A Burned-Out Gas Station Has Sat at Poplar and Highland for Two Years. Its Demolition Permit Was Never Filed.

MEMPHIS, September 1, 2026 - The Division of Planning and Development told the Memphis City Council's Planning and Zoning Committee that construction at the former Exxon site at Poplar Avenue and Highland Street will begin on September 7, 2026, after two years of inactivity and a discovery that a demolition permit had never been filed.

The update was requested by Councilman Philip Spinosa, who chairs the committee and represents the district. He said the site has been in its current condition for about two years, that he recalls a fire the night of a Grizzlies game with snow and ice on the ground, that he drives by it constantly, that it sits next to the University of Memphis, and that people call and ask about it.

The permit history

The division director said the owner received a building permit in December to begin work. A building permit expires after six months. The owner requested a six-month extension. The division talked with them and agreed instead to a three-month extension, which now expires September 11, 2026.

He was specific about why. He said the typical request is six months and the division typically grants extensions, but that because there had been no activity in so long, the division discussed it and did not feel comfortable granting the usual six.

A representative for the owner told the committee construction will start September 7, 2026. She said plans had to be revised to accommodate solar panels, that the revised plans have been uploaded and code enforcement is pushing them through, that the owner changed contractors, and that demolition work started a few months ago and was stopped because a demolition permit was never filed two years earlier. She said the paperwork is now in order.

Councilman Spinosa said he would drive by on September 7, 2026 and expect to see activity, and that most of Memphis would be watching a busy intersection.

The policy question

Councilman J. Ford Canale asked what the norm is when someone requests an extension. Told it is typically six months, he asked whether the division could start with three instead, saying that at some point with people who continue to drag the city on, you have to pull the plug.

The director said the division could certainly look at that so it knows people are serious, and that he would talk to his team about it.

Nothing further was decided. No ordinance, resolution or written policy change was proposed on the record, and no date was set for the division to report back.

The rest of the committee's zoning morning

The committee also advanced a joint ordinance amending the Memphis-Shelby County Building Home Program, added to the consent agenda for first reading. The director described the changes as amendments already approved by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners: authority to charge a $75 per application administration fee in future if the program grows large enough to warrant recouping costs, a change in the website reference so a future site change does not break the plan, a change in deed type from warranty deed to quitclaim deed because land bank properties transfer that way, authority for the county commission to waive any and all back taxes on program properties so they can be conveyed to developers, and the addition of a bracket.

Two planned developments advanced with positive recommendations: fifteen town homes on Covington Pike in District 1, revised from an earlier seven-lot subdivision after opposition to a connection into the residential street behind it, which the revision eliminates; and a fifteen-lot residential planned development on Tanglewood in the Cooper-Young neighborhood in District 4, replacing an existing building proposed for demolition. A special use permit for an event space in the South Main Historic District also advanced, with the committee correcting the super district on the record from nine to eight.

Two items, a planned development in District 3 and a special use permit, were held to the September 15, 2026 meeting.

What happens next

Construction at Poplar and Highland is stated to begin September 7, 2026. The three-month permit extension expires September 11, 2026. The Building Home Program ordinance goes to the floor on the consent agenda for first reading. Two zoning items return September 15, 2026, and the committee asked for presentations on two of the advanced items at that meeting.

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