On a typical day, student pick-up and drop-off at Midtown’s Idlewild Elementary takes — from start to finish — 35 minutes. 

However, crossing guard Gloria Phillips predicts it will take 10 to 15 minutes longer once a nearby development is finished, especially if a Whataburger drive-thru comes to fruition. 

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In mid-August, the Memphis City Council delayed a final vote on a special-use permit for the Union Avenue development, in part due to Whataburger’s plans. A fast-food drive-thru — any fast-foot drive-thru — has been a sticking point almost since the beginning of the project, which will be located at the site of the former Memphis Police Department Traffic Division. 

The land was sold in 2022, and the initial Memphis City Council conditions for the project mandated that any drive-thru restaurant on the site would have to be specifically approved by the Land Use Control Board and then the council.

Midtown’s land-use requirement also mandates the front of the restaurant must be along the Union Avenue sidewalk. 

The City Council delayed a vote on the development until Sept. 10 to give the developers and neighbors in the surrounding residential area time to see if a compromise can be reached, but a large part of the issue seems to be the surrounding land uses, despite how many fast-food restaurants are already located near that stretch of Union Avenue. 

Whataburger opened its first Memphis area locations in 2022, with restaurants in Southaven on Getwell Road and Goodman Road, and one on Germantown Parkway. The next year, it opened another Germantown Parkway location, and a Winchester Road location opened its doors in early June 2023.

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There are 12 other fast-food restaurants, including a Burger King, Zaxby’s and a Cook Out, within a one-mile radius of the proposed Midtown Whataburger. Other Whataburgers are in similar locations. 

The burger chain’s Winchester location has 12 other fast-food restaurants within a mile of it; the Getwell and Goodman locations in Southaven are within a mile of eight and 10 other fast-food restaurants, respectively. 

Both locations on North Germantown Parkway are within a mile of five other fast-food places. 

Memphis City Council Memphis Rhonda Logan suggests the difference between the proposed Union location and the other locations is the neighbors. 

“On Germantown Parkway, it’s a commercial corridor,” she told The Daily Memphian. “If you’re going to Germantown Parkway, you’re not going to visit your auntie. It’s a retail haven, and fast food is appropriate because you’re going to get hungry while shopping.”

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Burgers and jams?

“The health and safety of our students, staff and the broader Idlewild Elementary School community are our first priority,” said Margo Roen, an IES parent and the co-vice president of Idlewild’s PTO. “For that reason, we do not support the drive-thru proposed for 1925 Union Ave., a property adjacent to where our students play and learn.” 

Roen said that the proposed drive-thru line would come within approximately 10 feet of the gym and two of the school’s primary recreational spaces, which consist of unfenced black tops.

However, as part of a deal between Idlewild leaders and the project’s developers, EP3 Developers LLC, there will be a six-foot screening fence and four Magnolia trees on the southern property line, as well as sound buffering to direct the sound of the order speaker toward Whataburger site and not the elementary school. 

Parents say the traffic from the development will surround three-fourths of the sides of the school. Following a Friday school day, parents picking up their children from Idlewild Elementary called the traffic “concerning” and said the school simply “cannot handle the influx of traffic from another fast-food restaurant.” 

During drop-off and pick-up times, Linden Avenue is blocked. Commonly, the traffic from parents attempting to follow the pick-up/drop-off route on Union, across from Truist Bank, is backed up to the Walgreens location. Parents such as Roen, who used to enjoy biking or walking alongside their children to school, no longer feel safe crossing the intersection as it’s become more congested. 

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“It’s pretty hectic right now without Whataburger,” Phillips, Idlewild’s crossing guard, said. “With more cars going in and out of the restaurant, they will slow the traffic of the cars coming to drop off and/or pick their children up. … If increased traffic causes an additional five or 10-minute delay, that’s probably going to make more parents late going to work.” 

Shawn Massey, a partner in the Shopping Center Group commercial real estate firm, emphasizes that Whataburger’s peak hours are not during school pick-up or drop-off times. The project’s design also has the drive-thru toward the back of the property, similar to the Union Avenue Chick-fil-A.

The developers have also agreed that drive-thru customers will not be allowed to exit by turning south on S. Barksdale Street towards the school; instead, they will be routed back onto Union. 

“It’s a northbound turn lane on Barksdale,” Massey said.

Linden Avenue will also be blocked off to patrons of the restaurant. Lastly, developers agreed to add speedbumps to Linden, Barksdale and S. Rembert Street to address speeding concerns from the school community.

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Massey also suggested during the Aug. 20 Memphis City Council meeting that the proposed Whataburger would give Midtown customers another food option — and may actually ease some of the traffic nearby. For instance, he said the Whataburger location might help ease some of the Union Avenue Chick-fil-A customer traffic. 

Massey said Whataburger knows they have a market in Midtown from looking at sales demographics, which indicate that Midtown residents travel to Southaven and Cordova to eat at Whataburger frequently. 

Massey said he values the school community’s concerns and affirms that “neighbors need to be heard and addressed.”

“We’re very transparent. We want to be good neighbors. Whataburger is a great client who wants to invest in Memphis,” said Massey. “Everybody’s trying to work together, and, hopefully, it comes to a resolution that works for everybody.”