VOL. 130 | NO. 216 | Thursday, November 5, 2015

All sides in the parking dispute at Overton Park have agreed to hire a planner to coordinate a traffic plan as well as mediate talks among them.

And for the first time there will be a set of public hearings on the matter.

The request for proposal agreed to Thursday, Nov. 5, by the Overton Park Conservancy, the Memphis Zoo and the city of Memphis as well as the park’s other institutions is a first step toward a plan that will emerge after Memphis Mayor A C Wharton leaves and Mayor-elect Jim Strickland takes office in January.

“We will be looking for consultants who have expertise in traffic and parking planning, expertise in planning for public spaces and expertise in facilitating public conversations around those public spaces,” said Tina Sullivan, executive director of the Overton Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that operates and maintains the city-owned park.

The conservancy does not control the Memphis Zoo, Levitt Shell, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art or the Memphis College of Art, all institutions located within its boundaries.

All of the entities are affected by a parking crunch.

Under a letter of agreement with the city, the zoo has been using part of the park greensward for overflow parking for more than 20 years. The greensward is used for zoo visitor parking about 60 days per year, according to Memphis Zoo president and CEO Chuck Brady.

Brady confirmed Wednesday, Nov. 4, that Wharton’s latest plan to reconfigure the zoo parking lot while adding more on-street parking along North Parkway has fallen through.

“It wasn’t restriping. It was far more than that,” Brady said during a meeting with The Daily News editorial board. “It was taking out all of the islands and taking out the perimeter green space to expand it, moving it a little bit south of where the entry booth is.

“It was well over $1 million and it was for about 200 spaces. It wouldn’t have solved the problem. It would help solve the problem.”

The overflow parking in the last two years has drawn criticism, including a Save the Greensward effort supported by Citizens to Preserve Overton Park. There also have been efforts by Wharton and his administration to end the practice and create more parking for zoo patrons.

“Everyone has agreed to work with us on this planning effort,” Sullivan said. “There may still be work to be done in the interim while we look at park-wide parking issues. We may still find solutions we can implement sooner rather than later. Ultimately our goal is to get consensus around a realistic practical solution so we can make some decisions about the way forward and then begin the fundraising.”

A parking garage either on zoo property or elsewhere in the park has also been discussed. Brady puts the cost of that at $10 million.

“If we spend $10 million on a parking garage, 300 days a year it’s going to be vacant,” Brady said citing the number of days a year the zoo does not use the greensward for overflow parking. “It’s also going to back up on the neighbors of Overton Park.”

Brady said the zoo understands the broader traffic issue is important to Memphis citizens.

“We’ve looked at many options,” he said. “But there are not many good options.”

Sullivan said the conservancy hopes to hire a planner/consultant by December.

“We will have the timeline identified by the end of this year. That will walk us through the series of public meetings,” she said. “We really are not going to delve into what those solutions look like until early next year.”

Daily News publisher Eric Barnes is a member of the Overton Park Conservancy Board. He did not participate in the reporting or editing of this story.