Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning and Development
Plans for the $209 million South City redevelopment project will get their first reviews and (possibly) votes by Memphis leaders in September as the project becomes reality.
The overall plan will redevelop Foote Homes, the city’s last public housing project. It will transform the aging and institutional-looking 420-unit set of buildings with a “safe, green, and well-managed” complex of 712 apartments.
Planning for the transformation got well underway in October with a $30 million startup grant from the federal government.
The engineering and architecture firm of Barge, Waggoner, Sumner & Cannon Inc. applied submitted its proposal for the South City’s first three subdivisions last week to the Land Use Control Board. Josh Whitehead, director of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning and Development, sent the plans along to citizens in an email Tuesday.
The board members are slated to review the plan and vote on it during their next meeting on Thursday, Sept. 8 and Memphis City Hall.
The plans call for the demolition of the existing public housing units on the site, which is bounded, basically, by Vance, Mississippi, Lauderdale, and Danny Thomas.
Replacing them would be several new housing units built to Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, which is like LEED standards for residential properties. The firm’s application says several “live-work units” will be built along Danny Thomas.
A huge swath of green space will separate the subdivision, providing common space and water retention.
