Month: April 2016

From left, Conrad, Boyd, Morgan, Spinosa

Some Memphis City Council members said they did not meet behind closed doors to form the March resolution that gave the Memphis Zoo control of much of the Overton Park Greensward, as was laid out in a lawsuit filed this week.

The Greensward resolution appeared suddenly Tuesday morning on the March 1 agenda for the city council’s regular meeting that day. It had 10 sponsors, though it had never been formally discussed in front of the public. The resolution was placed on the calendar for the council’s executive session that afternoon but the council sent it on to the full council meeting without any discussion.

The council barely discussed the matter during its regular meeting that evening, either. Though, council member Patrice Robinson asked the city council’s attorney Allan Wade to briefly explain the resolution to a full house of interested citizens at Memphis City Hall.

Dozens of citizens took to the microphone, imploring council members to postpone the vote on the matter. They didn’t. The council approved the resolution with a vote of 11-1, with Martavius Jones filing the only vote against it.

The law suit was filed in Chancery Court Tuesday and says that the council and Wade violated the state’s Open Meetings Act while developing the resolution and garnering votes for it.

It states that “on for before March 1, 2016, the members of the city council directly and/or through city council [Attorney] Allan Wade with input from [the Memphis Zoological Society] held discussions and deliberations outside of public view and without public notice on the Greensward controversy and developed a plan and resolution for action to be taken on the Greensward controversy by the Memphis City Council.”

Read more about the suit from our Tuesday story.

“I think [the lawsuit] is bogus,” said council member Kemp Conrad. “I would expect attorneys to be accurate when they file things like that. But they, for one, said I was one of the sponsors, which isn’t even true.

“When something like that is inaccurate on something as serious as a lawsuit, it causes me to question the whole thing. I’m surprised that a firm like that would have such a shoddy workmanship.”

Council member Worth Morgan said the council had a closed-door, attorney/client meeting with Wade when the Memphis Zoo sued the city in January, hoping to win a declaratory judgment for control of the Greensward. Though, Morgan said he had no yet read the new new lawsuit and would not comment on it until he had spoken with Wade.

Council member Phillip Spinosa also refused to comment on the suit until after speaking with Wade.

Council member Berlin Boyd said he thought everything regarding the Greensward resolution “was done ethically and above board.” He said “I’m in kind of shock and awe” about citizens’ passion about the issue, and hoped that some of that energy could be spent on larger city issues like poverty, blight, crime, and creating jobs.

Boyd was told that many in Memphis feel the similar “shock and awe” that the council passed the resolution without much public input and without much prior notice. Here’s what he said:

“It’s not necessarily…you have to understand two-fold. We have information as it pertains to…you have to understand, this body created [Overton Park Conservancy]. This body voted to put the Overton Park Conservancy in place.

“Therefore, now for us to have the…we’re dealing with other issues in this city, possible budget issues, how we’re going to have a balanced budget and now to deal with the concerns of an economic catalyst, and engine, which generates over $90 million to our local economy, parking on the Greensward 60 days out of the year, I think it’s ridiculous.

“Therefore, it’s one of those things where the zoo has always in my knowledge and my research, had in their overall plan that part of the Greensward, was assigned to the zoo. They’re coming back, OPC came back, and questioned it, whether or not that was actual, legal document. So, as far as I know, the city council has the right to rename, reassign parks across the city of Memphis.

“I think everything was done ethically and above board. Everyone has an opinion on it as to the way the general public sees it but in documents that I’ve read an researched, the zoo has always had the autonomy and the authority to have that particular space.”

Overton Park Conservancy

This drawing shows a re-imagined, more pedestrian friendly intersection of Poplar and Cooper.

The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) has released its parking and traffic study, which includes suggestions like creating a parking app for smartphones, adding more parking along North Parkway, and, perhaps a $7.8 million parking garage at Prentiss Place.

The months-long study was conducted by Looney Ricks Kiss, Alta Planning + Design, and Kimley-Horn and Associates. The groups met with park stakeholders and also sought input from the public at two meetings. All of the work has culminated in a set of recommendations for improvements to the park, which would come in three phases.

“This report brings together the ideas of Overton Park’s cultural institutions and its users, along with a thorough assessment of how to gradually eliminate the conflict between park use and demand for parking,” reads an OPC statements on its website.

Recommendations in the first phase are considered “low-hanging fruit,” solutions that are considered easier and cheaper to execute. These would be completed in 2016 and include creating 350 new parking spaces by reconfiguring roadways on North Parkway (for 200 spaces) and Galloway (100 spots) and reconfiguring the Memphis Zoo’s existing surface lot (for 50 new spaces).

Phase 1 recommendations also suggest numerous improvements to make the park more accessible by cyclists and pedestrians. The study recommends better communications about parking with park visitors through the web and, perhaps, on an Overton Park smartphone app.

Also, the study suggests creating opportunities for public transit through the park or, maybe, a circulator program with buses or trams running to multiple spots throughout the park.

Another recommendation would mandate that any park stakeholder, like the Memphis Zoo or the Brooks Museum of Art, that plans an expansion to also submit a plan for additional parking. The zoo has faced much criticism on this point. Zoo leaders have said that its new Zambezi River Hippo Camp will bring 15 percent more visitors to the zoo. However, leaders did not plan for more parking for those extra visitors.

Implementation on the second phase of recommendations would begin in 2017 and would add 450 new spots with a further reconfiguration of the zoo lot and more surface lots in the park. A vendor would be chosen to implement the study’s plan for a circulator route through the zoo. Also, $750,000 worth of design work would begin on new parking garage that would be built on the existing surface lot on Prentiss Place.

The garage would only be built if needed, according to the study. If it is, construction would get underway in 2018. The facility would house 300 additional spaces at a cost of $7.8 million. 

Exhibits included in the study show suggestions for up to five proposed new parking garages. The Prentiss Place garage is one but others could be built inside the zoo’s existing footprint and another across North Parkway. Another idea for a main garage would be built atop a portion of the zoo’s existing surface lot.

Overton Park Conservancy

An overall map shows places for additional parking.