Tag: Overton Park Conservancy

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Suggestions Vary on Filling Empty Space at Overton Park

CREDIT: Overton Park Conservancy

Overton Park Conservancy

Peaceful. Busy. Commercial spaces. No commercial spaces. Build recreational areas. Build nothing.

Votes and suggestions are in for the best ways to develop a 13-acre piece of property on the east side of Overton Park. The space has been home to a City of Memphis general services facility for decades. But it’s moving out, leaving a blank canvas that the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) is now calling Zone 1.

More than 1,000 of you gave us your thoughtful feedback when we asked about the future of the east side of the park….

Posted by Overton Park on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Suggestions Vary on Filling Empty Space at Overton Park

It will, ultimately, be up to OPC to decide how to fill the space. But the organization asked community members in November what they want to see in the space. More than 1,000 voiced their opinions, and those opinions are varied.

A Thursday blog post from OPC showed some high-level opinions. Another post, promised later, will get into the nitty-gritty of what amenities community members would like to see in the space.

Overton Park Conservancy

”Recreational areas e.g. volleyball courts, bocce courts, horseshoe pits, etc. for bring your own equipment,” reads one opinion OPC shared Thursday. “Nice restrooms. Unique playground. Maybe use greenhouse to grow and sell plants and flowers. Gift shop/restaurant/snack bar would be nice.”

Another resident opined, though, that the site should not be just for “developing amenities.”

Overton Park Conservancy

“Memphis needs a leader to bring the vision of an ecologically sustainable city to fruition,” reads the opinion. “Specifically, the park should focus development of this site on teaching and promoting the idea of ecosystem services, which is a scientific field detailing how urban forests can promote healthier people, improve safety, lower infrastructure costs, and add environmentally friendly jobs to our economy.”

Another set of opinions urged OPC leaders to “keep things quiet and peaceful” and, then, to “keep it busy. As many community engagement programs as possible. The more use it gets, the better its future is.”

Overton Park Conservancy

OPC said its design and business planning teams are working to incorporate all the ideas into “some exciting options.” However, the group admits implementing changes in the space will require “a source of revenue that it does not currently have.”

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We Recommend We Recommend

Dogs on Parade: Mardi Growl at Overton Park Saturday

CREDIT: Melissa Mcmasters

Overton Park Conservancy and one of its partners, Hollywood Feed, hosts its inaugural Mardi Growl event this Saturday, featuring a Mardi Gras-themed dog costume contest, a crawfish boil with Local Gastropub, and a dog parade through the woods.

Melissa McMasters, director of communications for Overton Park, says the event was inspired in part by the conservancy’s Halloween dog costume event in October and that she hopes to see creative costumes like she saw at that event, such as two “hot dogs” in a hot dog cart accompanied by humans dressed up as ketchup and mustard bottles.

“The costume contests always seem to attract a lot of extremely creative people,” says McMasters. “So they’re really fun.”

Melissa Mcmasters

The canine krewe’s bacchus ball heads to Overton Park for Mardi Growl.

The conservancy will bring on three celebrity judges (Markova Reed, former WREG anchor; David Scott of Dave’s Bagels; and Lucy Furr, graphic designer for Hollywood Feed) to determine the winners, who will receive prize packs from Hollywood Feed and a gift card from Second Line.

McMasters says that the members of the park are looking forward to thanking Hollywood Feed, who sponsored the construction of Overton Bark in 2012, and the dog lovers who enjoy the dog play area every day.

“We really want to engage the community that uses Overton Bark and give them something fun and a thank you for being such great supporters — and also to bring in some new folks who may not have visited before,” says McMasters. “And it’s also a great opportunity for us to work with Hollywood Feed. We always enjoy hanging out with them.”

Mardi Growl, The Greensward at Overton Park, Saturday, March 7th, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., free.

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News News Blog

Zoo Lot Construction to Begin Monday

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

Brandon Dill

It’s the beginning of the end for parking on the Overton Park Greensward.

Construction is slated to begin Monday on a project that will reconfigure the Memphis Zoo parking lot, adding an additional 415 parking spaces. Those spaces are expected to end the decades-long practice of parking cars on the Greensward, the grassy field adjacent to the zoo’s parking lot.

The first phase of the project will focus on the Prentiss Place parking lot, on the northwest side of the zoo. Work there will take about three months, and during that time, the lot will be completely closed. Once complete, the new Prentiss Place lot will have gained 108 parking spaces.

Prentiss Place is expected to stay open as a two-way street for most of those three months, though some closures are expected to complete pedestrian crossings and on-street parking.

savethegreensward.org

Construction crews will then begin work on the main zoo lot, just south of the zoo entrance. That work is slated to start this fall and winter, an optimum time to transplant many trees, which officials have said is necessary to the project.

During it all, the zoo’s North Parkway entrance will be staffed and open on busy days when overflow parking is expected. This will give access to the zoo from the nearly 200 on-street parking spots on North Parkway.
[pullquote-1] “By executing on this project, we’ll fulfill [Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s] promise to put 30-plus years of controversy behind us by permanently ending parking on the Greensward, as well as accommodating the growth of one of the nation’s top zoos,” Doug McGowen, the city’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “We will surely have some growing pains as we work through the construction, but we’re committed to strong communication to make sure park visitors, zoo patrons, and neighborhood residents know what to expect.”

New zoo president and CEO Jim Dean said he was “very happy” to have the “strong” support of the Overton Park Conservancy, Overton Park Alliance, and the city of Memphis.

“The Memphis Zoo has been a part of Overton Park since 1906,” Dean said. “We have grown quite a bit since then and have faced some challenges.

The hotly contested battle for the Greensward

“We’re happy this resolution will, once complete, end parking on the Greensward. We are also excited about strengthening and growing our partnership with the Overton Park Conservancy and the Overton Park Alliance to continue to make Overton Park one of the best parks in the country.”

Tina Sullivan, executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy, said community support made the project possible and “is a testament to Memphis’ love for Overton Park.”

“We look forward to the day very soon when park visitors can look from the Doughboy statue to Rainbow Lake across a beautiful Greensward that is free of cars,” Sullivan said.

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News News Blog

Brooks Board Considers Move From Overton Park

CREDIT: Facebook - Brooks Museum of Art

Facebook – Brooks Museum of Art

The Brooks Museum of Art could move from its Overton Park location after the museum’s board of directors recently voted recently to add relocation to a list of its future facility needs.

The announcement came late Tuesday via email in a note to Brooks members. The museum has been in Overton Park since 1916 and is home to “Tennessee’s oldest and largest major collection of world art,” reads the statement, and that “collection continues to grow.”

“However, this growth is revealing some concerning limitations about our current physical plant, which we must address,” said the museum’s executive director Emily Ballew Neff. “Visibility and accessibility are important to us, and we also need to think about how we can continue to attract important art collections to the Brooks. We do that by showing that we are a safe, secure, and worthy place to steward those legacies. We are exploring every possible option to achieve that goal.”

As Brooks officials consider the next move for the museum, they will work closely with stakeholders in Overton Park, the Overton Park Conservancy, and the Memphis City Council, reads the statement.

“The Brooks Museum’s ultimate responsibility is to our collection and the 5,000 years of art that it represents; our supportive members and lovers of art everywhere; and the people of Memphis,” said board president Deborah Craddock. “If and when we elect to relocate, we will do everything in our power to ensure that our current museum facilities enjoy a productive and positive next use that benefits Overton Park and the entire community.”

Here is Neff’s letter:
Dear friends,

Memphis is a vibrant community of people who make, celebrate, love, and learn from art. And for over 100 years, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art has played a central role in nurturing and developing the cultural life of the city we all call home. Our centennial milestone has afforded us a unique opportunity to look back on our achievements, assess the current status of our operations, and contemplate our future.

The Brooks Museum is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. Every year, we welcome tens of thousands of patrons from across the country and the world to experience the illuminating and affirming power of art. Recent improvements to our museum facilities have allowed us to expand exhibition opportunities and educational programs in a way that reach more people from more parts of our metropolitan area than ever, especially such Brooks Outside projects as the RedBall Project, Intrude, the giant, illuminated bunnies that adorned our plaza, and Tape Art; and the free school tours we offer to all Shelby County Schools.

Our collection, which includes works from many continents and more than five millennia, also continues to grow. We are particularly excited about our commitments over the past few decades to African American artists and artists of the African diaspora. Between 2010 and 2016, 92 percent of the artworks we acquired were by African American artists and we have reinstalled or are in the process of reinstalling our galleries of African Art and the Day Foundation Collection of Antiquities.

Every great city deserves a great art museum – but like all art museums, the Brooks is more than a building. Reimagining exactly what an art museum should be in Memphis in the 21st century – and ensuring that we matter to every Memphian – are exciting challenges that we are eager to face.

As part of that work, the Brooks’ Board of Directors recently passed a resolution that adds the option of relocation, outside Overton Park, to our current list of building options for expansion.

The Brooks Museum’s ultimate responsibility is to our collection and the 5,000 years of art that it represents; our supportive members and lovers of art everywhere; and the people of Memphis. Visibility and accessibility are important to us, and we also need to think about how we can continue to attract important art collections to the Brooks, by showing that we are a safe, secure, and worthy place to steward those legacies.

We will work closely with our partners in Overton Park, the Overton Park Conservancy, Mayor Jim Strickland, and the Memphis City Council as we move forward with our decision-making. If and when we elect to relocate, we will do everything in our power to ensure that our current museum facilities enjoy a productive and positive next use that benefits Overton Park and the entire community.

As we enter our second century of service as the city’s museum, we look forward to doing everything we can to be the best possible institution for all Memphians. We are evaluating some interesting possibilities about how best to achieve that goal, and we look forward to keeping you apprised of our progress as we continue this important work.

Should you have any questions, I hope you will let us know.

Sincerely,

Emily Ballew Neff, Ph.D., Executive Director
Deborah Craddock, Board President

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Opinion Viewpoint

A Compromised Greensward “Solution”

Mary Wilder’s June 15th Viewpoint column describes a great success story. Wilder lauds the million dollars recently raised by the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) and says this money will “end parking on the Greensward forever.” The truth is buried a few paragraphs later: “This will result in the loss of some park land on the northern edge of the Greensward … ” This attempt to reinvent reality is very troubling to me and should be to anyone else who cares about preserving public land.

Wilder uses the words “compromise” and “solution” to justify her opinion that it’s fine to pave one-quarter of the Greensward and give it to the Memphis Zoo. According to the current “compromise” map on the OPC’s website, the northern three acres of the historic Overton Park Greensward would be paved and lost forever. There is no compromise here. This is nothing but a naked land grab by zoo leaders. Amazingly, zoo leaders have conned the public into paying half the cost of destroying our own parkland.

Wilder claims to speak for 19 civic groups known as the Overton Park Alliance. I expect many members of those groups would be shocked to realize they have been used to justify the destruction of one-quarter of the Greensward. How did this happen? Why are these groups so eager to surrender our city’s free open space to benefit corporate interests?

I only claim to speak for myself. I have been involved in more than a few land protection campaigns over the past four decades. In 1986, I was one of the founders of Save Shelby Farms Forest and helped write the legislation that created the Lucius Burch State Natural Area. I was one of the first board members of the Wolf River Conservancy (WRC) and helped establish the Ghost River canoe trail in 1989. In 1997, I became the first executive director of the WRC and helped protect thousands of acres of land along the Wolf including the Ghost River State Natural Area.

In 2008, I helped revive the Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP) volunteer group that saved Overton Park from being destroyed by Interstate 40 in 1971. I supported the three-year-long CPOP campaign that created the Old Forest State Natural Area with unanimous approval from the Tennessee state legislature in 2010. Those 126 acres remain the only legally protected acres in the 342-acre Overton Park, which is why CPOP began their ongoing “Save the Greensward” campaign in 2014.

All of this is to say that I have witnessed and used a variety of tactics to protect green space for citizens to freely enjoy — including protests, letter-writing campaigns, lobbying for local and state legislation, and outright purchase and donation to state agencies. Before now, I have never seen a group of advocates come to the negotiating table in order to surrender to their aggressor. I have never seen a group of advocates willing to pay a million dollars to partly destroy the resource they ostensibly want to protect.

It is obvious that zoo leaders want as much of Overton Park as they can grab. In 1990, they fenced off more than 20 acres of old growth forest and destroyed four of those acres for the Teton Trek exhibit in 2008. Zoo leaders personally lobbied our city officials and Tennessee legislators to oppose CPOP’s campaign to create the Old Forest State Natural Area. And zoo leaders currently control public access to the northern three acres of the Greensward, due to the failure of OPC and city officials to defend this public land.

Those who favor giving up the Greensward to the zoo without a fight are a symptom of a bigger problem. They are part of a long tradition of political behavior in which cowardly but power-hungry people position themselves as leaders, then bow to threats and intimidation, then sandbag and deflate the efforts of others, then reframe the outcome as a necessary compromise and a success.

I believe the zoo can be driven off the Greensward if enough citizens demand it. Where zoo leaders park cars is their problem to solve — it is not the responsibility of citizens to provide funding or sacrifice parkland for a rich corporation that refuses to plan ahead. Zoo leaders claim to run a “world class” facility that is visited by a million people yearly. You cannot tell me those same people are mentally and financially incapable of devising ways to handle their traffic without paving parkland.

The Greensward fight is not over. Battle lines are now clearly drawn between those who think it’s fine to pave one-quarter of the Greensward and those who want to save it. I will continue to support CPOP and the citizens who remain committed to saving the entire Greensward, in the belief that it is priceless common ground that should be protected for everyone.

When the protests start again, which side of the zoo’s fence will you be on?

Larry J. Smith is a lawyer, environmentalist, and lifelong Memphian.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Off the Grass in Overton Park — Forever.

CREDIT: Overton Park Conservancy

Overton Park Conservancy

It’s time to move forward and end parking on the Overton Park Greensward — forever. It’s past time, actually, and the neighborhoods and groups that make up the Overton Park Alliance and thousands of other supporters of Overton Park want to see the Memphis City Council accept $1 million in funding from the zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy at its June 20th meeting and move this process forward.

Overton Park, established in 1901, is a 342-acre park in the heart of Memphis with more than 100 acres of rare old-growth urban forest. The park was catapulted into national significance in the 1970s, when it was saved by the U.S. Supreme Court from government plans to bisect it with Interstate 40, leading to permanent nationwide protection of park land from highway construction.

The park suffered from years of neglect after that, especially after the City Council abolished the Memphis Park Commission in 2000. The Memphis Zoo’s occasional use of the Greensward for overflow parking increased in frequency over the years. The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) was formed in 2011, funded in part by the city. The OPC has breathed new life into the park in a few short years. Overton Park is now safe, clean, and heavily used by diverse Memphians from all over the city. 

In early 2016, the Memphis Zoo removed two dozen trees from the Greensward and sued OPC, contending the zoo had rights to the entire Greensward. Mayor Strickland arranged for the zoo and OPC to engage in mediation. While the mediation was pending, large protest gatherings on the Greensward demonstrated the public’s strong desire to end parking in that space. Nevertheless, the council rushed through a surprise resolution giving most of the Greensward to the zoo and then moved toward passing an ordinance making the change permanent.

When the mediation ended in June 2016 with no agreement, Mayor Strickland stepped in with a compromise solution that became the basis for an agreement between the zoo and OPC. The City Council largely confirmed the agreement in a resolution in July 2016. That resolution requires reconfiguration of the zoo’s parking lot, plus 415 additional parking spaces. This will result in the loss of some park land on the northern edge of the Greensward and will allow the zoo to continue parking on the Greensward until construction is complete. That resolution also requires OPC and the zoo to share the cost of the zoo’s parking solution equally, despite the fact that OPC manages a free park, generates little revenue, and is funded primarily by philanthropic and membership contributions — and that the zoo will keep all revenue from the new parking lot.

In 2016, the city established a steering committee to guide the project that includes representatives of the zoo, OPC, the Overton Park Alliance, the public, and various city departments. (The meetings of the committee are open to the public; a website [http://www.memphistn.gov/Government/ExecutiveDivision/OvertonParkParking.aspx] provides information on the process, including a timeline.) In February, the committee selected Powers-Hill Design (PHD) to design and lead the project.

In April, the council was asked by the steering committee to accept $250,000 from both the zoo and OPC to fund the project’s design. The zoo threatened to pull out of the process unless OPC agreed to contribute half of the entire cost of the project up front. The council voted in favor of the zoo and mandated that both the zoo and OPC demonstrate they had $1 million to contribute to the project by June 11th.

With the support of over 1,000 donors and contributors from 40 states and 28 Memphis zip codes, including large and small donors (and some generous zoo board members), OPC has met the enormous fund-raising burden placed on it by the council and raised the required $1 million in two short months.

It’s time for the council to accept this funding and let the city-appointed steering committee’s process to go forward. It’s time to quit throwing roadblocks in the way of this painstakingly crafted solution. The Overton Park Alliance and other park supporters remain committed to monitoring the design and construction of the zoo’s parking solution to achieve the best possible solution, not only for the Memphis Zoo, but for Overton Park as a whole.

Mary Wilder is a member of the Overton Park Alliance, which is comprised of the Free Parking Brigade, Humans of Overton Park, Memphis Heritage, Midtown Action Coalition, Midtown Memphis Development Corporation, Park Friends, Inc., Physicians for Urban Parks, Stop Hurting Overton Park (Facebook group), and 10 Midtown neighborhood associations.

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News News Blog

City’s Zoo Parking Plan Gets A ‘Nope, Nope, Nope’

The city’s concept for the Memphis Zoo’s expanded parking plan got a big thumbs down from park advocacy groups Thursday, reviews that can be summed up in three words: “Nope, nope, nope.”

Get Off Our Lawn filed an open records request for the proposal (so did the Memphis Flyer to no avail) and the group published it on Facebook Thursday.

Here’s the PDF of the plan:

[pdf-1]
“Approximately two acres of public parkland would be paved and converted to private use,” said the group’s Facebook post. “Nope, nope, nope.”

An equally stinging review of the plan was published by GOOL’s parent group, Citizens to Protect Overton Park (CPOP).

“We oppose this land grab,” read a Facebook post from CPOP. “There’s no good reason to sacrifice two acres of irreplaceable public parkland for a handful of private parking spaces.”

But the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) and the city of Memphis urged patience in the process and explained that the plan published Thursday was a concept, and is by no means final.

Here’s OPC’s statement in full:

“We wanted to briefly talk about the parking project document that’s making the rounds on social media this afternoon.

This draft represents the City engineer’s first revision to the plan that was proposed at the July 19 City Council meeting. No action is meant to be taken based on this concept, and it will likely go through multiple rounds of revisions before construction documents are created.

In both the original July 19 draft and this July 27 draft, the ridgeline of the proposed berm separating the Greensward from the Zoo parking lot remains in the same place.

In the July 27 version, some of the additional Zoo parking spaces have been distributed closer to that ridgeline. This was done to visualize one option for accommodating the Council amendment that called for all spaces to be 10’ x 20′.

After reviewing this draft with the city engineer last month, Overton Park Conservancy asked for some changes to the document. Out of concern for the health of mature magnolias on the Greensward, we asked that the spaces added around those trees be redistributed. We also discussed the appearance that the section of Overton Park Avenue adjacent to the park will be opened to vehicular traffic, and it’s our understanding that it will not be.

The city is preparing to issue a request for proposals for a design firm to create the plan that will actually be implemented. We expect to see the next round of revisions during that process, which will also solicit input from the public. We’re eager to begin that phase and work together to resolve this long-standing issue.”

Here’s the city of Memphis statement:

“A draft map of parking plans at Overton Park is circulating social media, but we want to make sure you have the context for it.

It’s important to note that this map, which was obtained in a public records request, is just a concept that will be subject to more revision before construction. We are preparing to start the process to hire a design firm that will create the final plan.

We’ll work to keep you informed in the coming months as we seek public input and as this plan is implemented. In fact, we were already planning a meeting internally next week to get the ball rolling on communications and outreach plans.

We owe you a timeline on implementation, and we’ll check back in when we have it.”

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News The Fly-By

Tina Sullivan Talks Trams in the Old Forest

As the final vote on Greensward parking approaches, park leaders said they’ll fight any plan to run shuttles through Overton Park’s Old Forest.

Running shuttles or trams through the Old Forest has emerged as, perhaps, one of the final sticking points on an agreement that would end parking on the Greensward.

Mayor Jim Strickland’s plan would put a surface lot on the site of what is now the city’s General Services area. Shuttles, buses, or trams would carry Memphis Zoo visitors from the lot to the zoo entrance on city streets.

Zoo officials have said the General Services lot won’t work unless they can run shuttles on Old Forest roads. However, state officials have said no motorized vehicles are allowed in its state natural area. — Toby Sells

Tina Sullivan

Flyer: Hasn’t the state already ruled against motorized vehicles in the Old Forest?

Tina Sullivan: I re-confirmed [last] week with a representative of [the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation] that they see no reason to consider re-opening those roads that have been closed for 30 years. Even if the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) weren’t opposed to it, TDEC would still be opposed to it.

So what is the play here?

As often as OPC has said we would never support vehicular traffic on those Old Forest roads, the zoo has said just as often that parking at General Services does not work for their visitors, unless they can run vehicles on those Old Forest roads.

If that is a solution that the zoo is going to continue to pursue, then they’d be setting themselves up for direct battle with OPC and, potentially, with the state. So, yes, they’d have to pursue it at the state level, in addition to pursuing it at the local level.

What can we expect with the council’s vote on Tuesday?

I think that the council — as much as anybody — would like to see this resolved as quickly as possible. I think that the mayor’s plan is the best chance we’ve seen so far in getting this matter resolved. He didn’t throw it together quickly. It was a result of some pretty comprehensive analysis. I can’t imagine that the council would come up with — in the next week and a half — a dramatically different set of solutions that would solve this problem. The quickest and easiest way to get this matter behind us is to adopt the mayor’s plan.

Why are the Old Forest roads important to park users?

Kids are learning to ride bikes [on the roads]. There are senior citizens that rent tricycles from the golf clubhouse and ride them on the protected roads. We have so many 5Ks on those Old Forest roads.

Those roads have a very clear place in that kind of recreation for people across the city. We want to make sure we aren’t introducing something completely disruptive [like trams].

So, if you can imagine 1,000 runners on a Saturday morning competing with trams moving back and forth through a significant part of the road, it’s just not a compatible use.

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News The Fly-By

Greensward: Protests, Parking Brigade, Spotify

CREDIT: Courtesy Get Off Our Lawn

Energy surrounding the Overton Park Greensward parking issue flashed in a peaceful (yet police-involved) protest last Saturday, but that energy grew largely on Facebook, which has become a major tool for grassroots efforts around the issue.

Planned originally as a “Greensward Play Date,” Saturday’s event eventually brought hundreds to throng around the dirt path the Memphis Zoo uses to park cars on the Greensward. But the play date turned into a formal protest as people began to lie down on the dirt path, refusing to let cars pass.

The Memphis Police Department sent officers to monitor the event. It ended as protestors, with the help of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, forged a compromise with the zoo to allow parking on only the top third of the Greensward.

Courtesy Get Off Our Lawn

A play date event on the Greensward last weekend turned into a protest.

• A few hundred yards from the Greensward, another protest — in which some people dressed as large, orange parking cones — was underway.

The Free Parking Brigade formed earlier this month after the Memphis City Council voted to give the zoo control of much of the Greensward. On peak zoo days, the brigade’s members encourage zoo visitors to park on city streets or, as was the case Saturday, in the empty parking lot of Snowden School.

Laura Lanier, one of the group’s founders, said some friends and “Facebook folks” formed the group to channel their anger and frustration over the council vote into something positive. The intention is to inform zoo-goers and to express those frustrations.

“It is to show the zoo and the council that we know exactly what they’re doing and that we’re watching,” Lanier said. “But we also are trying to point out that there is a viable alternative.”

• WREG lead anchor Richard Ransom took to Facebook Saturday, saying the “anti-parking folks are a bunch of well-to-do Midtowners with too much time on their hands.”

Ransom posted again later saying “I’m done with the zoo debate!” This came after his earlier Facebook post was barraged with negative replies that he said included “name-calling, profanity, and threats.”

“Richard’s comments were uncalled for and his statements are not a reflection of our collective beliefs at WREG,” according to Jessica Bellucci, a spokesman for WREG owner Tribune Media. “Station management has addressed this internally with Richard.”

• Park supporters packed the Hi-Tone last Sunday for “Greensward Aid,” a benefit concert for the Overton Park Conservancy legal fund and Get Off Our Lawn.

• One Greensward supporter created a Spotify playlist called “Save the Overton Park Greensward.” It includes “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell (which includes the line “pave paradise and put up a parking lot”), “No Parking on the Dance Floor” by Midnight Star, The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out,” “Green, Green Grass of Home” by Elvis Presley, and others.

Categories
News The Fly-By

OPC’s Tina Sullivan Discusses the Zoo Parking Controversy

Overton Park held the city spotlight again this week as the battle for the Greensward hit Memphis City Hall, a battle that could get national exposure as the park will soon be featured on a new, national PBS series called 10 Parks that Changed America.

In January, Mayor Jim Strickland requested the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) and the Memphis Zoo enter into a mediation process to resolve the dispute about the zoo using the grassy area for overflow parking. Council members were to be updated Tuesday on the mediation process and to consider a resolution to give control of most of the Greensward to the zoo. That vote was scheduled after press time.

The Greensward parking issue boiled over in January as the zoo removed some trees in the area to make way for easier access to parking ahead of this spring’s opening of the zoo’s new Zambezi River Hippo Camp exhibit. That action sparked protests from citizens and a lawsuit from the zoo to establish its right to control the Greensward. OPC answered that suit with its own claim for Greensward rights.

Meanwhile, OPC conducted a traffic and parking study of the park, and its consultants issued options, ranging from new bike lanes to a new smartphone app, to alleviate pressure.

Expect the park to get more attention — with or without the continuing imbroglio — after it appears on 10 Parks that Changed America, scheduled to debut on WKNO on Tuesday, April 12th. We sat down with OPC executive director Tina Sullivan to discuss it all. — Toby Sells

Tina Sullivan

Flyer: What are your thoughts on Overton Park’s current controversy?

Tina Sullivan: This is an issue that’s been in the background for a while now, and what we really have here is an opportunity to get it right. If the park institutions and the community can unite around implementing some of the solutions identified through the planning process, we will be on our way to creating a great user experience for all our guests.

What solutions do you like?

We can easily do a much better job of coordinating communications among all of the park institutions, so that we’re pushing the same messages out about peak events. … We were very hopeful when we were discussing with the city parks division last summer about reconfiguring the zoo’s existing lot. … And, of course, improving park entrances and park roads for people on foot, on bicycles, or in wheelchairs will greatly enhance the visitor experience.

OPC recently filed information to the Shelby County Chancery Court that counters the zoo’s claim that it, not OPC, controls the Greensward. Do you think the new legal information will help your case?

We’re very confident that our management agreement is unambiguous, and the documents we’ve provided make our case clearly.

What makes the park significant enough to be included in the new PBS film?

The park’s prime location has made it a target for development through its entire history. It has been protected only through people standing up and asserting that green space, whether that be the Old Forest or the Greensward, has value to the community.

The national spotlight will soon be on Overton Park again. What story does our city want to tell? Do we want to invest in our treasured public assets? Or do we want to let them slide further into decline by implementing poorly planned, make-do solutions?