In the largest donation in the company’s history, U.S. Steel Corp. has agreed to give $1 million and sell land along Red Mountain at a $9.5 million discount to help create one of the largest urban parks in the nation.
The 1,108-acre tract could attract young athletes, hikers, bird-watchers and mountain bikers throughout the metro area, proponents say. The land lies primarily in southwestern Birmingham, with a small extension into Midfield. It extends 4.5 miles, from Montevallo Road on the east almost to the Bessemer city limit on the west.
“It’s 15 minutes from downtown Birmingham,” said Wendy Jackson, executive director of the Black Warrior-Cahaba Rivers Land Trust, which developed the deal with U.S. Steel.
A ridgetop portion of the land is expected to remain natural, bisected by trails. A flatter area near Lakeshore Parkway would have more than 20 soccer, baseball and multipurpose sports fields.
The proposed Red Mountain Park would surpass in size some of the nation’s best-known large urban parks, including New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Under the terms of an agreement to be announced today, the Black Warrior-Cahaba Rivers Land Trust would pay $7 million for the land, which has been appraised at $16.5 million. The $1 million cash donation would be used to develop the park.
“It’s very hard to find land to buy that communities can afford,” said Tom Howard, Southeastern general manager for USS Real Estate. “Kids are playing Little League baseball until 11 o’clock at night in some areas because of the lack of fields.”
Jackson said her group can raise $7 million for the park through private foundation grants and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. She said the local congressional delegation has offered help in securing the grants, and area leaders have offered support.
“We’re very optimistic that we’ll be able to do this,” she said. “This was an opportunity I don’t think anyone wants to miss.”
Looking green
The Land Trust oversees the $30 million that Jefferson County agreed in a lawsuit settlement to spend on green space along waterways. That award was punishment of the county for years of illegally discharging raw or partially treated sewage into rivers and streams.
However, the Red Mountain land is dry and has no connection to a waterway. As a result, the Land Trust cannot use its capital to buy that land.
A nonprofit group likely will be established to manage the park, Jackson said, much like the Vulcan Park Foundation or the Central Park Conservancy in New York.
The land – along with Birmingham city parks, Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve and other land purchased by the Land Trust – would push Birmingham to the top of the nation’s ranking of public open space per resident in large cities, according to a numbers from the Trust for Public Land. Birmingham would have 17.9 acres of public green space per 1,000 residents, ahead of top-ranked Minneapolis with 14.3 acres per 1,000 residents.
U.S. Steel officials said they wanted to give something back to Birmingham, where the company has maintained a presence since acquiring Tennessee Coal and Iron Co. here in 1907.
“By helping to preserve Red Mountain as a park for the people of Birmingham, we demonstrate our commitment to environmental stewardship,” said John Surma, chief executive officer and president of U.S. Steel, in a written statement.
Surma plans to visit Birmingham today to sign the deal with the Land Trust. Jackson said U.S. Steel will extend an option to buy the land for two years for $100 while the Land Trust works to secure the matching money.
Howard said the company also gains if the park is created. As the largest landowner in Jefferson County, it is constantly developing real estate.
“We have found in real estate that open space is one of the greatest amenities you can have,” Howard said.
Future uses
Park uses will be determined by the community, Jackson said, although the group already has designed plans showing ball fields and other uses.
She said she hopes to see historic markers or interpretive trails on the land, which was logged and mined until 1962. The mines have been sealed, but some of the remnants of the mining past, such as bridges and building foundations, could become part of a historic display of the industry that built Birmingham, she said.
Old roads that were cut from the mountains could be used for trails in the park, Jackson said. U.S. Steel has hired a forestry company to clear the overgrown roads and has completed about six miles, company officials said.
Jackson said the trails ultimately could be connected to others as part of the area’s growing greenways development. For example, the land is less than a mile from the beginning of Homewood’s Shades Creek greenway, which runs the length of that city into Mountain Brook and through Jemison Park. It’s also about two miles from Vulcan Trail.
EMAIL: kbouma@bhamnews.com
