GIE 2005: PLANET Continues Support of Renaissance Park

The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) announced during a press conference at the Green Industry Expo in Orlando, Fla., that they will continue to support the City of New York’s efforts to build Renaissance Park, a memorial park honoring the heroes of 9/11.

The association originally planned to build the park during 2004; however, after still not receiving plan approval in 2005, PLANET representatives made the decision to scale back their role in supporting the city’s efforts to build the park. “PLANET will still contribute to and support the building of Renaissance Park, but we will not lead the project,” explains PLANET President Dan Foley. “The reasons for this are the continued delays due to poor city response, and the fact that we realized that the only people that can get a park approved and built in New York are those folks from New York.”

PLANET’s original offer to design and build the park for the city was a new concept to the Board of Directors of PLANET and to everyone in the city government, points out Jim Martin, PLANET chairman of the Renaissance Park project. “PLANET began this process more than three years ago in 2002 when we held our Renaissance Park design charrette in Chicago,” explains Martin, who has been working as the PLANET liaison to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

The design charrette consisted of approximately 30 PLANET (then Associated Landscape Contractors of America – ALCA) members who are also landscape architects and designers. After creating a design for the site, members of the project team worked for 18 months to revise the plans to meet the demanding requirements of many New York City agencies. By the end of 2003, when it appeared that the final design obstacles had been overcome, ALCA signed an agreement to design and build Renaissance Park by Dec. 31, 2004.

By July of 2004, the plans were presented to the final approval authority – the New York City Arts Commission. The plans were not approved and PLANET was requested to work with a recommended New York City sculptor on revising the water feature and pavement design. In January of this year, when PLANET received the preliminary designs from the sculptor, they found the proposed design no longer reflected the original plan prepared by PLANET members; it was estimated to be significantly more costly to build; and would have required a completely new plan review and approval process that had already taken two years.

By March of this year, after the agreement between PLANET and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation had expired, in order to facilitate the building of the park and to alleviate concerns on all sides, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation decided to move forward and build the project. Prior to ALCA’s interest in designing and building Renaissance Park, the Department of Parks & Recreation had received community support and preliminary approval for a simplified park design that will now be built under the approval and supervision of their representatives.

“Due to a family concern on Sept. 11, I feel a strong connection to this park,” Martin says. “This was the location where police officers and firefighters staged the initial rescue and then recovery from the World Trade Center. This was also the site that was the furthest south that the general public could venture. They hung letters, ribbons and signs along the fence that bordered this half-acre. I truly feel that this is a great location for a park that we can all be proud of and that this is a wonderful way for PLANET members to honor the many heroes of 9/11.”

For more information about Renaissance Park, call 800/395-2522 or visit www.landcarenetwork.org.

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