Minneapolis park commissioners voted Wednesday to lease the city land for a downtown park near the new Minnesota Vikings stadium, dismissing concerns of advocates demanding to have the contract require bird-safe glass on the new stadium.

The 7-2 vote means that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will take ownership — in name only — of the nearly two block city park. The board bought the land from the city for $1, and then will lease it back to the city for 30 to 50 years. The City Council approved the plan last week.

The vote came after pleas from 21 speakers that the agreement require the installation of bird-safe glass in the $1 billion stadium, a modern design that will feature huge panels of glass. Supporters said locating a park next to the glassy stadium would create conditions that would draw migratory birds that would smash into the building's 200,000 square feet of glass.

"It's cruel, it's gory and it's sad," Michelle Schroeder said at the meeting.

Advocates for different glass that's more visible to birds have taken their case to Gov. Mark Dayton and to the Minnesota Sports Facilities Commission. But they have failed to persuade leaders to require the different glass, which would cost an additional $1.1 million. Vikings officials have said they will work with 3M to test a film that might make the glass safer, but opponents say they have doubts.

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

Bourn failed in an effort to send the deal back to committee to develop new terms for the park. Months ago, the Park Board passed a resolution urging bird-safe glass be incorporated in the stadium design.

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 used 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 park commissioners to link the deal to the use of 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 cop-out," Kahn said. " 'No' is a very powerful word and you should use it."

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib