Memphis 3.0 five year update will begin community workshops in August

Memphis 3.0, the comprehensive plan aiming to move Memphis forward will be getting an update, according to Director of the Memphis Shelby County Planning and Development Department John Zeanah. In addition to the plan being updated, Zeanah also said there will be a city-wide rezoning effort.

The first plan was approved by the Land Use Control Board in 2019 and needs to be updated so the plan stays current, Zeanah said. Accelerate Memphis is the implementation tool of Memphis 3.0, and has issued $200 million in bonds to "facilitate catalytic community projects in neighborhoods experiencing historic disinvestment and underrepresentation," according to the Memphis 3.0 website.

Zeanah said over the last five years, multiple public investment projects that were identified by communities have been done through Accelerate Memphis. Because many of those projects have been completed, the plan needs a refresh.

" What we want to make sure we are doing in the update process is working with the community to not only highlight those projects that have been implemented, but also identify new implementation priorities," Zeanah said.

The 14 planning districts will each have three community workshop meetings throughout the year, just as they did during the first iteration of the plan. The workshops will conclude in summer of 2025.

The hope from the workshops is the recommendations given by community members will aid in shaping the citywide rezoning proposal as well as identifying new investments into the communities.

"The last time our city did a citywide rezoning was in the 1950s so there have been, obviously, changes to our zoning map since, based on, you know, allocations from individual landowners, or, you know, there may be, have been some neighborhood rezoning in some areas throughout the period of time, but there hasn't been an effort to make the changes citywide," Zeanah said.

Memphis 3.0 five year update plan aims to align future land strategies with community priorities, values, and vision to direct zoning changes and new community investments, Zeanah said. Targeting new industries to come to Memphis and Shelby County is part of the effort, but Zeanah said the goal is for the growth to come "organically," and not be forced.

"So as we think about... growing a tech sector...based on the xAI announcement...it's not just about sort of the industrial supercomputer and how and where that's allowed...it's also about how our city might stand to grow in other tech jobs as a result of that," Zeanah said. "How our city might stand to grow in terms of new population, and what do we know about the characteristics of households in cities that have a higher percentage of tech workers? How are we able to use our plan and our zoning regulations to allow for the types...of urban scale districts that support a tech industry."

The first workshop will be held in the Jackson planning district at the Gaisman Community Center, 4221 Macon Road, on August 1 at 5:30 P.M.

More information about community workshops can be found on the Memphis 3.0 website.

Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter @BrookeMuckerman.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What to know about the Memphis 3.0, five-year comprehensive plan update