November 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 54

Great Rivers Greenway

at a G l a n c e

ince its founding in November
2000, Great Rivers Greenway
District (GRG) has built more than
90 miles of off-street trails and
80 miles of bicycle lanes in the City of St.
Louis, St. Louis County, and St. Charles
County. In its role as a protector of the region's watershed, which is dominated by
three rivers-the Mississippi, Missouri, and
Meramec-GRG has purchased more than
1,400 acres of land along its waterways.
The web of inter-connecting greenways,
called the River Ring, is expected to grow
to a total 40-plus greenways and over
600 miles in the next generation. The region served by the River Ring spans 1,200
square miles and serves a population of 2
million people in 100 municipalities.

Key connecting greenways include:
Des Peres connects I-55 and South
St. Louis to the Shrewsbury MetroLink Station,
■■ Sunset Trail connects Old Town Florissant
with the Missouri River,
■■ Grant's Trail connects neighborhoods to
local parks and bus lines,
■■ The Katy Trail now connects with the St.
Charles County Heritage Museum, and
■■ To be completed soon-Grant's Trail connects with River Des Peres Greenway and the
St. Vincent Greenway and connects Forest
Park with the University of Missouri St. Louis.
GRG is a public agency governed by a
10-member (soon to be 12) board of directors
from all three districts, with membership
based on population and revenue. The agency is supported by 137 partners comprised of
■■ River

Trautman continues. " We stake our reputations on that. Trust is
an important component of our success. "

A Regional Vision
A decade old, GRG has its roots in a region-wide visioning process that began in the mid 1990s. With a major push from the
late U.S. Senator John Danforth, St. Louis parks and recreation
veteran and NRPA board member Robert Hall, and Danforth
Foundation President Peter Sortino, the city of St. Louis, St. Louis
County, and St. Charles County devoted considerable time and
energy determining what the region should be like in 2004. Ultimately, the concept of linking the three jurisdictions became
the centerpiece. " There was a real drive to make our region a
better place to live, and this was a way to enhance our environment, " Trautman recalls.
" We don't have an ocean and we don't have mountains, but
we do have great rivers, " she says of the Mississippi, Missouri,
and Meramec. " At the time there was little access to them. Being
able to link all the existing parks and open space along the river
as well as enhance it is really viewed as a great way to make St.
Louis a better place to live. "
With that vision came the enabling legislation of Proposition
C (Clean Water, Safe Parks and Community Trails Initiative) for
the three jurisdictions. A sales tax of 1/10th of one cent was created to fund the interconnecting system of greenways, trails, and
parks. A public agency, Great Rivers Greenway District, has a
10-member board consisting of representatives from the three
jurisdictions who oversee the funding of the endeavor. The coalition of citizens, local governments, private companies, nonprofit organizations, and advocacy groups determined the plan
of more than 40 greenways consisting of more than 600 miles
of greenways and trails-the River Ring, begun in 2003. Between 2000 and 2010, GRG collected nearly $98 million in sales

52 Parks & Recreation N O V E M B E R

2 0 1 1 w w w . N R P A . O R G

local governments, private sector companies, and nonprofit organizations-everything from grassroots watershed
organizations to the National Park Service.
GRG operates from an office on the
edge of Washington University and has a
staff of seven. Susan K. Trautman CPRP is
executive director. Before joining GRG,
Trautman served as director of parks and
recreation for the City of Des Peres, a
planner/principal for the architecture/
planning firm STW Associates, and as director of parks and recreation for the city
of Clayton, Missouri. A life-long resident of
the St. Louis area, Trautman is a member
of American Academy of Park and Recreation Administration and is currently a
member of the NRPA Board of Directors.

taxes, $5 million in income investments, $7.5 million in federal
grants, $4 million in partner contributions, and $27.5 million in
proceeds from 2007 bonds.
GRG early on developed a five-year capital improvements
plan that gets regular updating so that Trautman and her staff
have an answer when they are asked by the public when they
are next in line for a greenway.
As 2011 winds down, Trautman estimates the River Ring to
be at the one-third point toward completion. If there ever was
an easy period, it's over. Each project gets successively harder,
given the obstacles they encounter, particularly highways and
waterways. " Those are the kinds of things that take more planning and more time, " she says.
In fact, Trautman describes the development process of
the River Ring as a game of patience. Progress, as measured
through land acquisition isn't always a straight-ahead undertaking. Sometimes they find they must develop trails from both
ends working toward the middle, compelling reluctant land
owners to come around. GRG, by law, cannot simply condemn
the land it needs. Instead, it relies as much as possible on acquiring easements or donations from property owners. In the
past, municipalities have on occasion condemned land they considered vital to preserving green space. And if GRG considers
tracts of land along rivers crucial to the preservation of watersheds, it will purchase the land outright.
If there's positive irony to be found in the economic downturn, it's the purchasing advantage enjoyed by GRG.
" Until 2007 and 2008, it was more about convincing, " Trautman says. " Now we have more opportunities to buy than we've
ever had because so much land is available and people need
the cash. In the last year we've picked up almost $2 million
worth of land acquisitions. It's a wonderful opportunity to preserve for the future, and this is certainly the time to do it. "

November 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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