By Kylcye Bolden

Next month, a decision will be made about the fate of the building on the corner of Southern and Highland.  Each of the remaining businesses in the building have made plans to change locations or close shop to pursue other endeavors. 

Looking back, owners of Whatever Novelty Shop, Southern Meat Market and Sharri’s Discount Art Supply are questioning why there was so little communication from the landlord once the decision was made to sell the property.  

The lack of communication has become a bigger issue since nothing has been finalized with McDonald's.  The two other businesses that used to occupy the property, Super Submarine Sandwich Shop and Safeway Wholesale & Supply, have moved to a new locations. 

The sandwich shop, passionately called the Chinese Sub Shop by Memphians, is now at  3316 Summer Ave.  Safeway Wholesale & Supply relocated less than a block away. 

Pending the decisions made at the city council meeting on Dec. 17, both moves could be proven to have been made vainly.

By Kylcye Bolden

University District community citizens walked out of the council chambers on Oct. 15 after city leaders granted McDonalds' representatives a delay to reevaluate plans for their new location.

The community was led out by their attorney, David Wade, who called the delay “fruitless” and a “waste of time.”  Wade and many members of the UD community object to having a drive-thru loop on Highland and Southern Avenue, which completely neglecting the University District Overlay.

Since its adoption, every project has “required some type of variance to meet the overlay,”
said Brian Bacchus from the Office of Planing and Development.

Planners for the new restaurant remain steadfast about having a drive-thru despite it conflicting with the plan meant to maintain the aesthetic of the UD. 

SR Consulting LLC representative, Cindy Reaves, assured the council members that the civil engineering firm would use the extra time to adopt a better plan that will meet “more of the intent of the overlay” but still include a drive-thru.

By Kelsey Gilliam

Opposition to plans for a new restaurant in the University District continue to complicate McDonald's Corporation from constructing their new building on the Highland Strip.

On Tuesday night, the city council debated whether to delay the vote on the application for the build of a new McDonald's on the southeast corner of Highland and Southern.

President Cindy Reeves, from the SR Consulting firm, asked the council for a delay on proceeding forward until Dec. 17, in order for the design team to create an alternate plan to accommodate the wishes of the neighbors of the University District.

Attorney David Wade advised the council to move forward on the vote since the issue has been on hold for five months. He argued that the proposed plans would not address the basic objection that the neighbors had with the original plan.

The issue surrounding the vote on the application is the proposed loop-around drive-thru that will not comply with the University District Overlay. The overlay standards have been an issue with many developments in the University District.

By Hassan Allawi 

The University District Neighborhood Associations have been in a struggle to preserve the district’s urban identity for the past few months. Soon, however, they may celebrate a victory or be forced to swallow a bitter compromise.

Several years ago, the neighborhoods and businesses in the University of Memphis District, in collaboration with the university, envisioned the Highland Strip as a vibrant urban street--safe, pedestrian friendly, and fun to walk along.

“Bring the shops out to the front and make it a nice place to walk, so that people want to be on the street,”  said David Cox, the university liaison with area neighborhoods and officer of the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation. “When you have more people on the street, it’s a more pleasant experience, but also crime goes down.”

The community plan gained the recognition of the City Council in 2009, and the University District Overlay (UDO) became the official set of standards that will guide all new construction.

Back in May, McDonald's applied to build a restaurant on the southeast corner of Southern and Highland, where the Whatever Store and Z Market are currently located. The fast food company intends to vacate its building on 657 S. Highland St., almost across the street, if permitted to build the new restaurant.

Upon the news, neighbors welcomed the new development.

“On behalf of Mr. Martin [U of M President], The University of Memphis, and the University District Development Corporation, I want to express our support and excitement for the project,” Cox wrote in a letter to the president of Century Management, McDonalds’ franchisee.

But the excitement didn’t last long. Cox, UD associations, along with many business owners and residents in the district were soon writing letters to the Land Use Control Board, objecting McDonalds’ proposed site-plan for its inconsistency with the University District Overlay.

The planned building sets away from both streets, Highland and Southern, to allow for drive-through lanes to wrap around it. Pedestrians would have to walk through cars to enter the building.

“It’s not an urban design. It fits out on Germantown Parkway. But nobody walks up and down Germantown Parkway,” Cox said.

By Margot Pera

The University District may potentially receive a makeover in the next couple of months as the McDonald’s on the Highland strip makes plans to renovate its restaurant and move to the Southeast corner of Highland and Southern, where the head shop Whatever is located.

History buffs and University District residents are concerned that the iconic sign, which is the last original McDonald's sign in Memphis, in front of the building will be destroyed in the process of this renovation.      

Jimmy Ogle, a Memphis tour guide who regularly gives historically dense tours around the city, would be highly disappointed if the sign was not preserved during the destruction of McDonald’s.

“I believe that the McDonald’s sign is the only original one left in the city of Memphis. I hope to see it preserved. I remember going there as a kid,” Ogle said. “Maybe they can put in a McDonald’s museum somewhere.”

TK Buchanan, the community safety liaison to the University District and also longtime resident of the district’s Sherwood-Forrest neighborhood, does not see a bright future for the sign if the plan to reconstruct the McDonald’s passes through city council on Oct. 15.

“Moving a sign that old is going to very problematic, if one of the parts break, there will no parts to replace them since it is from the '50s,” she said.        

The sign is one of the oldest in the city, according to Ogle.

The McDonald’s reconstruction is not only agitating history buffs nostalgic for old fashioned architecture, but it is also an annoyance to the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation because McDonalds' proposed plan does not correspond with the requirements of the neighborhoods overlay. The drive-thru’s new location will also create mayhem in terms of traffic congestion near the University.

“Basically, McDonald’s want to put a stamp size building in a football stadium size lot,” Buchanan said.  “This new drive-thru is going to bring a lot of commercial traffic into a residential neighborhood, which will cause a lot of traffic jams, and factor in the train that comes by every 15 minutes or so and it is recipe for disaster.”

Buchanan went on to state the emphasis that the UNDC is trying to place on making the University District more pedestrian friendly, and the renovation of McDonald’s will only sabotage this process.

This prospect disappointed Brad Hancock, CEO of Modern Services and a former resident of the University District, who expressed that if  McDonald’s becomes so contemporary, it would ruin one of the trademarks of the neighborhood’s “old Memphis” atmosphere.

“With a little forethought that area could be turned into something great, but based on the blueprint it looks like a McDonald’s you would see in Collierville,” he said. This is terrible way to get rid of that shopping center.”

Pastor Peter Mickelonis of Universal Ministries is a regular Sunday customer of McDonald’s and used to manage nine McDonald's stores in the early ’60s.

“I think the McDonald’s should stay right where it is. It is the first one I remember going to as a teenager,” he said. “They can always turn the sign sideways.”

A petition to prevent the Memphis City Council from approving the design for McDonald’s can be signed on the University District’s website.

The Southern Meat Market at 3507 Southern Avenue plans to relocate due to the redevelopment of the Highland Strip.

The owner, Randy Stockard, is moving to a new location on Park Avenue, but he does not know when.  His business is among others like Yum’s Chinese Sub Shop and Whatever’s that are also being forced to move because of development of the property at Highland Street and Southern Avenue.

What makes the Southern Meat Market different is that the butchers cut the meat by hand.  Most grocery stores have their own deli department equipped with a slicer, which is how most people today get their meat.