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Surrounding Counties - Cheatham, Dickson, Montgomery, Rutherford, Sumner, Wilson, Williamson, Maury, etc.


Rural King

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It'd certainly make Brentwood appear to have some semblance of a downtown.

Growing up near the area, I got the sense that Brentwood never really cared that they didn't have a "downtown." They've pretty much rejected anything that would be considered even remotely urban throughout their history. Anyone remember the proposal for the Cal Turner Jr. farm on Franklin Road? Brentwood didn't want it.

But now it seems there has been a shift in thinking, even if it is a small one. Brentwood is running out of land to develop...and relatively quickly. In the past, they wanted to keep the small houses/small lots and apartments out so they could control the riff raff. Now I think they're realizing that their development style, while nice and open, has turned the whole town into a traffic nightmare. And while their neighbor Franklin is equally nightmarish, they are starting to build some nicer looking multi-unit developments and have made some effort to improve land use.

That and Franklin has an authentic old charming downtown. And they get a lot of attention for it. Brentwood's jealous.

Joking and creative liberties with the Brentwood narrative aside, I think "downtown" Brentwood has a lot of potential. I think this would be a great project to get the ball rolling...but it will still feel like an isolated "spot" rather than a true downtown. Where they can really make a difference is between Franklin Road, Church St E, and Frierson (just west of I-65). There has been some encouraging development, including street improvements in this area. There are even a couple of newer "downtown style" buildings that front Franklin Road (Pinnacle Bank and TD Ameritrade buildings) that could be a model for future development.

The only issue now is that there is a load of fugly 70s-80s architecture (back when Brentwood was about as big as Fairview) that really just needs to go. Here, you could have a little microgrid that could support mixed-use, pedestrian friendly development. There are already a couple of good restaurants over there (Judge Beans, Local Taco). You could actually give Brentwood a fun little core so it doesn't seem like the town shuts down at 9pm.

Plus, if they ever wanted to, the railroad gulch is deep enough there to bridge it all the way across. That alone would make it feel like a much bigger plot of land.

Also, I've noticed hotel guests (from the east side of I-65) that actually walk to these places. Get on those sidewalk improvements, Brentwood!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Now dubbed the Streets of Brentwood. Murry Ohio HQ and TBC area.

http://www.tennessea...offices-theater

I'm glad the suburbs are starting to densify and see the value in having walkable neighborhoods that are connected with other neighborhoods. But why does it have to have a name like that? The Streets of Brentwood? Why can't it just be a neighborhood?

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I'm glad the suburbs are starting to densify and see the value in having walkable neighborhoods that are connected with other neighborhoods. But why does it have to have a name like that? The Streets of Brentwood? Why can't it just be a neighborhood?

It's close to Davidson County...might as well call it...The Mean Streets of Brentwood. :ph34r:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Couldn't decide to put this here or in Historic Preservation, but the Mooreland Mansion is becoming a hotel and growing in size. A nice bit of adaptive reuse for the area...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121106/WILLIAMSON01/121106007/Brentwood-planners-sign-off-Mooreland-mansion-hotel?odyssey=mod{sodEmoji.|}newswell{sodEmoji.|}text{sodEmoji.|}FRONTPAGE{sodEmoji.|}p

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I don't normally get too excited about road design, but I love the design of that overpass/off ramp! Very efficient on space.

That's a Single-point Urban Interchange (SPUI). SPUIs are used extensively in bigger cities for interchanges at major highways. They tend to be very efficient as far as controlled intersections go and (obviously) take up a lot less space than your typical cloverleaf intersection. I'd love to see them used more often in Nashville! Their only drawback is that they can be a bit more of a hassle for pedestrians due to the fact that you have more crosswalks to deal with.

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Oh man, I ran into that the night of the wedding. It was late and I was tired. I almost went the wrong way!!!

Nm, after looking at it again, it was the reception dinner night at Bricktops, but still that thing threw me off for some reason. McEwen, right? Haven't been out that way in awhile and I think that was the first time I've been on McEwen. Use to know CS pretty well. It has built up!

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Dangit Ron, I just wasted my 4th-to-last free 10ECN article reading and copying the link to paste here! LOL. Kidding. This is going to be a pretty nice project even if it is Williamson County.

I try not to read anything when it comes to Williamson county in the 10 E C N but I had to see what the deal was. I hate the limited articles free per month. I think that is my first this month, maybe my second. Wish I could bank my free views like phone minutes but there is not much to read in that paper anyway.

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Large chunk of land sold in Cool Springs to SouthStar LLC

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2012/11/buyer-identified-for-huge-cool-springs.html

The Tennessean is reporting this as well.

“They’re anticipating a mixed-used development that has different components to it as far as retail, some office and multifamily,” said Tom McArthur Jr., president of listing agent McArthur Sanders Real Estate,

A medical complex for Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a Cool Springs campus for Columbia State Community College are planned nearby. Crescent Resources also has a site there with room for an office building and apartments.

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I know a lot of hate is directed towards Cool Springs, but I find it interesting that it's developing the way it is. The way it's going, I'm not so sure it's actually in direct competition with downtown Nashville any more. The development of medium and high density residential seems to indicate that it could be consolidating much of the sprawl that has plagued Williamson county for years, just like downtown is starting to pull back in much of the sprawl that has plagued suburban Davidson county.

I'm going to be down there in a couple of weeks for the Tennessee Military Collectors Assn. show and meeting (think: military museum where you can pick up and play with the stuff), it'll be interesting to see how it's changed since I was last there a couple of years ago.

Edited by Nathan_in_PHL
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I know a lot of hate is directed towards Cool Springs, but I find it interesting that it's developing the way it is. The way it's going, I'm not so sure it's actually in direct competition with downtown Nashville any more. The development of medium and high density residential seems to indicate that it could be consolidating much of the sprawl that has plagued Williamson county for years, just like downtown is starting to pull back in much of the sprawl that has plagued suburban Davidson county.

For the record, I don't "hate" Cool Springs. It has it's draws (mainly the convenience of the largest collection of retail in the state -- maybe not 'one stop shopping' but certainly 'one location shopping')...but my main complaint has to do with the office component. Aside from the obvious "what if all of those millions of square feet of Class A were downtown?" I just generally find a lot of the buildings to be quite vanilla (aside from Nissan, of course). But it would be hypocritical for Nashvillians to point the finger at Franklin when there are so many blatant missteps that our own planners have taken in Nashville itself (especially on the southeast side of the county).

Cool Springs may also not be in direct competition with downtown, but it is certainly still in competition. It's a matter of the preference between urban and suburban office settings. The Nissan building is nice, and I would have loved to have Nissan's HQ downtown...but that building would not work for downtown Nashville...and I think Nissan was looking for more of a campus-like setting anyways. Franklin is still fighting to get corporate HQ's to locate in Cool Springs...HQ's that Nashville city is also presumably trying to lure. So there is some level of competition.

The interesting thing is the newer development (mainly around McEwen) where, as you said, Franklin is building higher density residential. I think that most of these developments would not look the same if they were in our core, but it's the same idea. I think they are trying to lure the urbanites who are relocating from other cities to jobs in Franklin -- to also live in Franklin. On one hand, that lowers the overall pool of people that Nashville is trying to lure to the urban core...but on the other hand, I'd much rather have people living closer to their workplace, if just for traffic reasons alone.

All in all, I'm happy to see that Franklin is willing to adapt to the times and attempt to evolve from the cookie-cutter home and apartment stereotype...but is it too little too late, or better late than never? Depending on how full your glass is, take your pick.

Hopefully, though, we're on our way as a region to better intergovernmental cooperation. If we're fighting our battles with our own suburbs (and them with us), then we're wasting time and effort that could better be used elsewhere, such as a regional transportation and infrastructure plan.

And to jump from one tangent to another, while Franklin might be finally learning to combat it's sprawl problem, the battle is arising elsewhere. Spring Hill continues to be a planner's nightmare, and it appears that Thompson's Station might be eager to join the fray. While some of our older suburbs are maturing in their growth and planning processes, our younger startups are starting to gain a lust for unchecked development. I'm not usually one that wants to dictate how other's do their business, but I think it's healthy for the region if everyone takes a step back, before they get ahead of themselves, and look towards the future.

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