The heirs of Col. Luke Lea today announced they are asking a Chancery Court judge to rule that building an access road from Highway 100 through Percy Warner Park to Cheekwood Estate & Gardens would violate the restrictive covenant of the deed Lea signed with the city in 1927.

Lea, the founding publisher of the then-Nashville Tennesseannewspaper and a former U.S. Senator, gave 868 acres of land in West Nashville to the city for “public park purposes” in 1927, and the following year, Percy Warner Park (named for Lea’s father-in-law) opened to the public.

Waddey Acheson attorney David Bridgers filed the petition on behalf of the Lea family.

“We know that no final decision has been made about the proposed access road, however, we are asking for a ruling that such a road through the park to Cheekwood would be for “any other use” than for a park. "The covenant in the deed states that the land would be used for a public park, and specifically prohibits 'any other use,' " said Bridgers.

After years of traffic congestion and parking issues in the neighborhood, Metro Planning hired a consultant in 2023 to help alleviate traffic and parking at Cheekwood. The access road option, favored by the consultant and the Planning Commission, is to build an access road from Highway 100 directly to the Cheekwood entrance – through the park.

If the road is constructed, the petition states, it would be in violation of the Lea deed and the titleof the 868 gifted acreswould revert to the heirs.

"We, the heirs of Luke Lea, do NOT want the park to “revert and revest” to our family, as the covenant requires. We do not want to take possession of this land; we simply want the terms of the covenant to be honored,” said Leah Rubino on behalf of the heirs.