Overton Park may be the next city-owned park to fall under nonprofit management.

Trish and Jamie Lambert walk their dogs Mister Big, Micah and Miska around the pond at Overton Park, a daily gathering spot for area dog lovers.
(Photo: Lance Murphey)

That’s because a group of Midtowners on a mission see an Overton Park conservancy as the next step to follow a recent citizen survey.

“When you have public land, there’s a perception that it’s vacant space that can be used for any kind of development,” said Naomi Van Tol, who coordinated the “Speak Up For Our Park” survey for a committee of concerned park enthusiasts. “I think that Overton Park has frequently been threatened by negative things and even positive things that just aren’t being coordinated very well. We’re looking for a way that we don’t have to constantly be fighting little brush fires.”

The committee overseeing the survey was formed in January by co-chairs George Cates and Gary Shorb. Its members include representatives from all of Overton Park’s tenants like the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis College of Art and the Levitt Shell, as well from Van Tol’s advocacy group Citizens to Preserve Overton Park and Park Friends Inc.

The committee also has a list of about 50 community partners including small businesses, nonprofits and community groups that helped disseminate the survey among their memberships.

The survey was comprised of four open-answer questions: What do you love about Overton Park? Imagine the best possible Overton Park. Describe it. What problems must be addressed at Overton Park? Would you support nonprofit conservancy management of Overton Park? Why or why not?

The last question seems to be key to the survey’s main purpose.

“One of the purposes is to gauge whether there’s support for an Overton Park conservancy that would partner with the city and create a public/private partnership like at Shelby Farms and the Memphis Botanic Garden,” Van Tol said. “So far it looks like there’s a lot of support for that idea.”

“I’m in support of the idea of a conservancy,” said Chooch Pickard, executive director of the Memphis Regional Design Center, one of the committee’s community partners. “I’m hopeful that the city will see that with a conservancy they may be able to get more public support and dollars to support the park as they have at Shelby Farms. In the ideal world we would see a similar situation in Overton Park.”

Pickard noted that while Overton Park has many natural assets like Shelby Farms, it is unique in that it also has numerous existing arts components.

Patrick Dougherty, left, scores against Jason Whitt during a pickup game of ultimate frisbee by members of Memphis Ultimate Frisbee in the Greensward area of Overton Park.

(Photo: Lance Murphey)

“Overton Park having the cultural assets that it does, it ties into the heart of the arts district that we have in Midtown,” said Pickard. “It’s one of our greatest assets.”

But the 342-acre park has also had its share of challenges.

The Memphis Zoo cleared about four acres of dense forest to build its Teton Trek Exhibit in 2008. That was part of the zoo’s published master plan, yet it took many citizens by surprise.

In 2009, the city proposed turning the park’s greensward, several acres of open grassy field near Rainbow Lake, into a retention basin to help relieve water-swollen neighborhoods nearby. This year the city engineer began studying alternative prospects for drainage.

CPOP led a successful three-year campaign in the Tennessee Legislature to have the park’s old forest designated as a protected area. The legislation was passed earlier this year.

Van Tol said that Cynthia Buchanan, director of Park Services for the City of Memphis, attended a couple of preliminary committee meetings and that City Council members including Jim Strickland of District 5, which includes Overton Park, have shown interest in the conservancy idea. Buchanan was not available for comment.

“(Park Services) does the best they can with the money they have and unfortunately we don’t have the money to fund our parks at the level they should be funded,” said Van Tol.

Almost 1,700 citizens filled out the survey, which ended Aug. 8. A summary and individual comments will be published on www.overtonpark.org by the end of August.

Van Tol said Cates and Shorb will most likely present a statement of need for the conservancy to the City Council sometime after that.

“Maybe one thing that’ll come out of this is that other groups will be inspired to adopt their neighborhood park and be active in caring for it,” Van Tol said.