Minneapolis park commissioners voted Wednesday to assume the role of absentee landlord for a planned downtown park to be built near the Vikings stadium, despite efforts by a flock of speakers to tie bird-safe glass to the issue.

The 7-2 vote means that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will take ownership -- in name only -- of the planned park of less than two city blocks. The proposal needed a super majority of six votes because it involves buying the land -- for a token $1 -- as well as leasing it back to the city for between 30 and 50 years. The City Council approved it last week.

The vote followed pleas from 21 speakers that the agreement be conditioned on installing bird-safe glass in the $1 billion stadium. Supporters said locating a park virtually next-door to the reflective glass of the stadium would create conditions that would draw migratory birds to smash into the building's 200,000 square feet of glass.

"It's cruel, it's gory and it's sad," said Michelle Schroeder, one speaker. Proponents of glass that's more visible to birds have taken their case to Gov. Mark Dayton and to the Minnesota Sports Facilities Commission without winning their requested substitution that costs an estimated $1.1 million. The team has said it will work with 3M to test a film that might make the glass safer, but opponents say they doubt how real that product is.

Commissioners voting for the sale-leaseback arrangement were Meg Forney, John Erwin, Steffanie Musich, Jon Olson, Anita Tabb, Scott Vreeland and Liz Wielinski. They generally argued that the Park Board can't force changes in the design of a stadium negotiated by the team and the authority. The park deal was opposed by Annie Young and Brad Bourn.

An effort by Bourn to send the deal back to committee to develop new terms for the park failed for lack of a second. The Park Board months ago passed a resolution urging bird-safe glass be incorporated in the stadium.

The park agreement is intended to meet a legal requirement in the city charter -- reinforced by a judge a year ago in an aborted challenge to the stadium -- that the Park Board has authority for parks in the city. The $1 sale to the Park Board will take place by mid-2016 after Ryan Companies finishes construction in the area. The leasing of the land back to the city allows it to have a third-party conservancy oversee use of the park.

The Park Board refused earlier this year to develop and run the park due to the expected cost of maintaining it and the estimated 80 days per year when it would be reserved for use by the team or the authority, under a deal negotiated by the city.

Proponents of the sale-lease said the upside is that decades from now the Park Board will have a substantial downtown park after the deal expires. They said that turning down the arrangement would mean the city would go ahead with the park, forcing the park system to sue to preserve its charter authority.

But bird advocates pressed with arguments for hinging the deal on changing to bird-safe glass. "No one has more responsibility to protect migratory birds than you," state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, told commissioners. "It will become a killing field for birds."

"To say you have no power is a copout," Kahn said. "'No' is a very powerful word and you should use it."