CM Holleman Warns Richland West End Neighbors of Increased Neighborhood Traffic with May Town Center

CM Jason Holleman sent the following letter to the Richland West End Neighborhood Association e-mail list last night:

By now most, if not all, of you have read and heard much about the proposed May Town project, and many of you have contacted me with your opinions. While I know that a lot of information -- both for and against -- has been widely distributed throughout the city, I feel an obligation as your District Councilman to make you aware of concerns that I have about the the specific impact that this project would have on our district.

- Although it would currently take about 30 minutes to drive from

District 24 to the proposed development site, the construction of the two

bridges recommended in the Metro Planning Department's staff report will

place our neighborhoods within *less that 1 mile* from May Town Center.

- According to the traffic study performed by RPM (an independent study

performed at Metro's request), this development will generate a total of

61,000+ new daily trips during the initial phase of the project.

- Obviously, much of this traffic will utilize already heavily-burdened

throughfares in our area such as Charlotte Avenue, White Bridge Road, and

West End/Harding.

- In fact, MPD anticipates that the project will raise traffic levels

such that both I-40 and White Bridge Road will have to be significantly

widened.

- Even our smaller, neighborhood streets will be impacted. Both the

developer's and Metro's traffic study indicate that turn lanes will have to

be added to 46th Avenue and 51st Avenue to accomodate the additional traffic

(the developer's traffic study actually offers the removal of existing

sidewalks as a possible solution to add capacity to these streets).

For more information on these issues, you may access numerous documents about this proposal at the Metro Planning Department's website:

http://www.nashville.gov/mpc/bellsbend_maytown_info.htm.

You may also read the very detailed analysis posted by CM Emily Evans on her blog:

http://metrocouncildistrict23.blogspot.com/.

Finally, please be aware that the Metro Planning Commission is holding its final public hearing on the matter *tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. at the Metro Southeast building *on Murfreesboro Road (MAP: http://www.nashville.gov/mpc/pdfs/main/MeetingMapSmall.pdf). I strongly encourage you to attend and speak if you have concerns about the impact of this project on our neighborhoods and commercial corridors. Your testimony does have an impact. Although not as effective as attending the meeting, you may also e-mail or call the Metro Planning Commissioners prior to tomorrow's meeting:

Metro Planning Commissioners

Rick Bernhardt, Executive Director

Richard.Bernhardt@nashville.gov

James McLean, Chairman

(615) 256-1400

Calumet88@comcast.net

Phil Ponder, Vice Chairman

(615) 883-5149

Panddponder@bellsouth.net

Hunter Gee, Commissioner

(615) 726-1110

HGee@lrk.com

Stewart Clifton, Commissioner

(615) 383-8785

StewartClifton@comcast.net

Judy Cumming, Commissioner

(615) 876-0917

RevJudyCummings@bellsouth.net

Tonya Jones, Commissioner

(615) 259-1688

mrk4@aol.com

Victor Tyler, Commissioner

(615) 865-4898

VcTyler@msn.com

Derrick Dalton, Commissioner

(615) 371-0049

GDalton@tmlrmp.org

Andree LeQuire, Commissioner

(615) 467-6700

AndreeLequire@bellsouth.net

Jim Gotto, Commissioner

(615) 883-3087

JmGotto@bellsouth.net

Thank you,

Jason Holleman

Metro Council, District 24