Fundraising will not be a focus of the Oct. 27 event — called “Howdy to the
Horse Farm” — but Durel said there will likely be a small fundraising component,
perhaps T-shirts sales and donation jars.
“I want people who can’t give the thousands of dollars to still have
ownership in that property,” he said
City-parish government purchased the Horse Farm with public dollars, but the
park is set to be developed with private donations raised through the Community
Foundation of Acadiana, a philanthropy group.
The goal of the fundraiser next month is to raise $500,000 to launch a
campaign that Durel said will need to raise upward of $20 million to develop the
park and set up an endowment to pay for upkeep in future years.
Still under discussion is who will oversee the creation and long-term
management of the park.
Any arrangement for the development of the publicly owned property will need
the approval of the City-Parish Council.
Durel has said he envisions an appointed oversight board separate from
city-parish government and that the Community Foundation of Acadiana will likely
play a key role in appointing that board.
The idea of creating a central park at the Horse Farm had its origins about
seven years ago, when former ULL President Ray Authement proposed exchanging
some of the property with commercial developers for land closer to the
university’s main campus.
That plan was abandoned in the face of community opposition, but the debate
over the property helped spawn the idea of using the undeveloped 100-acre tract
for a park.
City-parish government, ULL and the Community Foundation of Acadiana
announced in 2009 that an anonymous donor was considering buying the property
from ULL and allowing it to become a public park.
The donor backed out, but Durel then pushed a plan to have city-parish
government purchase property.
The deal, approved by the council in July, called for city-parish government
to pay ULL $5.8 million and trade the university an 8-acre city park that is
adjacent to the school’s main campus.
The combine value of the cash payment and the property is $6.6 million.
There are no firm plans for what the new park might look like, but the deal
with ULL stipulated that the property be developed as a “passive” park —
gardens, walking paths and picnic areas rather than tennis courts and sports
fields.
For more information on the fundraiser, visit
http://cfacadiana.org/durel.