The Memphis region is large and its population is growing.
The three-state region, extending from 60 to 100 miles out from downtown Memphis, covers all or parts of 41 counties. More than two million people (2,091,956) live in this area and are dispersed almost equally throughout the Memphis metro area and the 19 regional centers. The Memphis metro area, which includes Shelby County and the adjacent census tracts of four adjoining counties, contains more than one million people (1,038,625), or 49.65% of the region's total population. The metro area has been growing over the past decade at a rate of 8.97%, more than 2.8% greater than the surrounding regional growth rate of 6.10%. The metro area also has increased its share of the regional total from 48.98% in 1990 to 49.65% in 1999. The Memphis region has a diverse population, including more than 60,000 Hispanic residents. This regional diversity is an asset that enables Memphis to position itself as an urban market resembling a global community, similar to what Houston and Washington have done.

The Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is a five-county area ranked as the nation's 43rd largest in 1999. Memphis is the fastest growing part of the region, gaining population at a rate of 8.5%. This growth rate is the 140th fastest among the 257 MSAs in the country. Two more counties may be added to the Memphis MSA as a result of the 2000 Census.

The metro area and 19 regional urban centers anchor the Memphis region.
While the Memphis metro area is the center for major economic activity, each of the surrounding regional centers plays an important role in the regional network. The metro urban center is over ten times the size of the next largest regional center, Jackson, Tennessee. Among the regional centers, the Jackson, TN MSA, with a 1998 population of 100,654, is the largest, while Tunica with a population of more than 1000 is the smallest. Each of the regional centers, regardless of size, is a hub in the regional pattern of urbanization.

The Memphis metro area has two urban cores and is growing a third.
Downtown Memphis is the site of the original settlement on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and the heart of the region. As the metropolitan area expanded to the east, Poplar Avenue became the backbone of commercial development, and a second center was formed at the intersection of Poplar Avenue and I-240. Today, the center city in a metro context includes both the traditional downtown and Midtown functioning together as one interactive area. This center city complex, with 2.25 million square feet of Class A office space, remains the region's most diversified with commercial, governmental, medical, sports, entertainment, convention, cultural and arts facilities. However, over the past two decades, other office uses and retail centers have located in the vicinity of the I-240/Poplar Avenue interchange with 4.2 million square feet of Class A office space. A third center is now emerging along the Bill Morris Parkway from Southwind to Collierville area, anchored by the FedEx World Headquarters and the FedEx Technology Center.

Memphis' growth pattern is being shaped by push and pull forces created by pockets of deterioration within and new suburbs beyond the I-240 belt.
The center is pushing population outward due to deterioration of inner-city public schools and the perception of crime in the inner city. While Memphis has deterioration and population loss within the I-240 beltway, it is concentrated in a series of pockets and is not as wide spread when compared to other American metro areas. In fact, some areas of the inner-belt area exhibit moderate to high growth partly due to strong revitalization efforts. The metro area's most severe urban deterioration surrounds the Downtown between I-55 and the I-240 beltway.

Middle income residents looking for higher quality of schools and a suburban lifestyle are being pulled to newly suburbanizing areas on the metropolitan edge. The largest share of suburban growth is to the east of the Mississippi River with little growth occurring in the Arkansas area to the west. The growth of the Memphis metro on the east shows a pattern of balanced growth around the I-240/I-40 beltway.

The road pattern of the future urban metro area is being constructed today.
Construction on a new "super outer belt" around the metro perimeter from US-51 North to US-61 South is now under way. Four radial freeway corridors and six major corridors will link the I-240 belt to this new "super outer belt." They will provide the framework for low-density, auto-oriented urban growth throughout this area reaching 22 miles east of the center city. When completed, the "super outer belt" will encompass the existing Paul W. Barret Parkway, connecting to the TN-385 corridor to Byhalia, linking MS-304 and extending to the Walls community.

Recommendations

Create a regional growth policy and planning framework.
In 1999, Shelby, Tipton and Fayette Counties, with their 24 incorporated municipalities, adopted individual growth plans. Throughout the region, growth strategies and planning practices are often uneven and need to be better coordinated and linked to the metro center. By coordinating individual strategies in a regional framework, stronger regional and metropolitan relationships can begin to effectively focus on issues dealing with regional poverty, economic development, environment, and transportation. In the Memphis region, multi-jurisdictional planning and cooperation are needed to achieve impacts of a scale that will produce visible change and benefit to area residents.

Strengthen the region's center cities.
Create a new plan that combines the center city, downtown and midtown into a multi-dimensional metro center that creates a focal point for the entire region. Continue to strengthen the central business district as a medical and bio-medical research center to take advantage of the $2.3 billion investment in 70 projects. These investments combined with other new development activity are merging the traditional downtown and midtown areas into one mega-center. By strengthening code enforcement and crime prevention programs in surrounding inner-city neighborhoods, residents living there can begin to participate in center-city economic revitalization.

Memphis, with the largest downtown in the region, has plans to continue revitalization of its core. Other regional cities need to preserve their downtowns, too. Nineteen urban regional centers (such as Holly Springs, Forrest City, Osceola, and Tupelo) are important to the pattern of urban growth and the social life of the region. Many have programs in place to enhance and save their town squares. Attention needs to be given to these centers because small downtowns are often threatened as development shifts elsewhere. The vitality of these towns can enhance the economic potential of the entire region and they should be nurtured.

Develop a balanced metro growth strategy incorporating Shelby County and the urbanized parts of the four adjacent counties.
A balanced metro growth strategy should be developed to avoid low-density, auto-oriented growth as the metro expands. Plans for future transit corridors should involve land use coordination and reinvestment in urban core areas throughout the region. The region's real estate community should be involved in the area's growth strategies to better coordinate public and private investment decisions.

The urban metro growth pattern is at a crossroads.
The construction of a new road network, including the super outer belt, will have a tendency to facilitate low-density growth in the Memphis metro area. The region has the potential to build an extensive transit system because six of the radial road corridors have parallel rail lines. Proper land use controls could help create the development densities required to support transit in these arterial/rail corridors. An effective utilization of road and rail could provide the Memphis metro with a more balanced transportation strategy for future growth.

Low-density urban growth is costly to the community.
A review of public policies and investments in the region should be undertaken to determine the financial implications of current plans and of alternative futures. Metropolitan areas throughout the nation are addressing the costly consequences of low-density residential development across the rural landscape. As the Memphis region continues to expand its transportation grid, it creates a platform for essentially unlimited low-density urban growth. New housing sites beyond urban areas requires the region's governments to extend water, wastewater and roads, often for great distances, to meet developer and household needs, not to mention the costs of schools, libraries and parks. A review of the financial implications would provide decision-makers with the "real" cost of such growth, since it cannot be nearly supported by the new property taxes produced by it. This would allow political bodies to evaluate the choices for the future, rather than making growth decisions without the financial impacts before them.

Click Here to view the respective section from the SourceBook in PDF Format
(requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader click here to download)