Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Slight Tweaks to County’s Park Plan
We wrote in a previous Policy Brief about Allegheny County’s plan to explore private sector assistance in improving selected assets in the nearly 12,000 acres of parkland. To that end the County has produced the first two Requests for Proposal, one for the boathouse in North Park and the other for the Hartwood Stables. The successful bidders will be responsible for all maintenance and capital improvements at the sites and the proposals will be evaluated on how well plans mesh with the character and vision of the parks.
In announcing the plan the Executive stated “we’re never going to sell these parks” and the approach to allowing the private sector into the parks will be a gradual one. The County itself is maintaining all the advertising rights at the sites and will not entertain naming rights at the time. This is somewhat in contrast to the August 2007 Oglebay Foundation study on potential revenue options in the parks, including the pursuit of “non-traditional funding sources such as advertising, corporate sponsors, and other potential individual donors…”
Another complicating factor, in the case of the North Park Boathouse, is that the lake is scheduled for a major dredging operation to remove silt and sand. This project is slated to be completed in 2011. The RFP notes that “there will likely be some disruption of lake usage in and around the Boathouse during sediment removal operations” and the extent of that disruption is “not known at this time”. Hopefully such uncertainty will not drive away potential bidders.
In announcing the plan the Executive stated “we’re never going to sell these parks” and the approach to allowing the private sector into the parks will be a gradual one. The County itself is maintaining all the advertising rights at the sites and will not entertain naming rights at the time. This is somewhat in contrast to the August 2007 Oglebay Foundation study on potential revenue options in the parks, including the pursuit of “non-traditional funding sources such as advertising, corporate sponsors, and other potential individual donors…”
Another complicating factor, in the case of the North Park Boathouse, is that the lake is scheduled for a major dredging operation to remove silt and sand. This project is slated to be completed in 2011. The RFP notes that “there will likely be some disruption of lake usage in and around the Boathouse during sediment removal operations” and the extent of that disruption is “not known at this time”. Hopefully such uncertainty will not drive away potential bidders.
