MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis council members are demanding the city give them more clarity about the future of Southbrook Mall.

They spent the past three years talking about renovations

There’s still a lot of controversy over Southbrook Mall. City leaders say when it comes to this topic, they’re not on the same page, and they don’t understand why.

“I think that’s the issue is that there’s been a lot of people are saying this and that, and I just want clarity,” Robert Lipscomb, the director of Housing & Community Development, said.

City Council member Harold Collins says the Southbrook Mall Project has been kicked down the road too long.

Now the question is where does the city go from here.

“In meeting with the Southbrook Mall, people knew that there were hurdles that they had to get over to do this,” he said.

Council member Wanda Halbert says there are two separate issues here.

“The first which has been approved today by the committee, which is $1.5 million that has been talked about for the last three years, but the second, an additional $2.1 million the city asked Southbrook Mall to apply for,” she said.

Halbert says it isn’t clear how the city will go about getting the extra funding, but may consider the pilot program, EDGE.

She tells us there’s an even bigger problem here.

“When poor and minorities come to the table and ask for support from government then for some reason it takes years and years worth of discussion and decisions, but for others, it does not,” she said.

“So I think Whitehaven, considering it’s the home of the airport, Elvis Presley development, we’ve got to think bigger and think about how we can make Whitehaven better than what we’re currently seeing,” Lipscomb said.