Guest Contribution: Save John Ball Park: 40 Years of Fighting Parking Lot Expansion on Grand Rapids’ Westside
John Ball Park has been countless things over the years: a meet up spot for Edwardian bike punks, winding botanical gardens, a golf course. If John Ball Zoo has its way, “paved parking lot” will be added to the list.
In 1884, John Ball left 40 acres to the City of Grand Rapids to be used as a public park. The city purchased the rest of the land around the park, enlarging the parcel to over 100 acres. For a while, John Ball Park included a conservatory, dance parlor, bandstand, carriage trails, swimming pool, formal gardens, and zoo. It was the City’s “Central Park.” As the zoo has grown, park attractions have atrophied.
John Ball Park and Zoo Are, and Have Always Been, Publicly-Owned Spaces
In 1989, the City sold the park and zoo land to Kent County. But can you sell a park? Not exactly. The work-around solution was to “release” John Ball Park and zoo from its Master Plan, removing the “park designation.” However, the sale was completed with the expectation that the park would be preserved.
Today, the county still leases the land to the zoo; any proposed changes must be included in a Master Plan or approved amendment. However, what many people don’t know is that the zoo’s lease with the county actually specifies that the zoo must maintain the park to the standard of other Kent County parks. There is even a figure that defines the divide between park and zoo—a line that’s been largely ignored.
The park-zoo divide, as per the zoo’s lease with Kent County. Zoo is on the top of the parcel, Park is on the bottom.
A rough overlay of the current Park and Zoo line compared to the lease agreement.
Currently, the zoo isn’t held accountable when it comes to park maintenance. Trees are not replanted once cut down, picnic tables are soft with age, cars are everywhere on the grass. The fairs and festivals on the lawn off Butterworth are no more. It’s almost like it’s easier to convince people that a park should be paved if the park doesn’t feel like a very nice park at all.
Where Should the Cars Go if Not On the Grass?
On October 12, the zoo submitted a proposed amendment to the Kent County Finance and Physical Resources Committee that includes paving the majority of the open green space at John Ball Park. In return, the zoo promises to improve the remaining green space and write it into the lease to be “green space in perpetuity.” We suggest the zoo reread its own lease; that area is already protected green space.
Parking expansion proposal; everything in orange would be paved.
If you’re wondering why an organization that’s as “committed” to sustainability as the zoo is would choose to pave vast sections of natural park area, you are not alone. As far as we can tell, the zoo’s commitment to sustainability only applies when it’s convenient.
Remote parking lots aren’t feasible, they say: too many people will refuse to visit a zoo if they have to wrestle their strollers onto a trolley. A parking ramp would reduce a paving footprint, but is too expensive: if they build one, it’ll be “green,” but there’s just no money for that, they say. The proposal doesn’t contain any provisions for bike access, sharing parking space that already exists in the neighborhood, more accessible public transit, or green pavers that would lessen the environmental impact of parking lots. Their only solution: to pave the public park they are in charge of caring for.
John Ball Park filled with cars in 2022.
None of these changes are for us, the community. John Ball Zoo has already been using the park as parking for years. It’s so normalized, that most neighbors don’t think twice when cars occupy the big green lawn all weekend instead of people playing ultimate frisbee, school sports teams having practice, or families enjoying themselve. Parking on grass is better than pavement, but still problematic. John Ball Park is a park.
The Zoo Is Desperate to Cater to Out-of-Town Suburbanites
When did we decide that behavior didn’t need to change based on context? Why do you expect suburban ease in a dense city neighborhood? Do these same people expect to drive into Chicago and park in front of Wrigley Field? Cars trick us into believing that we are somehow separate from the world and free of any responsibility to it. In reality, we’re only guests. You still have to take your shoes off when you enter someone else’s house.
2015 master plan parking proposal; the white box is proposed parking expansion.
All this matters very little to the zoo. Their 2015 master plan is approved and in effect. This document also includes parking expansion in the field off Valley Street. The zoo president Peter D’Arienzo has stated that, if their current amendment is not approved, they’ll enact the plans from 2015—even though both the zoo and the community don’t like them anymore. In fact, he’s also on the record stating that “even if they pave the whole park, there still won’t be enough parking” in the future. So why pave the park now? Why be so flippant with such a precious resource?
Every inch of asphalt that goes down in our neighborhood is like an ocean-front hotel going up on a beach; it’s for people who visit to have an experience, not people who live here to have a life.
When Growth Is Relentless, Community Pays the Price
What then, is the actual point? It’s not sustainability, and it’s not community health, and it’s not taking responsibility for your business. Because when you requisition public land for business development, the burden of business growth is then placed on the community, not the business itself. Which is a bold stance for the zoo to take. John Ball Park is one of Grand Rapids’ neighborhoods of focus—a community that has major inequalities when it comes to factors like income, education, and housing.
A 2022 report from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy observed a disparity in the amount of parkland between neighborhoods of focus and Grand Rapids overall. The report goes on to note the neighborhood of focus had six acres of parkland per 1,000 people. Grand Rapids has seven acres and Kent County has 11 acres per 1,000 people, respectively. The best practice is to offer 10 acres of parkland per 1,000 people.
The report also found that “more than four out of five households (82%) in the neighborhood of focus had income below the Grand Rapids median household income of $50,103.” In 2021, the executive compensation for the John Ball Zoo’s eight-person C-suite was $1,237,033. In the same year, the zoo received $5,589,613 in millage funding.
The zoo intends to requisition public land and get paid with public funds to do it.
In the end, this fight is about what all parking expansion fights are about: doing what’s good for people. Acres of blacktop will make our neighborhood less socially and environmentally resilient; the zoo knows this and doesn’t care. It’s busy providing jobs. In 2021, the zoo reported 437 employees (429 excluding executive leadership). The total for other, non-C-suite wages is $5,401,526. In the extraordinary event that every employee got an equal piece of the pie, each person would take home $12,360. Let’s say 100 of those employees worked for one day and then quit, something Mr. D’Arienzo has stated happens with some frequency. Divided evenly among 329 workers, everyone would take home $16,418.
- Amy Hinman
The Fight for Public Space Isn’t Over, but We Need Your Help
On October 16, the Finance and Physical Resources Committee declined to vote on the zoo’s amendment. Instead, they requested a park walk-through and suggested that the zoo hold another “community outreach” meeting to share their plans with the neighborhood. It’s been two weeks and counting and there has been no outreach or communication from the zoo regarding the proposal. The only way the neighborhood has learned anything is because a group of neighbors continues to be vocal. We’re also in the process of having a moderated discussion with zoo leadership to discuss metrics and reporting outcomes from that meeting. The zoo might not be interested in due diligence, but we are. The amendment will go back to the committee on November 21.
The Save John Ball Park movement has existed for longer than many of us who are currently in it have been alive. We shouldn’t have to keep fighting this fight, because it shouldn’t be a fight at all.
For now, the best way to fight the parking expansion is through our elected officials and spreading the word as a community. If you are opposed to public land being seized for parking expansion, or have ideas about alternative parking, please email:
Kent County Board of Commissioners: publiccomment@kentcountymi.gov
Kent County District 14 Commissioner Carol Hennessy: carol.hennessy@kentcountymi.gov
Kent County Chair of the Finance and Physical Resources Committee Emily Brieve: emily.brieve@kentcountymi.gov
Kent County Board of Commissioners Chair Stan Stek: stan.stek@kentcountymi.gov
Grand Rapids First Ward Commissioners Jon O’Connor and Drew Robbins: joconnor@grcity.us and drobbins@grcity.us
You can also get involved by following our Facebook page or joining our Discord server. If you’ve signed the petition, you’ll receive our email updates. And finally, if you (or someone you know) is an attorney with municipal law experience who wants to save a park, please contact us at savejohnballpark@gmail.com.
- Amy Hinman
The John Ball Zoo stop on the Laker Line. Do you know where the Zoo is from here?
