When Memphis City Council members blocked plans from the school system to build a school off Germantown Parkway, they also made another decision: Frayser residents are again poised to get the next new high school building, said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. 

“It’s already been decided that Frayser is in a better posture to move forward, and new Cordova is hanging by a very, very thin thread at this time,” Harris told The Daily Memphian. “Now, maybe a path forward will present itself, and I’m hopeful that it will, but that’s where we are.” 

City Council votes down permit for new Cordova high school

Council members voted 1-7 last week to deny Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ request to build the school in a cove off of North Germantown Parkway just north of Shelby Farms Park. District officials said environmental studies proved the land was safe to build upon, but the appeals weren’t enough for council members to approve the zoning change from its industrial designation. Concerns about increasing traffic — thereby decreasing student safety walking to and from school — appeared to carry the day.

The council’s vote created another setback for a project whose future was already questionable because of rising costs and competing county building needs, like a new hospital and jail. Over the summer, those budget pressures left two proposed new high schools, one in Frayser and the other in Cordova, pitted against one another.