About 50 people turned up for last night’s public meeting at Peabody Elementary on the proposed Midtown zoning overlay.
After the proposed Overton Square grocery store development fell through earlier this year, the Memphis Regional Design Center got together with the Midtown Development Corporation, the Cooper-Young Development Corporation, and the Cooper-Young Business Association to draft a plan that would dictate development standards for renovations and new construction.
“The community says, ‘this is what we want our neighborhood to look like,'” said Memphis city councilman Shea Flinn, who was instrumental in beginning the overlay process. “We’re not going to prostitute ourselves for any developer who comes along.”
In the overlay area, which is in a sort of upside down L/arrow shape because of the historic neighborhoods already designated in Midtown, current commercial zoning would change to mixed-use commercial and there would be a review process for all commercial development.
“Outside of downtown, it’s illegal right now to have buildings with commercial on the ground floor and residential above,” said Charles “Chooch” Pickard, executive director of the regional design center.
