Plan for landfill near Frayser school on hold amid community opposition

The company that sought to open a landfill next to a Frayser elementary school has withdrawn its application, at least temporarily.

Memphis Wrecking Co. pulled its application from before the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board on June 18, two days after Chalkbeat reported about the planned landfill. The board had been scheduled to consider the application at its July 9 meeting.

Don Jones, municipal planner in the city-county Officer of Planning and Development, said the company asked him to take the application off the agenda because of community criticism of the plan.

“They were sensing too much opposition,” Jones said, noting that the company could seek to resubmit its application in the future. Memphis Wrecking declined to comment.

The landfill had been proposed for an empty field in the Memphis community of Frayser, where the state-run Achievement School District manages five struggling schools. The field adjacent to Whitney Achievement Elementary School would have become a demolition landfill for construction waste and debris.

“We oversee a number of neighborhood schools, and knowing that this potential health risk and this potential type of business that detracts from the quality of life in the community is no longer on the table at least for now has me relieved,” said Tim Ware, executive director of the ASD’s Frayser operations.