Ryan Poe

poe@commercialappeal.com

City planners will craft a new comprehensive plan -- Memphis 3.0 -- for adoption in 2019.

Memphis 3.0 -- because the city is heading into its third century -- is the first such plan since 1981.

Ashley Cash, formerly of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis, will head the planning team.

The plan is expected to guide city projects and capital investments for decades to come.

Entering its third century, Memphis is getting a reboot.

Over the next two years, seven city planners in the new Office of Comprehensive Planning will use hundreds of "engagements" with citizens, stakeholders and experts -- from public meetings to informal sit-downs -- to draft Memphis 3.0, the city's first comprehensive strategic plan since 1981.

If the program stays on schedule the City Council will vote on the Memphis 3.0 plan in 2019 as the city celebrates its 200th birthday.

Comprehensive planning is nothing new; what is new is how Mayor Jim Strickland plans to use Memphis 3.0 as a guide to investing in neighborhoods in hopes of reversing decades of population loss.

First, a little history: Going back to World War II, the number of people in Memphis has shrunk -- or would have shrunk if the city hadn't balanced the losses with sometimes costly, often unpopular annexations, spurring even more population loss and more annexation. The city's population was almost the same in 2010 as a decade earlier, but is poorer on average, meaning fewer taxes to cover the higher costs of running a city with a footprint larger than New York City's.

In recent years, mayors have invested heavily in economic development "catalysts" -- most recently Bass Pro Shops and the old Mid-South Fairgrounds -- hoping to create jobs and boost the tax base. But still, residents continue to leave the city.

Strickland has already broken with the past, declining to invest city operating dollars in economic development projects like redevelopment of the Mud Island River Park or the Mid-South Coliseum. Instead, he said he's focusing on a new approach: Find out what will keep residents in the city, then give it to them.

"I think we have to go to a more grassroots level, and get down with the neighborhoods, and improve our neighborhoods to make them more livable," Strickland said. "Improve them for the quality of life for the people who live there and the people we want to live there."

And that's where Memphis 3.0 comes in. City planners will embed themselves in libraries, coffee shops and public spaces in neighborhoods around the city for two years listening to residents' thoughts for the city. Citizens can also contribute ideas through a new website, memphis3point0.com.

The best of those ideas will go into a neighborhood plan, which will be a subsection of the comprehensive plan, with action steps for implementation.

"When we go into the neighborhoods, listen to what they want their neighborhood to be like, and then work toward that, we're building neighborhoods where people want to live," Strickland said. "And therefore, if we build neighborhoods where people want to live, people from outside Memphis are more likely to want to live there. And the people who are already here will be less likely to move."

Strickland expects the neighborhood priorities to guide the city's capital investments through the rest of his term and possibly beyond.

"In short, to me, it's a road map to growth," he said. "It's a way to get all citizens involved in determining what their neighborhood will look like in 10, 15, 20 years."

He added: "That's how we grow our budget: through more taxpayers."

Heading up that process is Ashley Cash, who on Monday becomes the director of the Office of Comprehensive Planning with a two-year budget of $2.5 million funded largely by community partners. The office will also be responsible for updating the plan every five years.

Cash, 31, a former community development and real estate manager for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis, said Memphis 3.0 will give everyone a voice, including residents in poorer communities -- like Whitehaven, where she grew up -- who feel like the city hasn't invested in their neighborhoods.

"In our eyes, they're the experts," she said of residents. "They live there, they know what's going on and what can be improved."

Also, although the details aren't firm yet, the city could give each neighborhood an allowance to spend on projects immediately, Cash said.

The plan will incorporate parts of other plans like Memphis 2000 adopted in 1981, the Shelby County Greenprint for Resilience and the Mid-South Regional Greenprint. The process to craft the plan will be similar, Cash said.

The city "dropped the ball" on the Memphis 2000 plan, which "became just a shelf document" over time, she said. But Memphis 3.0 will be used more often and will focus investment by the city, neighborhoods, nonprofits and agencies on specific projects that will have the largest impacts on residents' quality of life.

Housing & Community Development Director Paul Young said aligning stakeholders' investments is one of the biggest benefits of Memphis 3.0.

"If we want to see this thing implemented, it's going to take everybody at the table to make it happen," Young said.

Cash's team will work closely with HCD and John Zeanah, deputy director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, according to city officials.

Chief Operations Officer Doug McGowen said the city grew largely along the lines envisioned in the Memphis 2000 plan, which was modified in 1999, but it's time to talk about what Memphis aspires to be in its next 20 years.

"Memphis 3.0 is really going to be the blueprint for building our future. The mayor ran on the platform of being 'brilliant at the basics,' but we've always known, and he's always talked about, the next step."

Get involved

Here's the schedule for the public "rallies" for citizens to participate in the comprehensive planning process:

Nov. 28: Ed Rice Community Center in Frayser, 5:30 p.m.

Nov. 29: Riverview Community Center in South Memphis, 5:30 p.m.

Nov. 30: Gaisman Community Center in Northeast Memphis, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 1: Hickory Hill Community Center, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 2: Sexton Community Center in North Memphis, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 3: Orange Mound Services Center Complex, 10 a.m.

Dec. 3: Whitehaven Community Center, 2 p.m.

Dec. 5: Raleigh Community Center, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 6: East High School near the University of Memphis, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 7: Pipkin Building in Midtown, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 8: McFarland Community Center, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 9: Bert Ferguson Community Center in Cordova, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 10: Cossitt Library in Downtown, 10 a.m.

Dec. 10: McWherter Senior Center in East Memphis, 2 p.m.