Birmingham-area leaders say they have finished raising $15 million to open two major parks and expand a third.
“They’ve done an unbelievable job in a very short time with this,” said Steve Jones, chairman of the board over Red Mountain Park. “That’s amazing. I think it goes to show you when you’ve got the right thing at the right time, you really don’t have to sell it.”
Leaders said Wednesday that Red Mountain Park and the downtown Railroad Park will use the money to buy or develop land so they can open. The existing Ruffner Mountain Nature Center in eastern Birmingham will open a visitor and education center and restore a wetland area with its money.
Three years ago, three groups announced major plans for parks in Birmingham and Jefferson County at almost the same time: The city of Birmingham planned a $40 million Railroad Park downtown. A Jefferson County land trust announced a 1,108-acre park atop Red Mountain. Ruffner Mountain Nature Center announced it would expand, restore land and build a treetop nature and visitors center.
City leaders began to discuss the problems of three groups simultaneously approaching national foundations or local corporations with fundraising pleas. So in the fall of 2006 the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and Region 2020 announced they would attempt to raise $17.35 million for what they called the Three Park Initiative.
They agreed on an appropriate Phase I plan for each park that was not too ambitious but would be a complete project by itself, said Dalton Smith, executive director of Region 2020.
“We met and agreed that what we want is something that people can see – can put their feet on,” Smith said.
Ultimately, most of the area’s major corporations and philanthropic groups contributed a total of $15 million. The groups decided to stop before reaching the original goal so the parks’ leaders could have the money now and continue fundraising on their own.
The parks have received millions of dollars directly from Congress and corporations, so the total amounts available surpass what they had hoped to get from the mutual fundraising.
At some point, every nonprofit park or other group must build its own list of loyal volunteers or donors, Smith said, and it was time for the parks to do that.
Record green per capita:
When all three parks are open, Birmingham is expected to have a record amount of green space per resident as well as some of the largest urban parks in the nation, bigger than such famed large parks as New York’s Central Park or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
When the three parks banded together to raise money, it showed how well the area can cooperate and communicate, said Kate Nielsen, president of the Community Foundation.
“The three parks said, ‘This is going to be a win for this community. Let’s hold hands and do this together,’” Nielsen said. “This community saw the opportunity for these three parks.”
Smith said the surge of support from community members was so large that when he gave speeches on the parks he often had to stay an hour afterward answering questions, particularly from people 40 and younger.
The donations began in 2005 with U.S. Steel Corp., which said it would sell 1,108 acres of grown-over mining land to a Jefferson County land trust for $7 million – $9.5 million less than its appraised price. The Pittsburgh-based company also offered $1 million in cash to build trails in what will be the largest donation in the corporation’s history.
U.S. Steel allowed the Red Mountain group to take ownership of the land last summer, before it finished paying for it. Jones said the $4.9 million his group receives will allow him to pay off the corporation and begin work on a major trail loop around the property. Railroad Park will receive $8.7 million from the fundraising project, and Ruffner Mountain will receive $1.25 million.
None of the parks has firm price tags or opening dates. Railroad Park has given an estimate of $40 million, while Red Mountain and Ruffner haven’t even given guesses. In addition to its initial projects, Ruffner is planning to buy 500 acres or more and build entrances around the park, which has only one remote entrance.
No end to park journey:
Jones said Red Mountain is working through a to-do list that includes safety measures and restrooms to figure out when it can open.
“We’re still sitting here with a draft master plan,” he said. “Once we finalize it, we can start getting cost figures.”
But he said so many people have come forward with additional ideas for the vast park that he can hardly imagine that it will ever be finished.
“It’s a journey,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the end of it – certainly not in my lifetime.”
EMAIL: kbouma@bhamnews.com
