Memphis 3.0

MidtownMemphis.org supports the Memphis 3.0 goals of ending suburban sprawl, increasing density within the City, promoting a walkable and bikeable city, and making public transit work.

However, Memphis 3.0, which is the City's general plan, does not study what's in a neighborhood before creating specific development plans, and we oppose unplanned development.

If Memphis were vacant land, we'd support 3.0's blind density ideas but since there's 200 years of housing and commerce on the ground, we believe that before changing the character of a neighborhood, the particulars of that area should first be considered. Such a review would also point us to the vacant and blighted areas that warrant immediate attention (Cleveland St. and environs in Midtown, for example). Memphis's Department of Planning and Development (DPD) has skipped Memphis 3.0's on-the-ground study, the Small Area Plans, which are done in collaboration with neighborhood residents. To develop properly, Memphis—any city!—first needs to know what's on the ground.

Getting focused

Our focus is on the Future Land Use Planning Map, the Degree of Change map and the Street Typologies map, along with the Land Use Categories, which is the key to understanding how the maps affect neighborhoods. According to Memphis 3.0, land use decisions based on these documents are the only legally binding decisions in 3.0, and the other 400-plus pages are for guidance.

Our compromise proposal retains the anchor locations selected by citizens and retains DPD's circumferences of the Land Use circles around an anchor. However, we remove the specific design characteristics that 3.0 assigns because 3.0 has not studied what's on the ground, and we convert these circles to "Areas of Inquiry ." These "areas of inquiry" are where Memphis 3.0's Small Area Plans will be conducted. Once DPD understands what's in an area and what the neighbors there want, then smart growth can happen.

"Planning" is the middle name of DPD, yet DPD has entirely skipped the planning process.

Therefore, we request:

Until the next 5-year update of Memphis 3.0 (2029), we call for a moratorium on land use decisions based on the Land Use Categories and maps, allowing time for DPD to conduct 3.0's Small Area Plans for the city's affected neighborhoods.

This is pretty much a city-wide problem, with the heaviest burden placed on North and South Memphis and Midtown. DPD deems East Memphis, with the largest lots and where there is the most room for infill, "not affected" by Memphis 3.0, giving most of East Memphis a free pass. That's patently inequitable.

The biggest investment most of us will ever make is in our home. Memphis 3.0 discourages owner-occupancy and encourages duplex and multi-family housing, eliminating a neighborhood's predictability and selling out neighborhoods to landlords, which in this day and age likely means absentee landlords. When Midtown was landlord-heavy in the 1960s and 1970s, the city rescued these neighborhoods by downzoning them to single-family. The growth of owner-occupants resulted in today's broadly stable Midtown with its solid mix of owners and renters.

In greater midtown, there is a lot of blighted land in convenient locations that is begging to be developed with all kinds of housing and commerce. We want to focus on where development can bring stability. We disagree with DPD's plan to destabilize parts of Memphis that have come back strong. We want smart growth by planning before development.

To help oppose Memphis 3.0's destabilization of stable neighborhoods and to support planning before developing, please join our newsletter, sign our petition, request a yard sign, and write the City Council.