MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland along with leaders from the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park Conservancy on Tuesday announced a “final agreement to end parking on the Overton Park Greensward.”
The issue has remained contentious for years, spawning protests by some in the community as the zoo has claimed part of Overton Park’s open grassy fields for overflow parking.
A minimum of 300 additional parking spaces will be created on the north end of Overton Park, Strickland said. The area is currently used as a maintenance area by the zoo, which will move those operations to a different part of the park.
Seventeen acres of the Old Forest that had been reserved for zoo expansion will now be designated to management by the Overton Park Conservancy.
The city’s 12-acre General Services facility at Poplar and East Parkway will be vacated over the next couple of years. Zoo staff will begin occupying those buildings, and the southern half of that property will be turned over for public recreational space, including a new trail entrance in the Old Forest.
A new walking trail will define the boundary between the existing zoo parking lot and the greensward. The zoo will contribute $400,000 to the conservancy.
“We are more than happy to have reached this agreement,” said Jim Dean, president and CEO of the Memphis Zoo. He said it was a solution that would solve the zoo’s short-term and long-term parking needs.
There will still be some overflow zoo parking on the greensward area until General Services moves out of the park.
