[Johnny Ryall]

Fairgrounds Plan Has New Details
Skatepark Money Survives - Beale Street Landing Takes Hit
BILL DRIES | The Daily News

Memphis City Council members took up a trio of high profile CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) Tuesday as they prepared for the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

The Fairgrounds

Council members got their first look at detailed plans for “Tiger Lane”, the greenspace to be created at The Fairgrounds from East Parkway to the west side of The Liberty Bowl stadium by mid September. The full council will vote in two weeks on a construction and funding resolution. The specific plan council members saw at executive session Tuesday has the seven acre green space as its centerpiece. A “halo wall” with six pedestrian entrances near the west wall of the stadium to create a pedestrian plaza is a new feature. The parking lot north of the Mid-South Coliseum has also been taken out to provide for drainage of the greenspace, according to architect Tom Marshall. Marshall said the halo wall should also handle long term drainage problems in the Beltline area to the east of The Fairgrounds. Other recommendations include a larger entrance off Hollywood near the Children’s Museum of Memphis to relieve some traffic congestion on Central Avenue. There is also a proposed road across what used to be the Libertyland amusement park that amounts to a continuation of Young Ave. across East Parkway. The road would intersect with Early Maxwell Boulevard at the western side of the Coliseum. If Young Avenue is extended into the Fairgrounds, all of the parts of the plan would increase the number of parking spaces at The Fairgrounds from 5,600 to 6,600. If there is no extension and the Libertyland footprint becomes parking, the number goes up to 8,433. Tenants of the stadium have expressed concern about the parking spaces available for tailgating at football games once the football season starts in mid September with the Southern Heritage Classic.

Skatepark.

The council approved on a 6-5 vote keeping $440,000 appropriated for the construction of a skatepark. No location has been picked for such a park and another $250,000 has already been allocated for the design work once a site is picked. The construction money would not have automatically gone to a line item for a skatepark in the new fiscal year if the council had not acted. And several council members opposed the continuation because they feel it should not be moved ahead of other long standing park projects that haven’t been started. They tried unsuccessfully to delay the appropriation until after the budget season.

Beale Street Landing.

A council committee recommended rejection of $10,538,315 in funding for the boat landing and platform between Tom Lee Park and the cobblestones at the foot of Beale Street. The full council will vote on the resolution in two weeks. Council member Shea Flinn, who voted no in committee, predicted the votes on the full council are there to approve the funding for the project. Flinn said he questions the wisdom of continuing with a project whose price has increased as federal funding has disappeared.