City Park Announces Transition to a Nonprofit Operator Model

NEW ORLEANS – A year and half after New Orleans City Park CEO Cara Lambright began her tenure, the 170-year-old park has announced big changes to the way it will be managed and operated.

The City Park Improvement Association announced this week that it voted to approve a long-term agreement with a newly formed nonprofit, called the City Park Conservancy, that will “follow a governance model used nationwide to streamline management, operations, programming, membership and fundraising for the betterment of City Park.”

The association said the creation of City Park Conservancy follows a model used successfully by Central Park in New York City, Millennial Park in Chicago and Boston Commons, among others.

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Unlike many parks that receive the majority of their revenue from a general fund or taxes, City Park receives only a small portion of its operating budget — about 15% — from the city and state. The rest of its funding is self-generated by a variety of sources, including the Celebration in the Oaks event, other event rentals and permanent attractions like the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, Storyland and City Putt.

Park leaders said that its current structure limits its ability to fundraise or to qualify for certain government grant programs, such as the recent Covid-related Payroll Protection Plan. And the park relies on other organizations, such as the Botanical Garden Foundation and Friends of City Park, to fundraise on its behalf.

The new plan is designed to be more efficient.

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“This is an exciting next step in the park’s journey and critical to improving the park and its forthcoming new master plan, which will be grounded in public input and focused on serving the greater good,” said Lambright. “We are thrilled to put the park on par with the best in the world with this streamlined structure and proven model for resourcing greenspaces, programming and the community.” 

The plan is for City Park Conservancy to operate according to a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Improvement Association to operate and manage the park. Officials said the agreement ensures transparency and accountability via a publicly informed master plan, a strategic plan and an annual operating budget. 

“The City Park Improvement Association and its commissioners have made huge strides over the years in creating a world-class park, and this transition has been a long-contemplated improvement to better serve park users and the community,” said David Waller, CPIA chairman. “We are delighted that the Conservancy will help us improve our care for this park and the people it serves.”

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Park officials said the process of formulating the cooperative endeavor agreement involved the participation of four different law firms and an auditing firm. The governance and oversight role of the City Park Improvement Association remains the same.

State lawmakers approved the idea of contracting management and operations of the park to a nonprofit in 1989. Officials said the recent impacts of the pandemic and Hurricane Ida “highlighted the pressures on the Park’s financial resources and the need for diversified funding sources.” In addition, Lambright has experience in fundraising and the conservancy model and believed it “was time to move to this nationally recognized best practice model of park management.” In her previous role as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Memorial Park Conservancy in Houston, Lambright is credited with quadrupling the park’s annual operating budget, and raising over $200 million for capital improvements. 

Officials said the upcoming master plan for City Park, expected to begin in 2023, will be “rooted in addressing community needs, deepening its historical and cultural context, improving environmental resiliency and infrastructure, and creating a dynamic and enduring sense of place for the region.”

“The most important thing for City Park over the next few years is to have authentic dialogue with the community,” Lambright told Biz New Orleans. “We want to know why you love the park. Why you use the park. We even want to hear from those who don’t visit the park.  We are out to ensure that City Park is a ‘park for the people’ and we can’t do it without their input.”

Friends of City Park, a nonprofit organization that has supported the Park since 1979, has approved an agreement to merge with City Park Conservancy. This move will consolidate fundraising, membership and programming. 

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