andywildman

They ever follow up on the structural issues?

Hmm, what’s this mean for the Music City Grand Prix? Nothing says “Nashville” like running the course around a construction site!

Good. Nashville’s problem is now not about courting high paying jobs but instead housing everyone who wants to live in the city. How good of an example is San Diego?

Oh lord I read that as 24’ the first time. At 24”, that’s what, three or four stairs? I’m way less bothered by not having a vehicle cut through. my bad

The emergency vehicle access makes sense as a reason to keep that vestigial “road”. I’m with you that cities mean traffic. The need is for pedestrian connectivity - Laurel and Pine is getting a hip Brooklyn restaurant and Trinity is getting a bunch of new apartments. To walk from Trinity to Laurel & Pine, you have to go all the way to Gallatin or all the way to Jones Ave. It’s like living in the burbs where you have to walk 2 miles to get to your backyard neighbor because they’re in a different subdivision.

TL;DR: We need more development types permitted; Nashville needs a cohesive, long-term strategy to accommodate this growth; we need to keep encouraging council members to support development. I agree with the need for missing middle, and that there's no panacea. And it's difficult to thread the needle of Development within existing (plus feasible future) infrastructure and political will. Regardless, the toolbox is a little too limited right now: Downtown high-rises (include midtown here, largely rentals, but some condos at pretty exorbitant cost to cover rising construction expenses) 5-over-1 construction along the Pikes and in previously industrial zones (largely long-term rentals, see areas like Dickerson Pike and Wedgewood Houston) HPR (two-for-one lot splits) development (smallest step in incremental density, though there's still more meat on this bone in various parts of town) Greenfield detached house development in the edges (Century Farms, Bellevue, Joelton) A lot of the townhome projects or mid-density multifamily development close to downtown ends up going to STR, which is probably the largest reason Nashville's unaffordability has passed Atlanta. Putting "no STR" stipulations in SP zoning is helpful, but not enough to resolve a lot of our larger zoning code limitations. The bigger-picture issue here is the need for a broader vision, which includes: Rapid-transit right-of-way on pikes (no small feat given our state's antagonism) Transit oriented development and bonus density (permit 15-story towers outside of Midtown - in Inglewood and Madison and Antioch - like Green Hills has) Gradual density increases (double existing density in the entire UZO, eliminate RS zoning county-wide, turn Historic Overlays into Design Overlays) Form-based neighborhood commercial on all intersections across the Urban Services District A real bike lane network, both downtown and within the 440 / Briley loop... This is critical not just for bird scooters downtown but also enabling everything from biking to mobility scooters I see councilmembers at varying levels of support for incremental density in Davidson county. O'Connell is obviously pro-development in his DTC district. Sledge in 17 has shown an interest in exploring more housing types (see tweet below). Parker in 5 & VanReece in 8 have generally demonstrated a "build more, but protect existing residents" attitude, which has struck a really nice balance in my opinion. Benedict in 7 (my CM) generally reflects her constituents' preferences, which is "keep density on the pikes and out of my neighborhood." I give that middling marks - it's better than some other council members who are more obviously in favor of development that is "not in my district".

It seems like no (unfortunately), but the permits for The Station by Alta shows a paved road that seems to terminate near the northwest corner of the Laurel & Pine parcel. Someone smarter than me could probably identify how much elevation gap there is between the two parcels. Alta: (top right corner here is the southwest corner of the parcel, adjacent to Laurel & Pine) Laurel & Pine: (top left corner here is the northwest corner, adjacent to Alta's road)

Interesting thread on Twitter yesterday envisioning regional passenger rail along CSX's right of way around Nashville. Obviously a pipe dream, but makes for some fun day-dreaming.

That stretch of Midtown along Hayes & Church are getting a LOT of big parking podiums. Any detail about ground-level activation for this one?

800 Broadway is a really interesting location just beyond the traditional lower Broad... May be a little early, but is a decent little midpoint between Nashville Yards and the Honky Tonks.

Lucky us to be underwhelmed (and to be clear, I'm definitely underwhelmed) by a 23-story tower in our downtown core, bringing over 400 hotel rooms to a <1 acre site in the downtown core. Hopeful for better street-level activation than the Renaissance next door.

Aesthetically the Haven is FAR worse, but this is a bigger insult to downtown Nashville. It turns what could have been a thriving city block into absolute dead space at the pedestrian level. Between this and the self-storage spots, that whole area of Lafayette will be locked into a “drive through” zone.

The initial design suggested protected bike lanes from Lawrence on the north side of the “12 South” district all the way up to Hawkins just south of the downtown interstate loop. https://www.nashville.gov/departments/transportation/projects/bikeways/12th-avenue-south

Agreed. A "bachelorette express" train from the airport to drop off in Sobro or the Gulch would go a long way to getting out-of-towners on board with this vision.

I could look at that picture for hours! The railroad ROW was so wide. Look at all those surface lots already spreading in the foreground! Bizarre to see the west side of the Gulch leading to midtown without the interstate slashing through the neighborhood.

Looks like 3D chutes-and-ladders. Watch out for the rebar on your way down!

Mostly Walmart and its layers of suppliers, but also the University of Arkansas, little bit of tourism with the nearby Ozarks.

Only until they start putting the terra cotta / brick-look facade up.

The crane assembly was cool to watch from the Asurion building over the past week. Does the blue crane not need a peak because it won’t be lifting as heavy of loads?

I mean we just gotta buy a property in Dickson next to a certain state legislator to set up as a “grand old party” house (until the time we intend to return to live in that house). Would change that tune real quick.

This is back a bit into the second peninsula of Hendersonville, surrounded by residential. I like that aspect, though there’s not much density or walkability anywhere in that town. Breweries are better when you can leave without having to drive.

I prefer a Planning & Codes paradigm that is slightly "too easy" to build than one that is "too hard" to build. Haven at the Gulch sucks, but if that lousy building means that we can more quickly approve and build a bunch of other cool buildings and desperately needed apartments, then that's an eyesore I can live with. Seattle's the extreme example in the US, with a Design Review process that can take 2+ years just to approve design! (see article here: https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/07/19/its-time-to-overhaul-design-review/)

Man I love the massing - just fully embracing full building height right up next to the street. But more than that, I HATE the way that parking garage kills any and all street engagement.

Morning of March 4th. Two crane bases in place. First footer poured. Featuring special guest CSX Big Blue boxcar.

Above-grade parking garage is taller than the whole Asurion building.