The Gateway Arch Park Foundation announced that it has started exploring what it would take for East St. Louis’ Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park and the surrounding area to become part of Gateway Arch National Park, according to St. Louis Public Radio. The land identified for the expansion is on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River and was part of the original vision for the national park.
East St. Louis has already acquired roughly 50 acres of developable land along the riverfront to the north and south of the park, according to St. Clair County property records. East St. Louis has also secured grant funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the land, City Manager Robert Betts told St. Louis Public Radio.
“We believe that this is the engine that could really be the catalyst to drive economic development in the East St. Louis downtown corridor as a whole,” Betts said. “So, we're excited about the possibilities of what lies ahead.”
The first steps will focus on evaluating the land, considering any environmental concerns and how much investment would be needed to make the idea a reality. Bringing the expansion to fruition would likely take years, or even decades, according to Ryan McClure, executive director of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation.
“There's going to be a lot of steps, and it's going to take a lot of time,” McClure said. “It's definitely not going to happen overnight. The important thing is that we're taking all those steps at the right time and with diligence. I feel very confident.”
Expanding Gateway Arch National Park into Illinois was always part of the park’s vision. Congress even funded an expansion of the park into Illinois in the early 1990s, though it never amounted to any concrete development.
McClure notes that the expansion’s design is still up in the air, though there are plans to work with architectural firm PGAV to create a vision, which could include determining if there would need to be transportation across the Mississippi River.
The next steps would involve estimating the project’s cost and approaching private donors to supplement public funding.
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