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Chouteau Lake & Greenway

St. Louis, MO

The Chouteau Lake & Greenway Master Plan, led by McCormack Baron Salazar, outlines a series of public infrastructure improvements in the central corridor of the St. Louis region.  The improvements will restore a portion of the pre-industrial watershed system and provide a link between the Gateway Arch at the downtown St. Louis riverfront and Forest Park, with connections south to Tower Grove Park and north to Fairgrounds Park.

The project links environmental restoration with economic development and will serve as a regional and national model for sustainable, watershed-based planning and low-impact design in a central, urban core.  The Chouteau Lake & Greenway water system will be fed by storm water and naturally occurring ground water, and will directly connect with the Mississippi River without compromising flood control. The reclaimed water system will greatly reduce storm water runoff in the corridor and will convert blighted, industrial sites with extensive impervious surfaces into wetlands and green space, easing the strain on the local sewer system and placing cleaner water into the Mississippi.

The Chouteau Lake & Greenway Master Plan is the central corridor component of the St. Louis regional greenways system. By connecting these parks through a system of urban lakes, wetlands, and trails, the Chouteau Lake & Greenway will stimulate the private development of adjacent areas. These areas already contain a high concentration of the region’s leading academic institutions and corporations engaged in high technology industries such as life/plant sciences, financial services and information technology.  The addition of Chouteau Lake & Greenway will provide a foundation for a public-private partnership to bring new and expanded regional opportunities for high technology development over the next two decades on what are presently underdeveloped sites.

In statistical terms, Chouteau Lake & Greenway will comprise 195 acres of new public green space and roughly eight miles of street improvements. The public infrastructure is projected to stimulate more than $7 billion in direct private investment within a 1,950-acre area. Over a 25-year period, tens of thousands of jobs will be created in the corridor, 8,000 – 10,000 new or renovated housing units in adjoining neighborhoods would be developed and remaining blighting influences in the central corridor will be removed.