Brandon Dill
The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) has come up with its half of the funds needed for the design phase of a project that will ultimately end parking on the park’s Greensward.
The OPC board voted recently to give the city $250,000 to pay for consultants to design a re-configured parking lot for the Memphis Zoo. OPC and the zoo agreed to pay the costs in a deal that would give the zoo the new parking spots and end Greensward parking.
Designers with Memphis-based Powers Hill Design will begin the design phase in April. That phase will include “a robust public engagement process,” according to a statement from OPC. When engineers will then finish their work in the space “likely this fall, we will have cost estimates for the construction and implementation phase. At that time, a funding plan for completion of the project will be finalized.”
“We are confident that the Powers Hill team will be able to deliver a solution that is practical, implementable, and sensitive to the importance of the park and the zoo to Memphians and visitors,” OPC said. “The community has already put in significant work to shape this plan through the parking and traffic study conducted last year.
The collaborative efforts that helped us reach this consensus solution will continue to be valuable as we bring the project to fruition.”
