Nashville's Growth after 2010 Development Plan

[theplanetsaved]

Nashville's current 2010 development plan has run it's course and Nashville in the near future will start developing a new 2025 growth plan for Nashville. What are your ideas of Nashville growth patterns as we become a more sustainable vibrant city.

[Shuzilla]

Nashville's current 2010 development plan has run it's course and Nashville in the near future will start developing a new 2025 growth plan for Nashville. What are your ideas of Nashville growth patterns as we become a more sustainable vibrant city.

Never short of opinions, Here's my plan. Call it the One Million. Begin with a simple proposition: the population of Nashville-Davidson will, one day, be one million people. The plan would envision a Nashville with almost twice the 2000 population. Where would they all fit? What resources should be preserved? What will the additional demand require of our infrastructure, both new and existing construction?

The goal would be to prepare for such growth by improving and/or adding to infrastructure not simply as needed but ahead of the need to guide growth by incouraging development where growth is desired.

The plan would be developed around a few guiding principles:

1. Grow Nashville to curb growth elsewhere. Projected growth in the 10-county MSA is 900,000 to 1 Million people by 2035. Only 10% to 15% of that growth is expected in Davidson County. We need to set a goal that at least half that growth be in Davidson. Otherwise, SR 840, upon completion, will become a string of population/commercial centers over the next generation as a million people will live within 10 or so miles from one of its exchanges.

2. Achieve and maintain a ballanced demographic. I feel nashville is getting older and poorer and I think the statistics back me up. We can no longer cede middle class families to surrounding counties because that reduces our tax base while creating a critical mass of workers elsewhere that will accelerate the location of businesses and corporations outside of Nashville.

3. Densify existing suburbs.

4. Growth feeds Downtown.

My blueprint for growth is the following:

1. Foster the growth of neighborhoods just outside of the Briley Parkway/Woodmont/Thompson Lane loop into regional suburban town centers. Each would be a catalyst for densifying old suburbs around them. They would have office buildings and high-density housing and be transit hubs, each almost like a stand-alone Nashville at the turn of the 20th Century. Public transit will begin as intra-township services that would move people around the neighborhood along track of only a couple of miles. Sell localized mass transit first.

2. As a counterpart to #1, reduce development along major thoroughfares and gradually convert all roads into downtown, outside of I-440, into limited-access boulevards. Public transit routes would then be added to these spokes to connect downtown to the regional suburban town centers. That makes Downtown infinitely more accessible to all of Davidson County.

3. Areas to become suburban town centers, really miniature cities, would be: Madison, Whites Creek, Belle Meade/White Bridge, Green Hills, Berry Hill, Donelson and Pennington Bend. Each would accommodate or otherwise support an additional 40,000 to 60,000 people, either within their footprint or through denser developments surrounding them.

Pie in the sky yes, but I like it.

[theplanetsaved]

I also have always had a similar vision.

I agree if middle Tn is to be economically sustainable Davidson County has to attract about 40% of that future growth. Davidson county needs to have a healthy balance with the growth of the surrounding counties. This is not what has been happening in the last 20 years. Where and how can davidson county add 400,000 people?

1. Need to create walkable density centers in our existing suburbs. THere would be about 8 of them about 4 miles from downtown creating a ring around the city. They should be connected by a transit system. THis transit system also connect to the downtown. Green Hills town center. Belle meade town center. charlott, bells bend or whites creek, jefferson street town center, Donelson, Berry Hill town center and few others. Each of the density centers would have mix use zoning with side walks. They would have boundries that encourage density. Outside these boundries would be the existing suburban neighborhoods. Much of the growth and stress of growth would occur in these defined density centers. These density centers might be 1/2 mile by 3/4 in area. Typically being 3 or 4 story buildings. Eventually taller buildings. Containing 20,000 people and more in the future.

2. Downtown with its new form base code would fill in much of its open space with new mix use buildings. East Nashville adjacent to downtown would become more urbanized.

3. There would be a greenway trail system also connecting these density centers with larger parks evenly dispersed.

4. As the density centers build up and the mass transit system gets completed we can become less dependant on the interstate system.

[timmay143]

I can see mass transit being a large development. Probably mainly BRT with maybe a leg of LRT and street car each. If not BRT routes (maybe both) another commuter rail leg possibly to Murf, Hend, or Frank. I see the urban core becoming denser (projects eventually being built where say WES, Eakin, Nuehoff, etc. were planned) with developments in the burbs and surrounding counties too. Hopefully, smart and denser growth as has been stated.

Areas like the Gulch, SoBro, Germantown, East Nashville will keep spurring similar developments that we've seen in those areas. Corridors such as 8th and 12th south should continue to see development as well like those that are seen. Berry Hill will continue to develop as well due to the new injected life from the Vandy mall reno.

Maybe a couple of more "bigger" projects (from hospitals and university with one or two other larger projects such as office/mixed-used space and/or hotel) with mostly small to mid dense growth in Vandy-West End area.

Denser cores for Lebanon, Murf, Hend, Frank areas. Maybe some better connections to Clarksville, Robertson Co, and Cheatham Co.

[MTSUBlueraider86]

It will be good to see what the governor elect favors in these areas. When he was in Knoxville, there was some good growth downtown and on the campus but the city was still very dependent on the automobile and no mass transit. Leaving Knoxville after a football game was pure hell, that is why we stopped going. A high speed rail train from Knoxville to Nashville would be fantastic.

I am interested to see what other redevelopment areas are targeted in the urban core, and specifically in the north capital area. The other challenge for him is jobs, jobs, jobs.

BR86

[theplanetsaved]

I went to one of the MPO 2035 transportation plan meets. It was a nice presentation -if you would like to see trains in the distant future radiating out of downtown to the surround counties. A concept plan to start a paper trail so that Nashville would also have a shot at federal money to do studies and what nots to make progress on this goal. This region of the MPO is thinking big and trying to get a start on this long progress.

THe other item they mentioned is that the region needs to have development patterns that create walking communities and denser mass transit friendly communities.

[Nashville Cliff]

Never short of opinions, Here's my plan. Call it the One Million. Begin with a simple proposition: the population of Nashville-Davidson will, one day, be one million people. The plan would envision a Nashville with almost twice the 2000 population. Where would they all fit? What resources should be preserved? What will the additional demand require of our infrastructure, both new and existing construction?

The goal would be to prepare for such growth by improving and/or adding to infrastructure not simply as needed but ahead of the need to guide growth by incouraging development where growth is desired.

The plan would be developed around a few guiding principles:

1. Grow Nashville to curb growth elsewhere. Projected growth in the 10-county MSA is 900,000 to 1 Million people by 2035. Only 10% to 15% of that growth is expected in Davidson County. We need to set a goal that at least half that growth be in Davidson. Otherwise, SR 840, upon completion, will become a string of population/commercial centers over the next generation as a million people will live within 10 or so miles from one of its exchanges.

2. Achieve and maintain a ballanced demographic. I feel nashville is getting older and poorer and I think the statistics back me up. We can no longer cede middle class families to surrounding counties because that reduces our tax base while creating a critical mass of workers elsewhere that will accelerate the location of businesses and corporations outside of Nashville.

3. Densify existing suburbs.

4. Growth feeds Downtown.

My blueprint for growth is the following:

1. Foster the growth of neighborhoods just outside of the Briley Parkway/Woodmont/Thompson Lane loop into regional suburban town centers. Each would be a catalyst for densifying old suburbs around them. They would have office buildings and high-density housing and be transit hubs, each almost like a stand-alone Nashville at the turn of the 20th Century. Public transit will begin as intra-township services that would move people around the neighborhood along track of only a couple of miles. Sell localized mass transit first.

2. As a counterpart to #1, reduce development along major thoroughfares and gradually convert all roads into downtown, outside of I-440, into limited-access boulevards. Public transit routes would then be added to these spokes to connect downtown to the regional suburban town centers. That makes Downtown infinitely more accessible to all of Davidson County.

3. Areas to become suburban town centers, really miniature cities, would be: Madison, Whites Creek, Belle Meade/White Bridge, Green Hills, Berry Hill, Donelson and Pennington Bend. Each would accommodate or otherwise support an additional 40,000 to 60,000 people, either within their footprint or through denser developments surrounding them.

Pie in the sky yes, but I like it.

Actually, the most recent Census stats comparing Davidson County for 2005-2009 vs. 2000 show the population getting younger. Median age is down very slightly, the share of the population under 5 is up about a point, and the pop over 65 is down about half a point. We are poorer; recession or other factors?

The discussion of the ring neighborhoods made me think of the centers in Metro Planning's draft Community Character Manual.