West Nashville Community Plan Bumped by May Town Again

A Nashville neighborhood leader points out that the west Nashville community plan, which conflicts with the May Town Center proposal, has been bumped off Thursday night's consent agenda mostly likely for deferral, since the commission is also entertaining a do-over for May Town developers on the same night. Consent agenda items are recommendations that are approved as a group without debate.

The west Nashville community plan would protect existing neighborhoods from becoming the drive-through spaces that building bridges to Bells Bend would produce. The Metro planner in charge of the community plan, Anita McCaig, is not answering e-mail queries regarding Planning's preferential treatment for May Town developer Tony Giarratana over the expectations of west Nashville residents.

The community plan had already been bumped off a May agenda due to CM Lonell Matthews' rushed introduction of the MTC proposal.

UPDATE: Metro Planning spokesperson Craig Owensby responds to this post by saying:

The West Nashville Community Plan was never on the consent agenda - we don't do that with community plan updates.

LATER UPDATE: A Hillwood leader claims that Planners told one of their gatherings that the West Nashville Community Plan would be put on the consent agenda at the Planning Commission meeting.

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The letter where I ask questions of the Metro Planning Director that journalists won't regarding "merits" that warrant special favors for developers

Writing Planning officials lately has become like trying to distract the Borg collective from their technical functions. Whereas I used to get answers to my questions back from planners under the last mayoral administration, today's Planning officials seem to ignore me. I'm also hearing rumblings from other neighborhoods that Metro Planning is ignoring Nashvillians' concerns on other issues.

Undaunted, I sent the following e-mail to Rick Bernhardt two days ago and quite predictably I have not received an answer:

I read your letter communicating your approval of consideration by the Planning Commission of May Town developer Tony Giarratana's request for commission reconsideration.

With regard to your statement that Mr. Giarratana's request is "not entirely without merit": could you be more specific? What particular merits does the request have that other such requests made in the past did not have?

Also, could you please cite examples of such special consideration that the Planning Department has given rezoning applications in the past, particularly those that your office may have recommended for Commission disapproval?

I'll update if I ever hear back from Mr. Bernhardt, but don't hold your breaths.


UPDATE: Planning spokesperson Craig Owensby responds that Mr. Bernhardt could not respond to my e-mail since he has been on vacation since before July 15, the day I e-mailed him and the day his letter to Tony Giarratana is dated in the Tennessean. Looks like CM Lonnell Matthews screwed up a lot of people's July vacations by shoving May Town down Nashville's throat mid-summer.

Military Mobilizes to Fight Planning Commission's Threat to Environment

The San Antonio Planning Commission and Texas developers are going up against the U.S. Army to lay claim to an environmentally sensitive buffer zone around the Army's local training installation. Commissioners and developers look to run an end around the democratic process and build high-density, gated sprawl across unspoiled habitat.

Sound familiar, Nashville? Could we enlist the Army to help us fight the Battle for Bells Bend, too?

A Cautionary Tale of Neverending Urbanization: May Town's Virginia Inspiration Risks Losing Its Green Buffers

Fairfax County, Virginia is the home of Reston Town Center, which Nashville's May Town Center developers use as the "model product for comparison." According to one former Fairfax Planning Commissioner, the low-density green belts surrounding Reston are at risk of being lost to urbanization because of the very goal that MTC developers tout as a primary reason for sprawling across the Cumberland to Bells Bend: higher tax revenues for the entire community.

In his comments we may be getting a foretaste of things to come should May Town be built:

For decades, two fundamental planning principles governed this part of the county. The comprehensive plan has long envisioned urban employment centers in Reston and Tysons Corner, with a low-density residential buffer in between. Moreover, from the time of Robert E. Simon’s original plan for Reston, there has always been a greenbelt preserved around that planned community. Reston’s highest density is in the Town Center, and development is tiered or scaled down toward its outer edge. On the north, east, south and southwest boundaries of Reston, there is low-density residential development — homes on large lots ....

Urbanization violates both principles. Such an action would change the character of Fairfax forever.

Adding higher density development - commercial or residential - would add thousands of vehicles per day to roads that cannot handle today’s demand. Rail and other forms of mass transit would offer little relief, as these low density potions of the county are miles from the existing or proposed “silver line” stations - a distances no one would walk. Moreover, 65 percent of vehicle trips are non-commuting; they are trips to the grocery store, soccer practice, church and other destinations for which rail is not an option. Bus service would be prohibitively expensive, as would the right of way and constructive costs for miles of new roads.

Schools serving these areas are already at or near capacity and cannot handle additional density. A change in the plan would not only tip the first of many land-use planning dominoes, but it would trigger expensive demands for parks, police, fire and other public services.

Reston Town Center planned and built green belts just like May Town Center plans conservation easements that they assure will be enough to guard against further urbanization of Bells Bend. Yet, the Virginia situation indicates that that the temptation to sacrifice more undeveloped and low-density land to more commercial and residential development only intensifies once urbanization starts. Increasing density increases demand for expensive services and tantalizes more developers to request new zoning with the easy promises of more tax revenues if given the same sort of exceptions that the Planning Commission might make for May Town Center.

Approving May Town both sends Nashville down a slippery slope toward total urban saturation and sets a precedent for future growth as barriers to development disintegrate. If the Planning Commission gives Tony Giarratana and the wealthy May family the opportunity to build even the most limited city on Bells Bend, every ill that goes with urbanization will follow any benefit. Once we break Bells Bend we bought it; and there will be no do-overs for the huge green swath.

UPDATE: The issues of increasing revenues and the loss of some supposedly protected open space to a proposed indoor recreation center are also causing some debate around Reston Town Center. Again, Reston is the blueprint for Nashville's May Town Center. Greenspace is prone to being nibbled to death by urbanization once the growing, denser populations decide they need these amenities and those amenities.

LATER UPDATE: Bells Bend doesn't currently have a street gang problem does it? Build those bike paths and the gangs may come.

Apparently, Reston police dedicated more resources to cutting gang-related activity almost in half so far in 2009. And when police dedicate more resources, the extra revenue has to come from somewhere. But I thought these Town Centers were supposed to generate, not consume, revenues?

So, does the Scottsboro/Bells Bend community want the gang-related activity that might follow high-dense, urbanized bike paths?

Germantown's Monroe at 7th Scales Back amidst Neighborhood Concerns

Not too long ago I received word from inside Germantown that team members with the ambitious Monroe at 7th development were scaling back its concept to "something more reasonable," after a disclosure that the original plans requested blasting and the construction of a new storm sewer for the entire block. Up until that point the development team--which includes Germantown architect firm Carnell Mosley--reportedly had a swimming relationship with affected neighbors, but I am told that developers did not incorporate the feedback or concerns of residents around the project into the plans.

CLARIFICATION: Germantown resident wrote me to say that developers never disclosed the blasting/sewer info to neighbors before they decided to scale back.

Gulch Dweller Warns that a Boutique-Dominated Enclave is No Substitute for a Healthy City Neighborhood

Jonathan Belcher, a veteran of Gulch living and blogger at "Imagine Title Here," examines a recent NY Times feature on his southwest Downtown neighborhood and offers these pearls of wisdom, which could apply to any urban neighborhood:

I moved to The Gulch a little over four years ago excited at one day living in a thriving urban neighborhood. To be honest, I don't care about the hipster or singles scene. And I fear that The Gulch will end up as a sort of soulless scenester urban area and not the urban neighborhood that it has the potential to become.

That's why I'm glad to see some critical discussion happening on what The Gulch could be versus what it is and isn't today. There is no doubt--The Gulch (and other local infant urban areas) offers not only some exciting possibilities but indeed some exciting realities. Where there was once urban decay there are rehabbed and new buildings, retail, dining and increasingly, people.

But there has to be more than trendy chains like Urban Outfitters and scenester joints like the late Bar 23. Right now you can have dinner, get drunk and look good doing it in the Gulch. And if you are wealthy (for the most part), you can go upstairs and sleep it off in your 600-700 s.f. Gulch condo, too. But what if you want to walk to the local bookstore and then to the grocery on your way home? One day I think that will be possible. But the question remains--will anyone but rich people be able to afford to do those things in The Gulch . . . or anywhere in urban Nashville? And what happens when those people want to have kids?

The Gulch, like Salemtown, needs a lot of DEWKS to go with its common DINKS and SINKS, because neighborhoods without that generational diversity are short-term fads rather than long-term communities.

UPDATE: Congrats to JB for winning the Nashville Scene's "You Are So Nashville If" contest.

Is the Planning Commission Going to Reconsider May Town Center on the Basis of Reason or because of Power?

A couple of Metro Planning Commissioners have said that their governing body, while it listens to the public, does not make their decisions on the basis of popularity, but on the basis of reason alone. Part of me doesn't disagree with that. They shouldn't be beholden to popular power moves. But I would go one step further: they also shouldn't be influenced by power and money that comes from the top of the local power pyramid, whether that be from Metro Council that controls their purse strings or from wealthy developers who have the money to gain influence and access to the halls of power. Indeed, they ought to be planning within the limits of reason alone if they choose to stay unswayed by public debate.

So, I'm having a hard time understanding how it is that Planning Director Rick Bernhardt (whose Department recommended approval of building a second Downtown on Bells Bend) and Planning Commission Chair Jim McLean (who has cast at least one vote against disapproving the May Town Center plan) are now telling May Town developer Tony Giarratana that the commission will entertain his request to rehear his team's proposal after the Planning Commission failed to muster the needed 6 votes to recommend approval.

Here is an excerpt of the Bernhardt's letter via the Tennessean:

In accordance with the adopted Rules and Procedures of the Metropolitan Planning Commission ... your request has been reviewed for merit by Chairman McLean and myself. Without making a final determination on the issue, we do not find at this time that the request is completely without merit. Therefore it will be place don the Planning Commission's agenda for consideration.

I genuinely would like to know exactly what merits Tony Giarrantana's letter has that other party's--in enduring long meetings, late hours, and meeting confusion--requests do not have. If the Planning Commission is indeed going to make a decision for rehearing on the basis of reason alone and not because of the power and money at stake in the May Town Center decision, the Planning Director and the Commission Chair should articulate the reasons for this decision and their claims and warrants should stand for fall by no other power than that of the better argument.

Excellent News from MDHA on the Salemtown Streetscape Project

Salemtown neighborhood advisers met with an MDHA representative on Tuesday evening for an update on construction plans for the federally-funded streetscape project. More specifically, they gathered to find out whether the housing authority had pulled off an arrangement to put trees--previously removed because of costs overruns and the loss of a state tree grant due to project delays--back into the plans.

We were not disappointed. MDHA is using the last $7,000 of the grant (earmarked for short shrubs for 24 traffic-calming islands on 5th Avenue, North and 7th Avenue, North) in tandem with a $3,000 donation from Regan Smith landscape designers to purchase Natchez crepe myrtles (tree-size shrubs with white blooms) to plant in each of the islands. Moreover, the plant supplier has some surplus liriope, which he will provide as ground cover for the islands. Each bulb-out will be amended and mulched and receive care for 3 months during the fall for the $10,000 total.

I don't know whether our persistence paid off, but I came away feeling fortunate that we got back a few of the plantings we lost, and the blooming crepe myrtles ought to close in the corridor along these busy streets, along with adding vertical elements to the obscure, street-level bulb-outs. The flora will be the last elements installed in the streetscape plan, and we won't see them until after summer. Committee members present voted unanimously to approve the new plan. Once the trees get installed, we need to thank Regan Smith and the plant provider for their donations to the neighborhood.

In related news, MDHA also said that they would repair one island at 5th and Hume that has been hit several times by vehicles and damaged.

Does Giarratana's Letter to Planning Fail to Stipulate Any Real Irregularities Based on Planning Regs?

A member of the Nashville neighborhoods leaders e-list takes a long look at Planning's rules of procedure and finds the May Town developer's request for a commission re-vote on May Town Center lacking:

looking into the rules and regulations of the Planning Commission it states that a request for reconsideration must state: 1. what conditions have changed (in the case none...[Tony Giarratana] just didn't like the outcome) OR 2. what new information is available (again...none...he just didn't like the vote.)

Also, the Executive Director and the Chair of the Planning Commission can decide whether to recommend it for rehearing. This will be interesting since their own rules address what must be considered.

Quote of the Day

From tonight's All-Star Game, regarding the fact that the National League has not won since 1996:

Announcer Joe Buck: Any bailout for the National League?

President Barack Obama: No, we're out of money.

The Gulch Ain't Shangri-La, Says One NY Times Mag Commenter

Serious drawbacks, yes:

Just spent yesterday considering a move to condo living in The Gulch. It is certainly an interesting place, but nothing below $150K available. No affordable housing, as far as I can see. No grocery store. No green space. Average age probably in the late 20’s to 30’s. Few babies/children/etc. Could not find one piece of information on urban gardening. Schools zoned for The Gulch are abysmal. All in all, if you are single or DINKs, it is a swell (underline swell) place.

As bright and shining as neighborhoods like the Gulch are, Nashville will never be a serious urban destination until it makes room for kids, good schools and more generational/income diversity in city neighborhoods.

Nothing is over until Tony G., the May Family Landlords, and Their Team of Lawyers Say It is over

Last Friday, the development team intent on building a second Downtown across the pastures of Bells Bend asked for special treatment from the Planning Commission in the form of a do-over of the Planning Commission's June vote. That vote did not go well for the Bells Landing Partners: the Planning Commission could not muster enough votes to approve urbanization of Bells Bend, which itself triggered an impossible supermajority vote in Metro Council.

Slick, take-no-prisoners developer Tony Giarratana sent the Planning Commission a letter requesting a new vote based on vague references to irregularities and lame claims to late-night hours and meeting fatigue that are standard boiler-plate for many Metro meetings I've watched. The enigmatic kernel of Tony G's case that seems to beg for the extended obfuscation that lawyers do so well:

As you recall, after about six hours of meeting and public hearing the gavel fell and, at around 10:00 in the evening, the first vote was called. During the ensuing 45 minutes of motions, debate and voting it became apparent to many in attendance that several procedural irregularities most likely undermined the entire voting process. To be sure, the late hour had an obvious impact on the Commission members expressing such sentiments as "It's late," "I'm tired," "Don't confuse me," and "It's confusing," all the while rubbing their eyes and shaking their heads. Many in the room that evening certainly shared these frustrations.

The irony of the June public hearing is that May Town supporter and friend to untrammeled developers, CM Jim Gotto, was the Commission member who forced the late-hour vote. The Commissioners had already been talking about carrying over the MTC discussion to another day and voting then. However, CM Gotto must have miscalculated that he had 6 votes that he did not have, and he seemed to misconstrue that his side had the advantage of late night confusion. We wouldn't have heard a word about do-overs from the development side if 5 other commissioners had voted with Gotto.

Instead, the confusion worked against the May Town team, because at least one commissioner who had expressed his ambivalence all night about supporting the proposed sprawl voted against a motion against May Town and then voted against Gotto's motion in favor of May Town. Despite the consistency of the caution with the different votes, Gotto paid no heed to the ambivalence and he may have clumsily cost his side Commission approval. Tony G should stop blaming "irregularities" for his loss and instead blame Mr. Gotto's fumble.

To protest in such a self-important way as if he was any better than anyone else who ever loses at the commission is bad faith. Those of us who have sat through long Metro meetings, late at night, staggered by the procedural stunts--at times watching initiatives we support lose--should feel no pity or empathy for the MTC development team. They are all lawyered up and ready to take this to the ivory towers of the judicial branch away from the unwashed masses in order to charge Metro government irregularities.

But proponents of keeping Bells Bend rural by keeping out a second Downtown have their own case against irregularities in the Metro Planning department. The alternative development area plan, the MTC rezoning request, and the Planning staff's endorsement of the SP all violate Metro Planning's own Community Character Manual, which is supposed to be determinative of planning for Bells Bend. The Planning staff's bungling double-cross of west Nashville neighbors and their sub-area plan in order to open the door for bridges to be built to Bells Bend was also a glaring irregularity that will do more to undermine public confidence than anything the Commission did to MTC. May Town opponents have their own strong case against Planning irregularities, but their avenues to seek redress are fewer and far between because of the lack of comparative wealth.

Obama White House Still Not Proactive on Urban Policy

The Obama Administration continues to react to questions about its commitment to cities, rather than advancing proactive urban policies. As always, DMI Blog is all over the laggardly White House.

In the meantime, transitional urban neighborhoods are bearing the brunt of the economic malaise.

Homeless Crime in Chestnut Hill Neighborhood Subject of Upcoming News 2 Report

A neighborhood leader from the Trimble Action Group of Chestnut Hill tells the Nashville Neighborhoods Leaders e-list that Andy Cordan will be looking into a problem that his community is having with homeless suspects stealing wire from construction sites and ripping it off buildings:

ABC local affiliate Channel 2 News will air a segment on the problem we are having in Chestnut Hill. The homeless are stealing any wire that can be sold for scrap recycling and burning it in our neighborhood to strip it bare.

This releases toxic smoke into the air, puts our neighborhood at risk for fire and puts everyone in the position to be ripped off of any wire that they can steal from your car, home or business.

There is only a code violation used to stop this problem, which is impossible to enforce. The homeless don't have ID and don't stick around long enough to be cited. The police can't arrest them as what they are doing isn't illegal, but ONLY a code violation against open burning in Tennessee.

NY Times Blog Doesn't Leave the South's First LEED Certified Neighborhood Hanging

The Moment blog had a fist tap for Nashville this morning:

Now, it’s probably true that for anyone monitoring the Brooklynization of other midsize cities, from Baltimore to Minneapolis to Seattle, the Gulch in this early stage may seem like small beer. But for a city that, like many others, gave way long ago to corporate parks and spaghetti junctions, it’s a noteworthy thing for the New South to give up even one block to New Urbanism.

However, blogger Jeffries Blackerby, who says that Nashville is a city that he has "tried to love for many years," exaggerates the greenness of the initiatives with which Karl Dean campaigned and won in 2007.

I followed that campaign closely, and more than any other subjects I heard Karl Dean emphasize public schools, public safety, and economic development. In fact, if you look to Karl Dean's inaugural address, those are the very issues he embraces, referring to air pollution once in passing only as a means to focus on regionwide economic development. While Mayor Dean did appoint a green ribbon committee, I would not characterize environmental protection as the effective cause of Karl Dean's win or the hallmark of his tenure. Beyond the green ribbon committee he has had many opportunities to underscore sustainable economic development as raison d'etre and has not.

Thanks for the neighborhoods blog love, New York Times, but let's not hype the progressiveness of our Mayor's Office or forget that there are significant campaign promises he made that have yet to be realized.

Does This Inspire Your Confidence in Newspapers?

The mainstream media is already deciding who will be at the health care reform table and, according to Bill Moyers, it ain't going to be you or me:

The publisher of THE WASHINGTON POST, Katharine Weymouth — one of the most powerful people in the nation's capital — invited top officials from the White House, the Cabinet and Congress to her home for an intimate, off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform with some of her reporters and editors covering the story.

But she then invited CEOs and lobbyists from the health care industry to come, too — providing they fork over $25,000 a head, or a quarter of a million if they want to sponsor a whole series of these cozy little get-togethers. And what is the inducement she offers them? Nothing less than — and I'm quoting the invitation verbatim — "An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done." The invitation reminds the CEOs and lobbyists that they will be buying access to "those powerful few in business and policy making who are forwarding, legislating, and reporting on the issues."

Remember, the invitation promises this private, intimate, and off-the-record dinner is an extension "of THE WASHINGTON POST brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard."

Let that sink in. The "stakeholders" in health care reform in this case do not include the rabble — the folks across the country who actually need quality health care but can't afford it. If any of them showed up at the kitchen door on the night of this little soiree, a bouncer would drop kick them beyond the beltway.

Is it any wonder that alternative sources of information like blogs are so popularly followed when newspaper publishers tend to show themselves so unreliable? How can we possibly trust the fourth estate when they put themselves in bed with power-brokers and sell their influence to king-makers?

Shoot-First Usually Takes Out Innocents

If local blogger Nathan Moore called me "pro-looter" in the immediate wake of Katrina for challenging the shoot-first-let-God-sort-them-out that he and other right-wing bloggers promoted, can I accuse him in hindsight of being pro-malice-aforethought? It seems that guns used generated as much anarchy as order and the callousness of police failed to protect at least one father of four.

Germantown's Sidewalk-Side Charm

Kateo takes a walk to lunch and comes back reminded why she's glad she's a G-towner:

High on our list of criteria for a livable neighborhood when Karsten and I were house-hunting was that it had to have sidewalks. Some cities take this attribute for granted, but many of Nashville's neighborhoods don't have extensive sidewalks, so this truly was a limiting factor in selecting a location. In moving to Germantown, not only did we get sidewalks, we got charming brick sidewalks.

Jump to the rest, including photos of her favorite neighborhood gardens.

Supressed Voter Turn out Gives Republicans the Best Chance of Winning

R. Neal shows himself the realist about tactical election politics, especially the dirty tricks that serve a certain red-state party:

there is clear and very real evidence of an organized effort to undermine election reforms in Tennessee. Go read that and tell me how you interpret it as anything short of an effort to discourage voter registration, suppress voter turnout, inject big money into elections, make it impossible to verify election results, and install hand picked election officials to oversee their schemes.

The only thing that isn't clear is the motive. It may be as simple as "because they can." More likely, it's to gain every possible legal advantage going in to the 2010 elections.

And they media? Well, they're not helping the situation some deep investigative journalism, let alone attention, so what good are they?

Mainstream media is taking a pass on the controversy. They are too busy mourning the death of journalism to go do some journalism as part of their "fourth estate" duties, one of which is to watch over this most fundamental element of representative democracy. Other than a couple of bloggers and a "colorful" activist (who got a visit from the TBI courtesy of the Secretary of State's office for his trouble), nobody seems to care.