February 3, 2016 - A park goer reads near the line of parked cars on the Greensward in Overton Park Saturday afternoon where the Memphis Zoo has allowed traffic to overflow on busy days. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

By Ryan Poe of The Commercial Appeal

The Memphis City Council voted 11-1 Tuesday to give the Memphis Zoo control of a large part of the Overton Park greensward in a setback for Midtown residents and preservation groups that have tried to stop the zoo from using the grassy area for overflow parking.

The resolution was amended by District 5 council member Worth Morgan to remove Rainbow Lake and the nearby playground from the zoo’s control, and to require the zoo to get council approval before removing any trees or shrubs from the area.

Martavius Jones was the only member present to vote against the resolution. Bill Morrison was absent.

The Memphis Zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy are in dispute over who controls the greensward, and in lawsuits have based their arguments on different, contradictory contracts signed with the city.

“That’s honestly the city’s fault,” said Morgan, whose district includes Overton Park.

Memphis Zoo President Chuck Brady said the council’s decision clears the way for the Memphis Zoological Society to drop its Chancery Court lawsuit against the city, the council and the conservancy, although the conservancy would have to drop a countersuit first.

The council’s decision won’t mean any changes for the greensward, Brady said.

The zoo will continue to park vehicles on the area on peak attendance days — usually about 60-65 days a year.

“I don’t think anything is going to be different, other than that we’ve been designated the manager of that area,” he said.

Council member Reid Hedgepeth, one of nine council sponsors, added the resolution to the agenda Tuesday afternoon in an unusual move that caught opponents flat-footed.

“I feel it was hasty and poorly planned,” Tina Sullivan, executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy, said after the vote.

She said she’ll review the resolution with her board, and wouldn’t know until then whether the OPC will file a lawsuit challenging the council’s decision or what other steps the conservancy will take.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in a statement after the vote that he would have preferred for mediation to solve the controversy, but acknowledged that the council “has authority over city-owned property.”

“While this resolves the Greensward, we remain committed to the future and what’s best for all users of Overton Park, which has other parking and use issues,” he stated. “It remains in the best interest of the community that the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park Conservancy move forward with mediation to come up with plans for Overton Park for the benefit of all of our citizens.”

About 25 opponents of the resolution passionately addressed the council for more than an hour, pleading for a delay until after mediation and a traffic study by the conservancy are complete.

Bill Stegall told council members that he was 15 years old when there was talk about building an interstate through Overton Park, and that he and a friend staked out a tree to climb to prevent construction from moving forward.

“I’m 60 years old. I’m too old for civil disobedience,” he said to laughter from the crowd. “Please don’t put me in that position.”

The Evergreen Historic District Association joined the legal fray Tuesday, filing a lawsuit in Chancery Court asking for a court to say that the zoo does not control the greensward and to issue an order preventing parking on it.

The zoo’s first meeting with mediators was Tuesday, and Brady said the zoo will continue with that process in the hopes of meeting a mutually beneficial agreement with the conservancy.

“We’re always open to looking at other options, as long as the other options aren’t exclusion” of greensward use, he said.

Council attorney Allan Wade said the council has the authority over parks based on the city charter.

The council members sponsoring the resolution were Hedgepeth, Patrice Robinson, Morrison, Phillip Spinosa Jr., Martavius Jones, Janis Fullilove, Edmund Ford Jr., Berlin Boyd and Joe Brown. The council members not sponsoring the resolution were Morgan; chairman Kemp Conrad; Frank Colvett Jr.; and Jamita Swearengen.

Robinson said she became a sponsor of the resolution because she thought the City Council had more important issues to tackle, including approval of the budget.

“We have budget coming up middle of April,” she said. “I don’t want to be talking about greensward, Overton Park, when there’s something that’s much more important to taxpayers.”

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