Memphis 3.0
Topic Pages
An opinion statement about how to feel about the issue.
What is it?
The City's Department of Planning and Development (DPD) is updating Memphis 3.0 and the Unified Development Code (UDC), which is the zoning for the City. The Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan is our City’s guide for future development. Adopted in 2019, the plan is undergoing a five year update to ensure the vision and priorities of the plan remain relevant to Memphis communities. The city is divided into fourteen planning districts and people will be invited to three workshops in each planning district (followed by a 4th zoning meeting). Midtown is in the Core Planning District along with Downtown and the Medical District. Midtown/Core City meetings will be in January 2025. Meetings are ongoing, and some districts have already completed all three. According to DPD, the purpose of these workshops is to:
Review the current district priorities and suggest any needed changes.
Learn about update to future land use.
Understand how suggested changes could be applied to a city-wide comprehensive rezoning.
Each workshop builds upon the last, so attendance at all sessions is strongly encouraged.
MidtownMemphis.org has been meeting with neighborhood representatives from Rozelle-Annesdale, Glenview, Central Gardens, Annesdale Park, Volintine Evergreen, Evergreen, and also neighborhoods outside Midtown, because this affects us all. Our goal is to help our neighbors understand the potential benefits and pitfalls of these proposed changes. While the workshops for Midtown will begin March 20th, we know that zoning can be difficult to understand and we need to use this time wisely.
More info from DPD:
The Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan is where community voices shape the city's future. Our comprehensive planning process is more than just a series of meetings and proposals; it's an opportunity for every Memphian to play a pivotal role in charting the course for our collective growth and prosperity. Participation isn't just encouraged—it's essential. Your input fuels the vision for a more vibrant, equitable, and resilient Memphis. By engaging in this process, you're not only shaping policies and projects; you're actively contributing to the fabric of our community, ensuring that every voice is heard and every perspective considered. Together, we're building a Memphis that reflects the aspirations and dreams of all its residents. Join us in shaping tomorrow, today.
MidtownMemphis.Org 3.0 Committee Guiding Principles
We support 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.
We recognize that most neighborhood residents, including those who participate in Memphis 3.0 public meetings, do not understand that large sections of their single-family housing neighborhood may be designated for multi-family and duplex land use on 3.0's Future Land Use Planning Map (FLUPM).
The Memphis 3.0 Future Land Use Planning Map is insufficient planning. It is not enough to measure a distance from anchors and label these large developed areas, multi-family or duplex. Without the Small Area Plans that Memphis 3.0 suggests, the FLUPM does not properly account for existing zoning, land use, or property conditions. Without Small Area Plans, these re-zonings could seriously destabilize very stable neighborhoods.
We believe the next step toward implementing the goals of 3.0 is targeted planning through the development of Small Area Plans with community engagement at the neighborhood level.
We should learn from our past. We support a program like the Memphis Housing and Community Development (HCD) in the late 1970's that heralded healthy neighborhoods as essential to a high quality of life in the city and the overall success of the city as a whole.
Many of the vibrant midtown neighborhoods of today—Central Gardens, Glenview, Evergreen, Annesdale Park among others—benefited when multi-family and duplex zoning was down-zoned to single family, some in the 1970s, some in the early 2000s.
This recovery was led by an increase in owner-occupied single-family housing. These owners invested in restoring existing homes, developed active neighborhood associations and participated in civic decision making to preserve and strengthen their neighborhoods.
Over-zoning for commercial development and shrinking retail due to online shopping, has resulted in vacant buildings and vacant lots along many major Memphis streets. These parcels provide the opportunity to redevelop vacant and blighted sites with multi-family buildings that would also patronize adjacent public transit routes. In many cases, such development will restore the mixed residential and commercial use that existed before.
We believe this kind of redevelopment that respects our neighborhoods and the people who live there will go a long way toward achieving the density goals of the Memphis 3.0 plan.
We call on the Division of Planning and Development and the City to put a moratorium on decisions based on the FLUPM until the map incorporates Small Area Plans for the city's affected neighborhoods.
Important Links
Please share this info with your neighborhoods:
Sign up for email updates from DPD about 3.0 at the bottom of this page:
https://www.memphis3point0.com
Find your home on this Future Land Use Planning Map. If it's in a yellow area, the city supports it becoming a neighborhood that encourages duplexes. If it's in an orange area, the city is proposing multi-use, multi-family. BIG CHANGES:
https://www.memphis3point0.com/_files/ugd/100a0d_b9d23bdd86a54868adc6f4028be123c3.pdf
Map of Planning Districts
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/viewer?mid=1jBX4dvBs7EmAjNlqOmEc7kVCE0nLLB4&ll=35.14061540001737%2C-89.99557354999997&z=11
Home Page for the 3.0 Comprehensive Plan
Home - Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan
3.0 Document in entirety
The complete document
Events from DPD about 3.0
News & Events | Memphis 3.0
Midtown is in the Core City District
Meeting Dates are in this link:
Memphis 3.0 | Core City District
Memphis 3.0 Highlights
Why the Future Land Use Planning Map is so important
On page 12. The paragraph on the right with bolding in it states that "all land use decisions in the City shall thereafter be consistent with the plan…" and that everything in the other 409 pages is just advisory. Memphis 3.0 is about the Future Land Use Planning Map. It is the only part of this plan that is binding. See also page 72, upper right.
Degree of Change for beginners
On page 63. "Degree of change" factors into civic investment in the neighborhood. Think of it as an overlay that ranks government involvement from most in the neediest areas to less. See the 3 short paragraphs beneath the circular images on page 63 for a description of each of the 3 Degree of Change categories. Do not get bogged down here and distract from the Future Land Use Planning Map.
Note that despite what's written here about Historic Districts getting a pass, most Historic Districts on the Future Land Use Planning Map are colored orange or yellow indicating the change from single family to multi-family, destabilizing the neighborhoods. The pages between 63 and 71 can also be helpful in discerning information about Degree of Change.
Land Use Categories
Page 74. Go to the line near the top labelled "Description / Intent." When a planner or developer is seeking to understand what may be allowed in a neighborhood, they will consult this line. Note that the term "attached single-family" means duplex.
The Future Land Use Planning Map
Page. 149. The Street Types map. Street Types further disrupt owner occupancy.
The Street Types map is important because the colored roads are additional opportunities for disruption of owner-occupied neighborhoods.
Small Area Plans can express a neighborhood's desires
Page 160. The Small Area Plan criteria can be found here. Neighborhoods can familiarize themselves with the process, then go to the Appendix page cdiii which has links to sample Small Area Plans. Once familiar with the Small Area Plan, consult DPD for assistance.
Online portal to provide feedback to DPD
https://memphis-3-0-comp-plan-update-memegis.hub.arcgis.com/
This is the individual feedback form for the Memphis 3.0 plan. At present, the feedback for the 3rd workshop has not been posted. On the first two, there is nothing to alert you that the zoning in your neighborhood is likely to change, allowing either duplex or multi-family housing where only single-family has been allowed for the past 50 years.
If you don't want your single family neighborhood destabilized, we encourage you to state that you'd rather keep the zoning that presently exists; if someone wants to bring duplex or multi-family to your neighborhood, they can do so presently but it requires public notice and approval of a variance, and public notice is good. You want to keep public notice required for this change and not allow it to be zoned by right
What do we consider Stable Neighborhoods?
• Longer residing residents
• More owner occupants
• Fewer blighted properties
• Fewer vacant lots and underutilized parcels
• Neighborhood associations are active
• Neighbors are engaged in local civic issues
• Trending down code violations
• Crime trends down
• Preserved historic character (if appropriate)
• Schools improved with higher percentage of students returning
• Homes, yards and buildings are better maintained
Unstable Neighborhoods:
• High tenant turnover
• Absentee ownership
• Vacant properties, blight
• Weakened community engagement
• Displacement of long-time residents.
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