Friday, June 05, 2009

Metro Planners Reverse Themselves on Impact of May Town Center on West Nashville, Delay Community Plan

West Nashville neighborhood leader Adrianne Marianelli appeals to Metro Council members to defer the rapidly-approaching May Town Center public hearing until November, given that Metro Planning staffers changed their tune on the planning impact of MTC on neighborhood affected by new roads to to accommodate MTC:
[On June 1] I attended a special Planning Commission West Nashville Community Plan meeting on the impact of May Town Center held at Cohn School.

West Nashville Community Plan meetings were held this past Fall and Spring. Whenever the potential impact of the proposed May Town Center project was brought up, participants were told by Metro Planners the MTC project would have no bearing on our Community Plan.

From comments by the Metro Planners at the meeting last night, it appears the completion of the West Nashville Community Plan is being delayed due to the May Town Center project. In the West Nashville Community Plan final draft some of the transportation projects in our area were to be removed from the list of long-range projects in the completed Plan.

Now, because the May Town Center development's TIS depends upon those long range transportation projects being completed, the West Nashville Plan is at a standstill.

The Planning Commission's TIS on the proposed MTC development will be presented Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m., at the Hermitage Police Station (which is an odd place to present a West Nashville TIS). The second Planning Commission meeting with public comments on the May Town Center will be held on June 25.

The applicant for the May Town Center rezoning has requested a Metro Council public hearing too soon for residents and Council to have time to develop comprehensive recommendations and changes to the West Nashville Community Plan that protect or manage any impact this project might have.

Residents and Council need time to review and discuss the results of the Metro traffic impact study in a community meeting. The rezoning process should not go forward until the policy work has been completed.

I must ask that you defer the May Town Center project until the Metro Council November 2009 Public Hearing. All West Nashville residents need the opportunity to review any potential problems and develop changes in the West Nashville Community Plan.
It would be awful if Metro Planning staffers sacrifice long-considered West Nashville community plans in the name of supporting a few wealthy property owners who want to sprawl a "second Downtown" across rural Bells Bend to fatten up their billfolds. Both plans deserve a fair hearing and so a delay in the public hearing seems entirely in order. Please contact your council members and ask them to support deferral of a public hearing on May Town Center until November.


CORRECTION:  A council member e-mailed me to say that a deferral is impossible now. The Planning Commission needs to act within 30 days of first reading otherwise the project is deemed approved. So, they must approve or disapprove by end of June. If the commission disapproves, the Metro Council must have a super-majority to approve.

1 comment:

  1. Metro Planners flip-flopped on the LED sign bill too. What was different from the last bill, except the city planner who reviewed it?

    It is budget time and several members of Council are twisting arms, making threats, and maybe even resorting a tiny bit of blackmail. Bernhardt always squirms and caves during budget time. After all, his job to plan the city is more important than doing his job to plan the city.

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