The Great Rivers Greenway District is a public agency created in 2000 to develop a regional network of greenways. Great Rivers Greenway engages citizens and community partners to plan, build and care for the greenways. In its first 20 years the agency built more than 128 miles of greenways connecting parks, rivers, schools, neighborhoods, business districts and transit.

Origin

Great Rivers Greenway was established in November 2000 by the passage of Proposition C – The Clean Water, Safe Parks and Community Trails Initiative – in the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County, Missouri. Proposition C created a one tenth of one cent sales tax devoted to the creation of an interconnected system of greenways, parks and trails. The initiative was one of 11 priorities formulated by St. Louis 2004, a nonprofit organization formed in 1996 with the mission of bringing about a renaissance in the region by 2004.

Governance

A twelve-member Board of Directors representing the three areas and appointed by the executive of the city or county they represent governs the distribution of funds for developing the River Ring, the system of interconnected greenways, parks and trails. A Chief Executive Officer and staff carry out the development of the River Ring, working with local, county and state agencies as well as private and non-profit agencies throughout the St. Louis region.

Plans

In 2003, Great Rivers Greenway developed "Building the River Ring: A Citizen- Driven Regional Plan" to establish a long-term vision for the St. Louis region. Developed with advice from citizens, local governments, private companies, non-profit organizations and advocacy groups, the Plan identified a system of 40+ greenways comprising over 600 miles of greenways and trails throughout the three counties. Named the River Ring, the concept is designed to raise awareness of the natural beauty found in the region's many rivers and streams and to reconnect residents to the primary natural feature resulting in the City's founding, the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The River Ring system will connect parks, trails and greenways in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County. Each of these greenways will follow the natural paths of rivers and streams in the area. The system will connect with trails developed by the Metro East Park and Recreation District of St. Clair and Madison Counties in Illinois. Every five years, Great Rivers Greenway engages citizens, civic leaders and partners to update the Citizen-Driven Regional Plan. Updates to the plan were published in 2011 and 2016. In 2020 the agency began surveying citizens about priorities to build and care for the greenways to inform the next update to the plan. As recommended in the 2016 update to the Regional Plan, the Great Rivers Greenway Foundation was launched in 2016 to seek private funding for greenway projects.

Greenways

Greenways within the district:

CityArchRiver Project

In 2007, four decades after completion of the Gateway Arch, the site remained an island, severed from the rest of the city by busy highways and disconnected from the Mississippi River. Walter Metcalfe, an attorney and civic leader in St. Louis, led the formation of CityArchRiver2015 Foundation in 2009 to transform the St. Louis Riverfront and Arch grounds. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates of New York won an international competition to redesign the Arch grounds in 2010. The project received $20 million in capital funding in 2011 from the U.S. Department of Transportation, a $25 million matching grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation and $10 million in private donations raised by CityArchRiver. With a total project cost of $380 million, more funding was needed. Great Rivers Greenway joined the effort in 2012, becoming part of a public-private partnership with the CityArchRiver2015 Foundation, National Park Service, Missouri Department of Transportation, Bi-State Development, and Jefferson National Parks Association. The partners planned a ballot issue known as Proposition P to generate sales tax revenue for the CityArchRiver project and other park improvements. In April 2013 voters in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County approved Proposition P: The Safe and Accessible Arch and Public Parks Initiative. The proposition authorized a 3/16th-cent sales tax to fund the CityArchRiver project and accelerate local park and greenway construction. The tax was projected to generate $780 million over the next 20 years, with 60 percent going to Great Rivers Greenway and 40 percent going to support local parks in St. Louis City and County. Half of the Great Rivers Greenway revenue supported the CityArchRiver project and the other half would be used to accelerate greenway construction. Great Rivers Greenway stewarded $85 million in Proposition P funds to complete several major projects over the next five years: CityArchRiver Foundation changed its name to the Gateway Arch Park Foundation in 2017. The Foundation raised $250 million in private funds for the project.