New path to encircle Overton Park
Plans encourage five points of pedestrian, bicycle access
Whether on foot, bike or in a car, getting into Overton Park can be difficult, and sometimes downright dangerous.
“You have to cross Poplar Avenue, East Parkway, North Parkway or McLean, and especially families with children don’t always feel safe,” said Tina Sullivan, director of the Overton Park Conservancy. “We hope to greatly improve accessibility and encourage people to come in through other modes of transportation.”
The conservancy has teamed with landscape design firm Ritchie Smith & Associates, which also designed the 1988 Overton Park Master Plan, to develop plans to improve the entrances to the park and circulation around the perimeter for cyclists and pedestrians.
There are no sidewalks that continue into any of the park’s five access points at Cooper, Tucker, the corner of Poplar and East Parkway, the corner of East Parkway and North Parkway, and North Parkway across from Rhodes College.
“If you walk around the perimeter of the park you can see how people have worn paths because of foot traffic over a long period of time. It’s precarious right
up against the curb, and so we are trying to handle that in a way that will be attractive and minimize impact on the park,” said Lissa Thompson, landscape architect at Ritchie Smith & Associates.
In the plans, the Tucker and Cooper entrances will be phased in first, starting in 2015. They will have a more aesthetically pleasing design, crosswalks, and pedestrian and possibly bike trails connecting into the park.
The perimeter path begins at Tucker on Poplar Avenue and loops to East Parkway, where it connects with the bike and pedestrian gateway and continues into the well-used existing pedestrian trail within the park.
The North Parkway perimeter plan will replace the existing sidewalk from McLean to North Parkway at University, which is in disrepair. From there a new path will continue to the corner of North Parkway and East Parkway. Rhodes College will have a crosswalk, bike lane and connection to the park adjacent to the service area of the Memphis Zoo.
Inside the park, a circuit path is planned around the greensward that will connect to the existing Rainbow Lake path.
“This is the heart of the park,” Thompson said. “We were close to working on this greensward circuit walk years ago (its design was in the 1988 Overton Park Master Plan), but it wasn’t funded after some other higher-priority projects were, and then the zoo negotiated the deal to use the greensward for overflow parking.”
The half-mile-long circuit design follows the edge of the greensward, and much of it is within trees to minimize impact on the open space.
Still up for debate is whether the path will be paved or will be a soft-surface gravel trail of crushed limestone aggregate.
A paved pathway would be more accessible to someone who is elderly or in a wheelchair. Limestone aggregate trails are preferred by runners but are a challenge to maintain when washed out by heavy rain.
All elements of the plan conform with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“A lot of these improvements are geared at providing access to people of all ages and abilities and different recreational interests,” Thompson said. “A lot of residents from The Parkview get their exercise at the park.”
Sullivan said plans are still in the early conceptual phase.
“The design firm presented their original concept at the last meeting and we got a lot of positive feedback and more public outreach around these concepts. It’s likely that some of the concepts will change as we delve into how people are using the park and what their needs are,” she said.
The conservancy plans to host public meetings to address design details like the paved or gravel pathways.
Two of the design projects — the intersection of Poplar and Cooper and the perimeter trail — have been included in the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Sustainable Transportation Improvement Program, which will fund the projects. Construction on the Poplar and Cooper plan will start in 2015, and the perimeter trail will begin in 2016.
For the two approved projects, the Overton Park Conservancy needs to provide matching funds. For the remaining projects, the organization will have to seek funding and make a case to prospective donors.
“The Overton Park Conservancy approaches fundraising project by project rather than having a large capital campaign for everything. We typically develop plans, then we secure funding,” Sullivan said.