Looking to maintain public and private funding for park lands in a time of deep government revenue shortfalls and budget cuts, the nonprofit Friends of Westchester County Parks will attempt to put dollar values on the impacts county parks have on the economy in a consultant”™s study to be completed this year.
The $70,000 study by PROS Consulting L.L.C., a management consulting and planning firm based in Indianapolis, Ind., will be wholly funded by the nonprofit group. The study also will examine how businesses weigh parks in their decisions to relocate to or stay in Westchester.
“When we talk about bringing businesses to Westchester County, when we talk about retaining businesses in Westchester, we talk about the quality of life,” said Marsha Gordon, CEO of The Business Council of Westchester, speaking at a recent press conference in Yonkers hosted by the parks fundraising group. The county parks system vitally contributes to that quality of life, she said.
The study announcement was made on a sweltering day at Tibbetts Brook Park, an 81-year-old county park in Yonkers whose pool reopened as a water park last year after $9.25 million in renovations and facilities improvements.
“There”™s actually a return on investment that the county makes and private companies make in the park system,” said Joseph Stout, executive director of Friends of Westchester County Parks (FWCP) and former county parks commissioner. With actual dollar figures calculated by the study consultant, parks supporters can show “why a taxpayer, why a private investor wants to make that investment.”
“With park budgets across the nation shrinking, the time is right for us to evaluate the economic impact and value of our parks,” said Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson, chairwoman of the FWCP board of trustees and a partner at Thompson & Bender L.L.C., the public relations, advertising and marketing agency in Briarcliff Manor. “The study should provide extremely valuable data as future budgets for the county”™s parks are formulated.”
Consultants will study the various recreational offerings at parks operated by the county Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation. Findings and data from recent separate county-funded studies of the department”™s County Center in White Plains and Playland in Rye will be consolidated in the PROS study to provide a comprehensive report on the department”™s overall system.
Stout said the consultant”™s final report is due by Nov. 15. It will include:
- Values of county-managed open space and parks determined by collecting, processing and analyzing relevant data. The parks department oversees about 18,000 acres of parkland and recreational space.
- Cost valuations for government services ”“ such as roads, sanitation, utility distribution, waste management and security ”“ if park lands were to be developed.
- Estimates of visitor expenditures for county parks and programs, conservation areas, open space and active facilities.
- Estimates of the economic benefits or detriments of the park system in terms of avoided health-care costs.
- Cost savings related to the environmental benefits of water, air and storm-water controls.
- The impact of the parks on the decision-making process for businesses to relocate or remain in Westchester.
Founded in 1995 to serve the park, recreation and leisure industry, PROS Consulting has done planning studies for state park systems in Arizona and Kentucky, Sarasota County Parks and Recreation in Florida and Genessee County Parks in Michigan.
