Public Comments Sought on Final Parking Plan for Overton Park Greensward
UPDATE:
At a public meeting on February 21, 2018, the latest version of a plan to accommodate an expanded parking lot for the Memphis Zoo at Overton Park was revealed. The plan would take some 2.4 acres of land along the eastern edge of the greensward of the George Kessler-designed park and includes a three-lane perimeter road around the new parking lot to accommodate bus and automobile circulation separately (pickups and arrivals). During the most recent meeting, the audience was restricted to posing questions on notecards. In a response to one such question, a representative of the city administration indicated that a conservation easement to protect the remaining greensward might be considered, and reiterated the commitment that parking on the greensward would not be allowed after the reconfigured lot is built.
The parking plan, by Powers Hill Design, adds a total of 415 parking spaces and represents the latest attempt to resolve a long-running dispute about overflow Zoo parking on the greensward. The plan was developed in response to requirements set forth in a 2016 resolution by the Memphis City Council. Following the one-week public comment period, which ends on Wednesday, February 28, 2018, Mayor Jim Strickland will make a final decision, with construction possibly beginning soon thereafter.
Comments from the public can be e-mailed to the City of Memphis via this link.
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This article was originally published on July 5, 2017:
The fate of the Overton Park Greensward has long been in flux. As TCLF has previously reported, visitors to the adjacent Memphis Zoo are frequently directed by Zoo personnel to park their vehicles on the lawn, diminishing its health, compromising its longevity, and hurting its value as public parkland. But fans of the greensward – an iconic feature in the George Kessler-designed park that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 – have some positive news to report.
On June 20, 2017, the Memphis City Council accepted funding from the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) and the Memphis Zoological Society, approving an initial contribution of $250,000 each to execute a contract with Powers Hill Design for the development of construction plans for the zoo’s parking improvement project – one that will, ostensibly, have minimal impact on the Overton Park Greensward, instead maintaining the site for its intended purpose – open space for the community.
The project would undertake improvements, including renovations of the zoo’s current parking area to accommodate more vehicles by expanding slightly into the northernwestern edge of the greensward, and by providing an accompanying buffer to ensure that rogue cars no longer park directly on the recreational lawn.
This was made possible by a remarkable two-month fundraising campaign by the OPC, in which they successfully raised the emergency $1 million needed for the project to move forward. Back in April, the City Council had halted acceptance of the conservancy’s already-raised $250,000 for initiation of the design phase, stating that the OPC needed to raise the full $1 million as a guarantee that they would deliver their share of the costs over the course of the project.
Approximately 90 percent of donations to the OPC over the intervening months came from within Memphis, reiterating the importance of the park to its own community. The other ten percent came from across the country, including residents of nearly every state and the District of Columbia – an impressive representation that emphasizes the significance of the parkland to all citizens. The OPC reports that more than half of the donations received were from people who had never given to the conservancy before, and that the most popular giving level was $100, further proof of an impactful grassroots campaign.
The City Council requires that both the zoo and the conservancy will be equally responsible for construction costs going forward, at a current estimation of $1.5 million each. Yet concerned citizens maintain that the OPC should not be responsible for equal funding to the zoo, which reportedly has a budget nineteen times the size of the conservancy’s. Regardless, with its recent campaign the OPC has proved that it has the support of the community locally and further afield, and the ability to raise the funds as needed.
How You Can Help
The Overton Park Conservancy has committed the initial $1 million required for the project to move forward. Total costs for the project, including design, construction, and maintenance will, however, likely reach over $3 million (necessitating a $1.5 million contribution from the OPC). You can contribute to the continuing fundraising campaign here: www.overtonpark.org/greensward