The latest Memphis City Council meeting showed no progress
in coming to a conclusion about the design of a McDonalds restaurant in the
University District.
On Oct. 15, people filed in City Hall, and soon the meeting
came to its third resolution, which concerned the McDonalds development and the
University District Overlay.
The University District Overlay is a plan from the
neighborhood, businesses and the university, to bring shops closer to the
street, for an area more open to pedestrians. The plan is focused around
Southern Avenue and Highland Street. The existence of this plan, however,
brings an issue with building a McDonalds on the southeast corner of Southern
and Highland. The McDonalds development failed to be compliant with the
University District Overlay plan.
Cindy Reeves, a representative of SR Consulting, wished to
have more time to come up with an alternate plan, a plan that would possibly
meet the standards of the University District Overlay more accurately. However,
David Wade, who represents those opposed to the project, thought differently.
“I have met with the representative for the applicant,” he
said, “and I have been shown the basic design changes that are being proposed,
and the design that is going to be recommended does not address, in any way, the basic objection that
all of these people in this university area have.
“It would be fruitless,” he continued. “It would be a waste
of time. A lot of people have taken off to come down here today, and we would
respectfully urge the city council to move forward with the application today.”
And indeed, a group of around 30 attending the meeting came for a resolution
and were against the delay that would push the decision making to Dec. 17.
Reeves said that more time was necessary and voiced her
views to the council.
“We feel there is a lot of change. We’ve come up with
another design that we discussed with the University District,” she said.
When asked by Councilman Joe Brown why the McDonalds
location cannot comply with the overlay, Reeves responded that it was
impossible to situate the building at the corner. But Reeves said that the
alternate design, while not exactly meeting the standard of the overlay,
compromises it affectively.
“We feel that it will meet more of the intent of the
overlay, and it’ll make it more pedestrian friendly,” she said. “It will still
have a drive-thru that loops around the building. That is a requirement of this
restaurant. But it does offer more pedestrian access.”
Among the council members there were mixed opinions
concerning whether a resolution should be found that day or on December 17th.
A few were against the delay, and spoke about coming to a decision. Councilwoman
Wanda Halbert was one, and also Councilman Jim Strickland, who had this to say:
“I’d ask my colleagues to vote against the delay. This application has been
here for almost five months already. If they’re not gonna budge on a very
important issue, it’s not gonna be settled. So I think we ought to vote
tonight, and I ask you to vote no on the delay.”
Councilman Shea Flinn and Harold B. Collins, however, were
among those for the delay. Collins talked about the “spirit of compromise” and
was willing to wait. “If they are committed to a new design, we ought to give
them the benefit of the doubt,” he said.
The vote for the delay was taken, and with the vote coming
to 9-4, the conflict between McDonalds and the University District will be
delayed to December.
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