Saturday, March 7, 2009
Memphis to turn Overton Park Greenfield into flood control basin
Sorry for straying from the topic, but this seems relevant to lots of us. The City of Memphis (and our old friend Wayne Gaskins) are planning on turning the large field at Overton Park into a drainage basin. Overton Park Forever has more details about the plans, which have been in place since 2006 with, apparently, very little public input. While they will maintain plenty of room for the Zoo to use for overflow parking, they will basically eliminate the usefulness of the space for soccer games, ultimate frisbee, flying kites and just hanging out on a blanket. This basin will fundamentally change an important historic component of the park (Kessler designed the field for a reason) and detract from one of Memphis' best open spaces. I urge you to contact the appropriate individuals to let them know how much you value that space.
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2 comments:
There are so many simple answers to avoid this crap. That's the worst place to put it. If they recommend that we should go check out the other golf course to see their basin, why didn't they start thinking about putting it in the Overton Park Golf course?
Homeowners should be educated so they know that creating a rain garden could reduce/eliminate the impact on the storm water system their property has. These people that have rain gardens, rain barrels, etc. should not have to pay the stupid monthly fee on their MLGW bill either as an added bonus. (only 75 cents a month, but how much does it cost to make a rain garden which is a glorified hole in the ground?)
Cities elsewhere require you to control the stormwater run off of your property, why doesn't this city take the hint?. Also some cities require that if an area be developed that storm water runoff does not increase by a certain percentage.
Word.
Moreover, the affected homeowners in my neighborhood (directly downstream from overton park) say the problem isn't with retention, but with flow through certain culverts and under bridges. Because of increased runoff and increased flow of the creek, the water bottlenecks at certain points and floods. Of course, the City would rather ruin a park than tear up a couple of streets and fix the problem.
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