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07-974Council File #� Green Sheet #3044911 RESOLUTION C{TY OF SAINT PAllL, MINNESOTA �resented ,y if 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 WHEREAS, the City of Saint Paul, Division of Parks and Recreation is one of the oldest and largest systems in the country; and WHEREAS, traditional funding to ensure the health, sustainability and maintenance of this award winning system is severely challenged; and WHEREAS, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation needs to have a community partnering organization to help sustain it through the peaks and valleys of typical legislative budgeting and to undertake special programs and developments; and WHEREAS, Saint Paul is almost alone among its national peers by not having a community based partnering organization focusing on the needs of the overall parks and open space system and the emerging and changing needs of an active recreation populace; and WHEREAS, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation's concept for the new Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Conservancy is patterned on the successful Como Zoo and Conservatory Society. The CZCS contributes millions of dollars for programming and capital improvements to City of Saint Paul for the Como Campus; and WHEREAS, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation in April 2007 applied to the McKnight Foundation for a grant to establish a process to develop and evaluate a Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Conservancy Fund and the application was granted and the McKnight Foundation has offered Saint Paul Parks and Recreation $150,000 for this purpose; now, therefore be it RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of authorizes Parks and Recreation to accept the grant authorizes the proper city officials to enter into agreements with the McKnight Foundation. Saint Paul hereby and further any necessary o �� 35 Req by Dep rtment� f�� 5 % °`Y,�f/.�' '�r � �_ � Form Approv d by City tto ney HY: —'�� c�.d'.'�^,-. Adopted by Dat Council: e ��i7 ��j)l17 Form to C Adoption Certified by Council Secre�ary By: By . / f � a �r. � `•-'"_ \_ /�� / by Mayor for Submission 4. �� Green Sheet Green Sheet Green Sheet Green Sheet Green Sheet Green Sheet � � 7� �� Deparlmenf/o%ce/wunCil: Date Inkiated: PR —p�csanaxxrearioa 0&OCT-07 Green Sheet NO: 3044911 Conqct Person & Phone: Bob Blerscheitl 26fi-6409 Doc. Type: RESOLUTION W/$ TRANSAC E-Document Required: N Document CofNact: ConWctPhone: � Assign Numher For Routing Order Total # of Signature Pages _(Clip All Locations for Signature) 0 1 a 3 a 5 6 azks and Rxreation azks and Recreation De ent D'uector ' Atkorne or's Office Ma or/ASSistant ouncil Ci Comcl " Clerk C' Clerk Signatures on attached zesolution authorizing Saint Paul Pazks and Recreation to accept a grant from the McKnight Foundation to develop and evaluate a Sairn Paul Pazks Conservancy Fund. iaauons: qpprove (n) or rt Planning Comm(ssion CIB Committee Civil Service Commission 1. Has this personffirtn ever worked under a contract for this department? Yes No 2. Has this persoNfirm ever been a city employee? Yes No 3. Does this person/fittn possess a skill not normally possessed by any curtent city employee? Yes No Explain aIl yes answers on sepa2te sheet and attach to green sheet Initiating Probiem, Issues, Opportunity (Who, What, When, Where, Why): � Saint Paul Parks and Recreation needs to have a communiry partnering organization to help sustain it through the peaks and valleys of typical legislarive budgeting. The McKnight Founda6on has a grant to establish a process to develop and evaluate a Conservancy Fund (patterued on the successful Como Zoo and Conservatory Society). AdvanWges If Approvetl: Saint Paul Pazks and Recreation would be able to establish a process to develop and evaluate a Conservancy Fund. Disadvantages If Approvetl: None DisadvaMages If Not Approved: Saint Paul Pazks and Recrearion would not be able to establish a process to develop and evaluate a Conservancy Fund. �� Transaction: $150,000.00 Funainy so�rce: McKnight Foundation Financial Information: (E�cplain) CosURevenue Budgeted: Activity Number. OCT 0 9 2pp? -L _ _ = v ._..;� . . �O 7 October 9, 2007 2:03 PM Page 1 o�-�� THE M�KNiGHT FOUNDATION September i l, 2007 Crrant No. 07-410 Mr. Christopher B. Coleman Mayor City of St. Paul 390 City Hall 15 West Kellogg Boulevard St. Paul, MN 55102 Dear Mayor Coleman: 710 Souch Second Screec Suice 400 Minneapolis, Minnesota >5401 612-333-4220 612-332-3833 faY www.mcknight.org I am pleased to inform you that at their August 2007 meeting the directors of The McKnight Foundation approved a grant of $ I50,000 to the City of St. Paul. These funds are to be used to hire a consultant to develop a Saint Paul Pazks Conservancy over the next two years. We will make our payment when the City of St. Paul has developed a detailed scope of service including work plan and benchmarks of success and has identified a skilled program consultant. The deadline for providing the scope of service is November l, 2007. If you have questions, please call Dan Bartholomay. Sincerely, �� Kate Wolford President °'=� �re 5�{ z� s�.� _, �'�i� . KFW:rjr cc: Bob Bierscheid, Parks Director Luz Maria Frias, External Affairs Director D�-�� CI'I`Y �F'• S�1` PA�.. 390 Ciry Ha17 Zelep)rone: 651-266-8510 Christapher B. Coleman. Mayor I5 West Kel(ogg Boulerard Facsimiie: 651-266-8.i13 Sainr Paul, MN 55102 April 11, 2007 Mr. Daniel Bartholomay The McKnight Foundation 710 South Second Street, Suite 400 Minneapolis, MN 55401 Deaz Mr. Bartholomay: In our strategic plan to make Saint Paul the most livable city in America, my siaff and I have outlined a vision for environmental stewazdship in Minnesota's capital city: "Sain£ Paul will implement the vision of the National Great River Park by focusdng development on a more natural, more urban and more connected Saint Paul... through improving and expanding Saint Paul's system ofparks, green spaces, bikeways and trails, by connecting the entit•e Ciry, including the Mississippi River and existing recreation locations and ecological spaces. "� Green spaces – open spaces – are an integral factor in a region's quality of life and economic health. As described in "Creating Common Ground," McKnight's Embrace Open Space project, "Everybody needs the outdoors — not as a treat for a long weekend, but as a part of daily life. Whether our windows look out to a farmyard or a city street, our psychological, physical, and economic well-being depend on the health of our susoundings." Like too many green spaces in our counhy, Saint Paul's parks system – one of the oldest and largest in the United States – is not receiving the financial support needed to ensure its health, maintenance and sustenance for future generations. Nuznbering among those future citizens are the chiidren of today's unmigrants to Saint Paul – families of Hmong, African and Hispanic origin. These cultural communities have found solace and strength in cultural gatherings within Saint Paul's pazks, including the lazgest Hmong cultural gathering in the United States held at Como Pazk every year in July. VJhile more established Minnesota families flock to their cabins during the summer months, families with less means use our pazks as their destinations for family gatherings and celebrations. Maintaining Saint Paul's pazks system is an integral part of strengthening the social, community, and economic fabric of citizens, both old and new. ' htto:/,'www.ci.slnauLmrzus/mavor/Livab[eCitv.odf � Saint Paul Pmks and Recreation Requesi to The McKnieht Foundalian April 2007 Page 2 ��-��y� Need for a Saint Paul Parks Conservancy In September 2006, more than 200 individuals from across the United States attended a summit to study the benefits and possibilities of creating pazk conservancies in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Representatives from the Prospect Park Alliance in Brooklyn, New York, the Seat?le Pazks Foundarion, the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, and the Pittsburgh Pazks Conservancy presented the chailenges they faced and the overwhelmingly positive benefits they experienced in creating pazk conservancies in their communities. The greatest impression gleaned from the Summit is that Saint Paul is trailing its peers (including Minneapolis, which now has a Foundation for Minneapolis Parks) in its attention to its spectaculaz green space. Saint Paul is one of 60 nationally accredited parks and recreation agencies in the country, and in 2005 received the National Gold Medal for Pazks and Recreation agencies. Yet Saint Paul is almost alone among its peers in not having a community partnering organization to help sustain it throughout the peaks and val]eys of legislative budgeting. Consider that without the financial resources represented by a Saint Paul Parks Conservancy: • Most of Saint Paul Pazks' current efforts to rehabilitate and regenerate environmental growth will be lost: - The recovery and completion of the 586-acre Lower Pig's Eye Park on the Mississippi will end; - Responding to the spread of invasive species throughout Saint Paui's 5,000 acres of open space will be very difficult, putting natural plant and animal populations, and even human beings, at risk; - Development of a 26-acre Bruce Vento Natute Sanctuary will end. - A u�anagement and controi plan for the 15 parks along the Mississippi River will be unlikely, if not impossible. This "Crreat River Park Plan" would create a unified vision for these pazks — much like Minneapolis' "Chain of Lakes" — and a comprehensive approach to maintaining, optunizing, and using these important benefits to Saint PauPs health and economic well-being. • As Saint Paul's population grows, and as new citizens from other parts of the world move to the azea, special efforts and education are required to engage the public as stewazds of open spaces. Without this effort — and it certainly is not possible at current funding levels — the ethic for concem and caze of all of our open spaces may become a thing of the past. • Saint Paul has worked hazd to incorporate healthy activiries for ail ages and income levels in its pazks and recreation programming. With a lack of resources to maintain an aging infrastructure and promote proper physical use of resources, less of that programming wiil Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Reauest to The .�LlcKniQht Foundution "�� 1 Apri! 2007 Page 3 be available to support physically active lifestyles. Public pazks and recreation agencies offer low-cost opportunities to Americans of every age, ability and income level to increase their daily amounts of physical activity. Goals of the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy A Saint Paul Parks Conservancy Endowment Fund will provide dedicated operating dollars for special broiects designed to enhance the quality of life in Saint Paul. A Saint Pau! Parks Conservancy Capital Fund will assure the necessary c�ital improvements that will make Saint PauPs pazks and recreation system the most livable and accessible in the nation. Conservancy dollazs aze not targeted to replace tax dollars in maintenance (e.g. plowing, raking or repairs) of Saint Paul's pazks system. Conservancy funds will support and assure the environmental stewardship and upgrades that: 1) are necessary for the quality of living Saint Paul residents have come to expect, and 2) will ensure existence of vital open green spaces in Saint Paul for generations to come. Conservancy dollars also will play an important role in bringing other philanthropic dollars to Saint Paul by teveraging available foundation dollars to attract matching funds from other organizations across the country. Request to The McKnight Foundation An initial grant of $225,000 over two yeazs would provide a two-yeaz base salazy for a Conservancy Executive Director, whose responsibilities in that time will include: • Establishing overall needs, vision, mission and goals for the Conservancy Creating a fund development plan, beginning with a case statement and feasibiliry study, moving into at least one fundraising campaign, and culminating in a portfolio of major donors and private sector partners Working closely with Saint Paul Parks and Recreation and other community partners to expand public awazeness and visibility for the Conservancy and the need for the Conservancy within Saint Paul's overall strategic plan Administrative expenses for the executive director would be absorbed by Saint Paul Pazks and Recreation. Geographic Scope of the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy Saint Paul's pazks system draws people from all over the country, and is a destination for family, community and corporate events. Saint Paul's system includes 112 miles of paths and trails, 4b miles of pazkway comdor, 85 playgrounds, 41 community centers, three swimming pools, a swimming beach, 1.2 million square feet of public buildings, four golf courses, six regional pazks, a nationally accredited zoo and conservatory, and at least two major entertainment venues. At I7 miles, Saint Paul has more mi[es of Mississippi River Valley than any otlter municipaliry along the entire length ofMark Twain's river. Tkus valley includes bluffs, lakes, and wetlands, and a series of 15 public pazks that provide more than Saint Paul Parks arad Recreation Reauest ta The McKni¢ht Foundation O � / � �� Apri12007 Page 4 3,500 acres of floodplain and bluff tops for outdoor recrearion, scenic views, wildlife habitat and special events. The efforts of Saint Paul's peers azound the country have exemplified the benefits and possibilities of a pazks conservancy. Since 1989, the I,ouisville Olmsted Pazks Conservancy has raised over $18 million to provide planning and funding for pazk improvements. The Prospect Pazk Alliance's efforts in Brooklyn have increased pazk use by 300 percent, while making criticai improvements to the pazk's fragile ecosystem and preserving its historical and azchitectural treasures. Pazk conservancies have transformed parks into important cultural centers, such as with Christo's "The Gates" at Central Pazk, which increased pazk use by five times — to four miilion people in two weeks — and generated $250 million in economic activity. The City of Saint Paul invites The McKnight Foundation to continue and expand its key role in preserving Minnesota's environment for future generations, including 17 miles of highly accessed portions of the Mississippi Riverway. I encourage you to contact Luz Maria Frias, External Affairs, at (651) 266-8517 for more information on this project. Thank you for McKnight's continued and important support for Saint Paul and al] its residents. B� : gazds, �' , �%;�;j �/ l/ V' v7 ��':'LZ.�� Christopher B. Coleman Mayor LMF cc: Ann Mulholland, Chief of 5taff Bob Bierscheid, Director of Pazks and Recreation