This meeting was called to have Planning and Water Departments come and present about what’s going on in our corner of the county. As you know, there have been several enormously impactful developments proposed here in the last 5 years, all of which seem to be contrary to the Nashville Next plan.
And despite being against policy, it appears that at least one of these precedent-setting developments, the Best Brands warehous, is going to move forward and potentially bring sewer across Briley which would enable all kinds of major development. Which is also against The Plan.
The Planning Department had no answer for the fact that the policy clearly states that parcels with legacy zoning incompatible with the plan should be rezoned. Literal shrugs.
The Planning Department rep was also pretty clear that religious institutions can pretty much do whatever they want wherever they want, regardless of zoning or policy. Remember the proposed “land swap” with the church? That happened – Best Brands paid the church $4 Million for the property, and then sold them the northern part that connects to Cato Rd for $700k. So the church has acreage and $3.3 Million in cash to spend on their convention center that they can put anywhere.
You can’t have smart growth if you don’t follow a plan. And we have a Plan that won international awards. We should follow The Plan. OR… change The Plan – there’s a process for that. But don’t let development happen that doesn’t align with The Plan. You’d think that makes sense.
As always, Mr. Honeysucker from the Water Department showed up for the community. He didn’t have the details of the issues at hand – questions about the status of Best Brand’s sewer and water studies and offered to respond to any inquires john.honeysucker@nashville.gov.
Apologies for the video/audio quality. Here’s a transcript if you’re more of a reader.