League of Women Voters invites RDC, FfOR to address land bridge concerns

“Talk to us about the land bridge.”

That’s what the League of Women Voters asked Benny Lendermon, president of Riverfront Development Corporation, and Virginia McLean, president of Friends for Our Riverfront to do. Each was given 20 minutes to speak at a public meeting on February 28 at the Central Library on Poplar.

Benny Lendermon spent much of his time talking about everything but the land bridge: what RDC has done for the parks, plans for the Cobblestones, the Beale Street Landing, the “underutilized” Promenade, and more.

Finally, about 17 minutes into his presentation, he said:

“The transformational part of the plan is the land bridge concept - actually having at the proper time when the City of Memphis outgrows its downtown development opportunity, having the opportunity to grow out and connect to Mud Island itself. So, when you do that, not only do you create additional property for development which is needed but you are also solving those connectivity problems with Mud Island River Park.”

Then he went on for another ten minutes about everything else, until the League moderator asked him to wrap it up.

Virginia McLean came prepared to talk about the land bridge. She raised questions about engineering issues, water drainage, and environmental concerns. She asked about the economic impact of creating a parallel downtown with 11 million square feet of new development, when the old downtown is still replete with empty buildings. She spoke for her allotted minutes, and showed satellite photos overlaid with maps (figure above). She didn’t have answers, but she said that’s exactly the point. “The RDC doesn’t have answers.  They just say, ‘Don’t worry about it.”

In the question and answer period that followed, Lendermon was repeatedly asked to justify the land bridge. He downplayed its significance in the short term.

“So what we’re saying is, that we think, we absolutely think some 15, 20, 25 years from now you’re going to want to build a land bridge,” Lendermon responded. “Downtown’s going to continue to grow to the point that it’s going to be vibrant, you’re going to have no more … so you’re going to need something to continue that momentum. We think the land bridge at that point would be good. Right now we think it would be bad.”

Computer model of the riverfront master plan. Source: RDC

“Can we remove it from the plan until we think it’s a good idea, then?” an audience member asked.

Lendermon: “It’s not a good idea now. But it’s a good idea 20 years from now.”

Audience member: “They thought the Pyramid was a good idea.” 

Lendermon: “I’m not going to defend the Pyramid, but if the Pyramid wasn’t here you wouldn’t have the 
Grizzlies. No way.”

In other words: It’s a 50-year plan. Don’t worry about it.