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nashvillenext
Adopted June 22, 2015
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| Certified per TCA 13-4-202 as a part of the Nashville-Davidson County General Plan adopted by the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County Planning Commission and including all amendments to this part as of June 22, 2015. | |
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⬚ figure | Richard Bernhardt |
| Executive Secretary |
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“BE IT RESOLVED by The Metropolitan Planning Commission that NashvilleNext is approved in accordance with the staff report and recommendations in the staff report with the following amendments: 2; 3; 4; 5; 14; 15; 16; 18; 20; 22a, 22c; 23; 24; 25; 31; 32; and the deferral of 11 areas identified in the Whites Creek area until the August 13, 2015 Planning Commission meeting with the Public Hearing closed. (9-0)”
Resolution No. RS2015-256
WHEREAS, Section 13-4-203 of the Tennessee Code, Annotated, authorizes a General Plan “with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the municipality which will, in accordance with existing and future needs, best promote public health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity and the general welfare, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development, and identify areas where there are inadequate or nonexistent publicly or privately owned and maintained services and facilities when the planning commission has determined the services are necessary in order for development to occur;” and
WHEREAS, Chapter 5, section 11.504 (c) of the Metro Nashville Charter gives the Metro Planning Commission the power to “Make, amend and add to the master or general plan for the physical development of the entire metropolitan government area;” and
WHEREAS, Section 18.02 of the Charter of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County requires that zoning regulations be enacted by the Council “only on the basis of a comprehensive plan prepared by the Metropolitan Planning Commission;” and
WHEREAS, the last General Plan, Concept 2010, A General Plan for Nashville/Davidson County was adopted in 1992; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Karl Dean, seeing fit to update the General Plan, announced on May 22, 2012 that the General Plan would be updated, assigning the task to the Metro Planning Department; and
WHEREAS, under the leadership of the NashvilleNext Steering Committee and the Community Engagement Committee, the staff of the Metropolitan Planning Commission worked with stakeholders in Nashville/Davidson County, holding over 420 public meetings and events and soliciting input through online forums, engaging over 18,500 participants in providing public input to update the General Plan;
WHEREAS, the Metropolitan Planning Commission, empowered under state statute and the Charter of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County to adopt master or general plans for smaller areas of the county, finds that the process followed to develop the NashvilleNext General Plan included diverse, widespread, and meaningful community participation and substantial research and analysis and therefore finds that replacing the Concept 2010 General Plan with the NashvilleNext General Plan is warranted; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Metropolitan Planning Commission hereby ADOPTS NashvilleNext, A General Plan for Nashville/Davidson County in accordance with sections 11.504 (e), (j), and 18.02 of the charter of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville, and Davidson County as the basis for the Commission’s development decisions in the county.
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James McLean, Chairman Adoption Date: June 22, 2015
Attest:
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J. Douglas Sloan, III, Secretary and Executive Director
Each part of the plan has a role to play. Some parts are broad and visionary, while others are specific and detailed. This section helps users of the plan understand how the parts fit together and support one another. No part of the plan is intended to stand alone; each can be understood only as working together with the rest of the plan.
Volume I presents the role and powers of the plan, key trends and issues that the plan addresses, a summary of the plan’s strategy and approach to the future, and implementation goals and policies.
Nashville’s Community Plans provide history and context for Nashville’s 14 Community Planning Areas, along with community-specific issues, strategies, and sketches of how different places in the community could change over time. Detailed Community Character Maps link the broad, countywide Growth Concept Map to character policies that guide zoning and development decisions.
The Community Character Manual provides detailed explanations of the character policies used in the Community Character Maps.
Specific tasks for Metro departments and partners to undertake, within a recommended timeframe.
Volume V is the overarching vision of how transportation works under NashvilleNext.
About the element....................................................................................................... 5
Key ideas shaping this chapter........................................................................... 5 Land uses................................................................................................................... 5 Infrastructure............................................................................................................ 9 Condition of Nashville’s Infrastructure........................................................ 11 Transportation........................................................................................................ 16
The Charter of the New Urbanism................................................................ 25 The region: Metropolis, city, and town.......................................................... 26 The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor....................................... 27 The block, the street, and the building.......................................................... 28
Goals & policies....................................................................................................... 29
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How land is used, how public and private services support daily life, and how we get around Nashville are central to shaping quality of life in Nashville and creating the future that Nashvillians want. The core purpose of a general plan like NashvilleNext is to improve quality of life for all residents during times of change by creating convenient, equitable, healthy, efficient, and attractive communities for present and future generations. The plan does this by aligning land use regulations with investments in transportation and other infrastructure.
How land is used does not happen in isolation from other things the public cares about, such as affordability, sense of community, health, and environmental quality. Generations of planners have learned that addressing land use and infrastructure in isolation from these issues produces irrelevant plans and frustration for the public.
Land is the defining feature of Davidson County. The county is a specific place, a boundary set down upon the land more than two centuries ago (prior even to Tennessee statehood). While its boundaries have changed little in that time, the way the land is used has changed dramatically.
Land use is the activity humans conduct on a particular piece of land. This piece of land is home to a downtown honky-tonk; that piece of land is a farm; another has a store. Land with homes on it—either a tall apartment building or a small house—is called residential. Land used for activities like offices, shops, restaurants, or factories is called nonresidential. Land that is awaiting development may be called vacant, while land that is preserved or serves a recreation function is called open space.
How land uses relate to one another is often a source of considerable controversy, particularly as those uses change over time. Generally, most of the attention in these controversies relates to land uses that are or could be incompatible with residential uses (especially single-family homes).
Land uses can be incompatible in many ways. Different people respond to potential incompatibilities differently. Most people today agree that polluting industry is incompatible with residential because it has direct health impacts. Similarly, intense noise and light (including noise from car and truck traffic) is also considered incompatible with homes, especially when it occurs overnight.
Beyond that, incompatibilities are more subjective, particularly when they offer positive benefits. For example, homes close to major roads with shopping and transit are exposed to more traffic, noise, and light than homes farther away. However, they also offer the benefits of convenience and multiple travel options, such as walking, biking, or transit. Having homes completely removed from these uses generally limits residents to only traveling by cars.
Incompatibility often becomes a trade-off between different residents. While many people would welcome more diverse housing options in neighborhoods with amenities, such as neighborhood shopping, a good school, a nice park, or a low crime rate, the current residents of those neighborhoods often object, seeing more or different housing as incompatible because it changes the neighborhood’s character. The form housing takes, rather than the density, is increasingly a concern, as larger, taller single-family homes replace smaller ones.
In some cases, these incompatibilities are worked out in the private market. People who prefer more quiet homes choose homes farther from busy areas, while people who prefer convenience, walkability, or transit access live close to those places. In other cases, particularly as nearby land uses change, design of buildings and sites can help smooth transitions. At the same time, these choices are constrained by the resources people have and the options available to them. For example, lower income households have fewer choices in where to live. The market may be inequitable when the only choices available to people of modest means are unsafe, unhealthy, or too costly.
Design is central to Nashville’s approach to community planning. Tools like community plans, zoning, and subdivision regulations are increasingly used to protect, enhance, or reflect the character of established places, especially residential neighborhoods. Ensuring that new homes and transitional areas are in character with existing homes can help to accommodate new housing types and reduce conflict between neighbors
and developers. These tools also guide both new development and redevelopment to support health and walkability. This does not mean that established places will not change. As changes occur, they are guided by policy and zoning tools that focus on creating compatibility with the existing character. (See the Community Plans in Volume III.)
Metro Planning also encourages new development and infrastructure decisions to address community needs and desires for the future. For example, one community may lack retail services, while another lacks open space. One community may lack new investment in homes and shops, while another struggles to maintain affordability amid an influx of new investment. Working closely with communities, planners can help fine-tune regulations, incentives, and investments to achieve these ends.
In addition to compatibility and community desires for the future, planners must also respect individual property rights. Homeowners may wish to expand their homes, supplement their incomes by renting out space, or operate a home-based business. Commercial property owners often want to add new offices, storefronts, or additional parking. Oftentimes, property owners are the first to ask for permission to build, develop, or use their property in ways that were not anticipated when regulations were last updated. For example, the decline in the cost of computers, communication, and other workplace tools means a rise in home-based work not anticipated when work primarily happened on paper, face to face, in factories, or on farms.
Last, the Planning Department works to ensure the efficient provision of services, identify priorities for public infrastructure investments, and manage the county’s tax base.
The three primary tools that the Planning Department and the Planning Commission use to guide changes in land use are community plans, zoning, and subdivision regulations.
Community plans (volume III of NashvilleNext) are detailed land use plans that guide development decisions based on the community’s vision for the future. They provide detailed direction for the form and use of neighborhoods, centers, corridors, and open space. Each Community plan includes a Community Character Map, which guides decisions on requests to subdivide land or change zoning.
Zoning is a set of regulations that apply two general sets of rules to specific properties:
» what kinds of uses are allowed » form regulations like height, bulk, and setback
Zoning is used to ensure compatible development occurs in the most appropriate places over time.
Subdivision regulations guide how particular parcels can be divided into two or more smaller parcels. Creating smaller parcels can pose health and safety issues, related to access for utilities and public safety (such as firefighters). At the time of subdivision, space is usually reserved for these services to access properties. When larger properties are subdivided into many smaller properties, the subdivision process also involves laying out the street network and reserving space for roads and sidewalks. While access and road connections are good for emergency access and for creating transportation alternatives, residents are often concerned that these connections will bring more traffic, speeding, and people from outside their area.
Planners work toward balancing the competing needs of a wide variety of stakeholders to arrive at a common community vision, and to apply sound planning principles that foster sustainable community development and preservation.
Infrastructure is the part of the built and natural environment that conveys a public service. Infrastructure systems undergird daily life, by providing necessities or keeping us safe. For example, roads, sewers, schools, sidewalks, and parks are all considered infrastructure. Infrastructure is typically capital intensive, meaning that it is expensive to construct and maintain, and difficult to change. Roads, for example, are difficult to re-route. Not only must new roads be constructed, but the pattern of buildings and uses that surround roads are themselves also difficult to move, especially where properties are owned by multiple owners.
Some infrastructure is above-ground and visible in our daily lives, like roads and powerlines. Other infrastructure is hidden, removed from daily life (like a water treatment plant), or underground.
Infrastructure is costly. Initially, it includes the cost of land, the cost of materials, and the cost of construction. Over time, infrastructure must be maintained or it breaks down and needs repair. If infrastructure falls into disrepair, it can become a health or safety hazard. Typically, larger repairs are more costly than minor maintenance. However, sometimes it is difficult to reach infrastructure for ongoing maintenance. For example, water and sewer lines are underground, covered by roads, sidewalks, private property, and buildings.
Infrastructure has a complicated relationship with land use. New infrastructure can attract more intense land uses and new development. For example, lack of sewer service may limit how many homes can be placed on a piece of property. Water pipes, sewers, roads, and rail lines typically have a strong role in shaping where development or redevelopment occurs, and in what form.
Other infrastructure follows as development occurs. In newly developed areas, schools and parks are typically built alongside or after new subdivisions are planned. As more houses and people are added, commercial services may follow.
All infrastructure can increase or decrease the attractiveness of a place. For example, a park may be added once a place has enough homes nearby
The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernment Relations assesses infrastructure needs for each county in the state. Below, Davidson County’s needs for 2011–2016 are compared with Metro’s spending on capital improvements from 2008–2012.
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Source: Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernment Relations Report on Infrastructure Needs; Metro Budget Office.
to require one. Once there, however, it can make the existing nearby homes more attractive to others. This in turn could encourage them to be redeveloped, bringing in more homes or higher priced homes.
In addition to the built environment, the natural environment also serves as infrastructure. For example, while storm sewers are one man-made way to manage rainfall, open space, tree canopy, and native vegetation all help to manage stormwater by infiltrating it into the ground. Similarly, trees improve air quality by pulling pollution out of the air. Plants can also be used to improve pollution in the ground. (For additional information, see the Natural Resources and Hazard Adaption Chapter.)
Infrastructure is the municipal budget’s “silent killer.” By its very nature, much of it is hidden from public view—out of sight and out of mind. But then the catastrophic events occur—a water pipe bursts in downtown in the dead of winter, a bridge collapses, a pothole suddenly becomes an SUV-swallowing sinkhole. More recent in Nashville’s memory, an unusual weather pattern turned the Cumberland River and its tributaries into a giant, brown swallower of homes and futures.
Infrastructure—from roads and bridges to sewer pipes—is expensive. A recent Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations identified the funding need for Metro Davidson County over the next five years at $4.3 billion or $6,876 per person. In 2012, a joint committee of Urban Land Institute Nashville District Council and the American Society of Civil Engineers, Tennessee Section, Nashville Branch, produced the “Music City Infrastructure Report,” (MCIR) that included a comprehensive analysis of potable, waste, and storm water, along with roads, bridges, and bikeways. In addition, the group studied Nashville’s power needs and mass transit as well as parks, greenways, and open spaces. The overall conclusion of the study was that Nashville’s current infrastructure systems are adequate, but that funding is strained and there are significant capacity issues that could impede future growth. Setting infrastructure priorities and funding is vital to keep Nashville on the leading edge of cities in the region and country.
From the Music City Infrastructure Report, 2013
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The Music City Infrastructure Report utilized a “stoplight” evaluation methodology, which is summarized here. Systems rated red are most in need of investment, while those rated orange, yellow, and green are increasingly well-positioned for the future.
In addition to the nine infrastructure systems reviewed in the Music City Infrastructure Report, this chapter includes three additional systems not reviewed, but which serve as important parts of Nashville’s infrastructure:
» Urban forest » Streams and creeks » Public art
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Two treatment facilities for Metro Water Services have a combined capacity for 90 million gallons of water per day. Metro Water Services has 1,827 miles (64 percent) of water distribution lines that are greater than 40 years old. An additional 746 miles (26 percent) are at least 20 years old, and less than 300 miles (10 percent) are less than 20 years old.
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Metro Water Services operates three wastewater treatment facilities. MWS treats approximately 47.3 billion gallons of wastewater every year. In Nashville’s core, much of the existing piping was built in the late 1880s and carries a combination of sewer and stormwater. Wastewater utilities are primarily supported by user rates.
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Metro Water Services maintains 4,000 miles of aging storm water drainage structures in the Metro area. The stormwater system is barely adequate and has been plagued by a history of not having a dedicated funding mechanism, despite a new stormwater fee, instituted in 2009. A 2008 study estimated that there is approximately an $85 million shortfall that needs to be made up to address the backlog of projects and services identified.
Nashville has more than 2,600 lane miles of roadway, with multiple organizations responsible for their planning, funding, maintenance, and operations. Congestion in Nashville increased by 11 percent in just a one-year period ending in 2010. In 2011, 52.7 percent of Davidson County’s lane-miles were in good or better condition, a major drop from the prior year due to the May 2010 flood and harsh winter.
Nashville has 1,119 bridges on the public road system. The Tennessee Department of Transportation owns most of these bridges. Metro Nashville owns and maintains 326 of them. Maintenance costs run roughly $6 million to $8 million per year. The available funding for the bridge network has been coming in at roughly half that figure. The accumulated funding deficit could creat financial trouble in the future as bridge traffic volumes increase with population growth.
Nashville has approximately 55 miles of greenways and multi-use paths, 33 miles of bike lanes, and 59 miles of signed bike routes. Nashville ranks fourth in the nation for percentage of Federal transportation funds being used for bikeways.
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Metro Transit Authority operates multiple bus lines covering the majority of the county, with regional connections in cooperation with the Regional Transit Authority. MTA/RTA also operates the Music City Star, a commuter rail line to Wilson County.
Several of Nashville’s top economic competitors including Charlotte, Austin, Denver, and Raleigh have recently invested billions of dollars to modernize their mass transit systems.
In a recent survey conducted by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, 83 percent of respondents agreed that mass transit is important for the economy and that regional mass transit would better prepare Nashville for the anticipated growth.
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Metro has 115 park locations, 114 playgrounds, 170 tennis courts, six year-round golf courses, multiple athletic fields, more than 37 miles of greenways, swimming pools, community centers, and more than 100 conditioned buildings.
In 2010, Nashville had 17 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. In 2013, we have approximately 12,000 acres of parkland and open space.
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Nashville’s electricity is generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Nashville Electric Service is responsible for the electricity distribution system, with 91,000 distribution transformers, 233 distribution substations, 5,721 distribution pole line miles, and 66,609 streetlights. NES serves 360,000 customers in Davidson County and portions of six surrounding counties. Residential customers account for 40 percent of kilowatt-hour sales.
Nashville’s tree canopy is a critical resource. Trees clean the air and water and provide habitat for wildlife. In urban areas, trees create a welcoming streetscape that helps to slow drivers. The shade from trees cools pedestrians, as well as pavement and buildings.
The 2010 Tree Inventory found 47 percent of Davidson County was shaded by trees. Unsurprisingly, rural parts of the county like Joelton, Union Hill, Whites Creek, and Bellevue have the highest coverage (over 60 percent of the land). Downtown and North Nashville have substantially lower coverage (5 and 19 percent, respectively).
The Inventory also found that another 35 percent of the county had potential for trees.
There are approximately 2,500 miles of streams within Davidson County. Of these, 330 miles have been designated as impaired and placed on the Clean Water Act’s 303(d) list by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Through monitoring, illicit discharge detection, and water quality protection activities, in the last few years over 90 miles of streams have shown improvement and have been in part or fully removed from the 303(d) list.
Public art plays a major role in neighborhood placemaking. Nashville’s One Percent for Art Program receives 1 percent of general obligation bond improvement project funds to commission and purchase art. Since Nashville’s public art program began, 40 permanent works of art have been added to the public art collection with several additional large scale projects in the works. Public art fuels creative participation and can facilitate wayfinding, animate gathering places, and tell the visual story of a neighborhood. The map at right shows the distribution of funded projects by Council District. A goal of the program is to spread public art throughout all of Nashville’s neighborhoods and cultural centers; however, there is currently no recurring funding stream for maintenance of the growing collection.
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Transportation infrastructure rates special attention. No other form of infrastructure is as clearly linked with land use patterns as the way people move around a city. The relationship between land use patterns (where people want or need to go) and transportation infrastructure (what options are available for getting there) fundamentally shape daily life. Not only does transportation infrastructure open or limit access to different places in Nashville, the infrastructure itself uses a large amount of land (primarily through space for roads and for parking). Transportation, typically traffic and associated impacts, is central to many conflicts over changing land uses.
Transportation poses major costs to Nashville residents and businesses. First, the direct cost of transportation is the second largest expense for most American households (nearly 25 percent of income, for Davidson County residents1). This includes the cost of owning or renting a car, gas, insurance, maintenance, and repair, or the cost of transit.
Nashvillians were asked how easy they found it to get around the city without a car
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Source: Collective Strength, Nashville Issues Survey (1,009 respondents, June-August 2012)
Second, time spent traveling, especially along congested routes, can reduce time available for other activities. The Texas Transportation Institute estimates the cost of congestion at $1,0002 per person each year, due to time and fuel costs.
Third, time spent in traffic is mentally and physically stressing. People who drive 9,000 to 18,000 miles each year are more likely to have neck and back pain than those who drive less than 3,000 miles each year.3 For context,
Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, Center for Neighborhood Technology. Davidson County figure accessed at htaindex.cnt.org on May 6, 2015 ↩
Texas Transportation Institute, 2012 Urban Mobility Report ↩
Human Impact Partners Evidence Base: Transportation & Walkability. Skov T, Borg V, Orhede E. Occupational Environmental Medicine Journal, 1996. 53(5)351-356 ↩
Figure LUTI-4: How to improve transportation in Nashville Nashvillians were asked to rank three ways of improving transportation in Nashville.
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Source: Collective Strength, Nashville Issues Survey (1,009 respondents, June - August 2012)
the average driver in Middle Tennessee travels 15,0001 miles each year. Transportation is also the largest source of air pollution in Nashville. Air pollution contributes to chronic respiratory illness, asthma, impaired lung function, and cancer and heart disease.
Fourth, for people living in poverty with no access to a privately owned vehicle (7.72 percent of Nashvillians), transportation can limit their ability to get and keep a job. This makes it more difficult to climb out of poverty and limits businesses’ access to workers.
Traditionally, transportation planning has focused on mobility, or the ability to move people and goods through the county quickly. Seen through a mobility lens, congestion is bad because it limits people’s ability to travel and slows them down. The TTI study previously mentioned ranked Nashville the 11th worst region in the country for travel delays due to congestion.3 Because density can lead to congestion, considering only mobility tends to spread people and jobs farther apart.
Recently, a different approach has emerged. Accessibility is a broader concept that better captures the relationship between land use and transportation. It considers how easy it is for people to access the destinations they need. Instead of time spent in congestion or average speed, accessibility considers the total distance traveled or the number of destinations within a certain distance.
Federal Highway Administration, 2009 National Household Travel Survey Tabulation created on the NHTS website at http://nhts.ornl.gov ↩
Governing Magazine, “Car Ownership in U.S. Cities Map,” calculated using the American Community Survey (2010–2013 2-year estimate) ↩
Texas Transportation Institute, 2012 Urban Mobility Report ↩
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Source: U.S. Census (2000); American Community Survey, 1-year estimate (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
Here, density can be a benefit, even if it causes congestion, if it provides more destinations within a short distance. Accessibility also includes other ways to get around a city such as riding mass transit, walking, and biking.
Transportation includes how people get to all of the different things they need. Data about travel habits is only partly available. Some aspects of travel, like commuting to work, are well-studied, while less is known about other trips throughout the day. In Davidson County, commuting to work accounts for 15 percent of all trips (other work-related trips accounted for another 4 percent of trips). Travel for shopping (11 percent), other purposes such as health care or church (10 percent), and school (6 percent) were the next most frequent reasons for trips.
More than half (65 percent) of people taking a trip drove an auto, van or truck; another 18 percent were passengers. Nine percent of trips were walking, 1 percent were by bicycle, and 5 percent were transit (with another 2 percent by school bus).
Because it is included in the Census (through 2000) and the American Community Survey (after 2000), commuting to work has the most widely available data. In Nashville, the vast majority (80 percent) of workers drive alone to jobs. Other modes have generally held steady, with slight increases in transit riders and people working from home and a decline in the number of people carpooling.
For trips to school (including college students), nearly half of students traveled as a passenger in a car, truck, or van (17 percent drove themselves). One in five students traveled by school bus, but only 2 percent traveled by public transit. More than one in every 10 students walked.
The transportation system is also used for moving goods into, out of, and through Davidson County. Three-quarters of all freight in the county is moving through Nashville, rather than starting, ending, or both within the city. More than 80 percent of all freight in Davidson County is moved by truck.
With 150 million people within 650 miles of Nashville, it is not surprise that logistics and transportation are major components of Nashville’s economy. The charts below show how freight moves through Nashville by mode and destination.
Total freight by mode
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Source: Transearch Data, from the Nashville Regional Freight and Goods Movement Study Phase 2 (2010)
Total freight by direction
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Source: Transearch Data, from the Nashville Regional Freight and Goods Movement Study Phase 2 (2010)
Figure LUTI-7: Different kinds of surface travel
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A divided highway having two or more lanes for the exclusive use of traffic in each direction and full control of access. The freeway is the only type of highway intended to provide complete “uninterrupted” flow. Bicycle and pedestrian travel is forbidden or discouraged within the immediate right of way.
Examples: Interstates 24, 40, and 65, State Route 155-Briley Parkway, State Route 6-Ellington Parkway, 440 Parkway, etc.
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A major thoroughfare that is vital for moving people and goods and feeds into the interstate and freeway systems. In a city, wide sidewalks are common for pedestrians and bike lanes may be a provided for bicycling.
Examples: Gallatin Pike, West End Avenue, Dickerson Pike, Hillsboro Pike, Nolensville Pike, Lebanon Road, State Route 96, etc.
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Intended to balance access and mobility considerations by serving through movement as well as access to land. Collectors connect traffic on highways and arterials to local streets and adjacent land. In a city, sidewalks are common and bike lanes or a shared road marking may identify a bike route.
Examples: Belmont Boulevard, Paragon Mills Road, Jones Avenue, etc.
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All other streets are generally considered to be local. Local streets typically support direct access to homes and are generally designed for slow speeds to safely allow for other neighborhood activities like walking and biking.
Examples: Woodyhill Drive, Albion Street, Briarwood Drive, Morton Mill Road, etc.
Level of service shows the walking condition on shared roadways. These conditions include presence of walking and biking facliities, separation from traffic, and overall traffic volume and speed.
Source: The Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, 2015
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| A | Usually seen where there are large buffer areas with trees, at least 5 foot sidewalks, low traffic volumes, and moderate to low speeds. |
| B | Usually seen where there are 5 foot sidewalks, moderate buffer areas with trees sometimes, moderate traffic volumes, and moderate to low speeds. |
| C | Usually seen where there are sidewalks present, sometimes small buffer areas, moderate traffic volumes, and moderate to low speeds. |
| D | Seen sometimes with sidewalks or a shoulder, no buffer moderate to high traffic volumes, and moderate to high speeds. |
| E | Usually seen where there are no sidewalks or buffers, lane widths of 12 feet or less, moderate to high traffic volumes, and moderate to high speeds. |
| F | Usually seen where there are no sidewalks or buffers, lane widths of 12 feet or less, usually high traffic volumes, and moderate to high speeds. |
| A | Usually occurs where there are bike lanes or wide paved shoulders, moderate traffic volumes, and low to moderate speeds. |
| B | Usually occurs where there are wide shoulders, moderate traffic volumes, and moderate to low speeds. |
| C | Usually occurs where there are wide outside lanes, low to moderate traffic volumes, and low to moderate speeds. |
| D | Usually occurs where lane widths are at least 12 feet, no/ narrow shoulders, moderate to high traffic volumes, and low to moderate speeds. |
| E | Usually occurs where lane widths are 12 feet or less, no shoulders, moderate to high traffic volumes, and moderate to high speeds. |
| F | Usually occurs where there are no shoulders, lane widths of 12 feet or less, usually high traffic volumes, and moderate to high speeds. |
Nashville’s road and street network is a diverse set of infrastructure, from narrow two lane roads to highways with six or more lanes. Each kind of road allows or limits different modes and speeds of travel. Here, roads and streets refer to the entire space for transportation and supportive infrastructure within the public right of way. This can include medians, bike lanes, and sidewalks, as well as travel, parking, and turning lanes. The presence, size, and relationship between these features invite different modes of travel and the users of those modes.
» Auto and truck traffic » Transit riders » Bicyclists » Pedestrians and people with mobility aids, such as wheelchairs
Davidson County’s dominant rail operator, CSX, primarily moves freight to the south, west, and north, between Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Louisville, and Memphis. Radnor Yard and three smaller terminals are major rail facilities for freight in Nashville. Sixty trains per day are routed through Radnor Yard. Smaller rail operators run lines within Tennessee to the west and east. A number of spurs connect freight destinations (such as DuPont’s manufacturing facility in Hadleys Bend) to the rail system.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation’s 2003 comprehensive rail plan calls for the creation of a Basic Freight Rail Connector, running from Nashville to Knoxville, to compete with truck traffic on I-40.
Nashville’s only commuter rail service, the Music City Star, runs between downtown and Wilson County three times each morning and afternoon, with a fourth trip Friday evenings. The Music City Star is one leg of the region’s mass transit system which is planned to expand along other major routes to adjacent counties. It may include additional commuter rail lines, bus rapid transit, or light rail.
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The Nashville Airport Authority manages two airports. The region’s primary freight and passenger airport, Nashville International Airport, serve 79 counties within 100 miles of Nashville, reaching beyond Middle Tennessee into Kentucky and Alabama. John C. Tune airport is a smaller general aviation reliever airport located in west Nashville. It primarily serves corporate and personal aircraft.
Nashville International Airport was built in 1937, and has been expanded multiple times since then. It primarily serves passenger flights (71 percent of all flights), followed by general aviation (25 percent), military (2 percent), and cargo (1 percent). Sixteen airlines enplaned more than 11 million passengers in 2014.
The Cumberland River is Nashville’s primary waterway, providing Davidson County’s drinking water, environmental amenities, economic activities, scenic views, recreation opportunities, and travel. Most transportation on the Cumberland River is freight service. Most incoming freight (such as coal, minerals, and steel for automotive manufacturing) is transferred to truck and then delivered to destinations within 30 miles of the river. The small amount of outbound freight (4 percent of all waterborne freight) is primarily aggregates like sand and gravel that are mined close to the river.
Nashville has 1,119 bridges on public roads, mostly owned by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Metro Nashville owns 325 of them, including the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge. Most of these 1,100 bridges are in a “state of good repair” (81 percent in Nashville, compared with 75 percent nationally).1
Music City Infrastructure Report, 2013. The Urban Land Institute Nashville and the American Society of Civil Engineers (Tennessee section). ↩
The Charter for the New Urbanism provides a compendium of community building principles that have proven their importance over thousands of years of city development. NashvilleNext acknowledges the importance of these principles and utilizes them as a foundational framework for this plan.
The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.
We stand for the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.
We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.
We recognize that physical solutions by themselves will not solve social and economic problems, but neither can economic vitality, community stability, and environmental health be sustained without a coherent and supportive physical framework.
We represent a broad-based citizenry, composed of public and private sector leaders, community activists, and multidisciplinary professionals. We are committed to reestablishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community, through citizen-based participatory planning and design.
We dedicate ourselves to reclaiming our homes, blocks, streets, parks, neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities, regions, and environment.
We assert the following principles to guide public policy, development practice, urban planning, and design:
Nashville recognizes that complete and successful communities are built with an understanding of interrelationships between history, ecology, geography, demographics, and human decisions. The best communities respect development that is sustainable, creates properly located walkable mixed use neighborhoods, and provides opportunities for all people to live in neighborhoods that best support their lifelong needs and desires.
The elements of the Charter of the New Urbanism have been key components of Nashville’s planning culture since 2000. They have been proven to be successful in improving the built environment and expanding choices and opportunities.
They are woven into the goals, policies, and actions of the NashvilleNext plan and form the foundation for environmentally appropriate and sustainable development patterns.
NashvilleNext acknowledges and celebrates the role of Metropolitan Nashville within the larger region—as the economic, cultural, and civic center of the state.
Nashville/Davidson County is inextricably linked to the adjacent counties and serves as the heart of the entire Middle Tennessee region.
Decisions made in Nashville affect and influence regional prosperity, environmental stability, demographic acceptance, air and water quality, cost of living, and quality of life. Likewise, decisions made in outlying counties also impact Nashville.
Nashville’s economic strategies, openness to intergovernmental cooperation, housing policy, and physical planning must reflect regional thinking. Nashville assumes its responsibility to work cooperatively work with our regional partners in developing an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable region.
Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County is made up of sensitive and unique environmental networks and areas, developed centers, and diverse neighborhoods.
Areas exist which clearly should be the focus for new infill development to spur economic reinvestment, repair urban fabric, capitalize on existing infrastructure and service investments, and reclaim underinvested areas.
By focusing energies within Nashville’s existing developed areas over peripheral expansion, Nashville can conserve environmental resources like water and energy, and promote preservation of regional qualities that enhance the long term prosperity of the entire region. Where expansion is necessary, new development should be organized as coherent places with an integrated mix of jobs and housing.
Metropolitan regions are finite places with geographic boundaries derived from topography, watersheds, coastlines, farmlands, regional parks, and river basins. The metropolis is made of multiple centers that are cities, towns, and villages, each with its own identifiable center and edges.
The metropolitan region is a fundamental economic unit of the contemporary world. Governmental cooperation, public policy, physical planning, and economic strategies must reflect this new reality.
The metropolis has a necessary and fragile relationship to its agrarian hinterland and natural landscapes. The relationship is environmental, economic, and cultural. Farmland and nature are as important to the metropolis as the garden is to the house.
Development patterns should not blur or eradicate the edges of the metropolis. Infill development within existing urban areas conserves environmental resources, economic investment, and social fabric, while reclaiming marginal and abandoned areas. Metropolitan regions should develop strategies to encourage such infill development over peripheral expansion.
Where appropriate, new development contiguous to urban boundaries should be organized as neighborhoods and districts, and be integrated with the existing urban pattern. Noncontiguous development should be organized as towns and villages with their own urban edges, and planned for a jobs/housing balance, not as bedroom suburbs.
The development and redevelopment of towns and cities should respect historical patterns, precedents, and boundaries.
Cities and towns should bring into proximity a broad spectrum of public and private uses to support a regional economy that benefits people of all incomes. Affordable housing should be distributed throughout the region to match job opportunities and to avoid concentrations of poverty.
The physical organization of the region should be supported by a framework of transportation alternatives. Transit, pedestrian, and bicycle systems should maximize access and mobility throughout the region while reducing dependence upon the automobile.
Revenues and resources can be shared more cooperatively among the municipalities and centers within regions to avoid destructive competition for tax base and to promote rational coordination of transportation, recreation, public services, housing, and community institutions.
The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor are the essential elements of development and redevelopment in the metropolis. They form identifiable areas that encourage citizens to take responsibility for their maintenance and evolution.
Neighborhoods should be compact, pedestrian friendly, and mixed-use. Districts generally emphasize a special single use, and should follow the principles of neighborhood design when possible. Corridors are regional connectors of neighborhoods and districts; they range from boulevards and rail lines to rivers and parkways.
Many activities of daily living should occur within walking distance, allowing independence to those who do not drive, especially the elderly and the young. Interconnected networks of streets should be designed to encourage walking, reduce the number and length of automobile trips, and conserve energy.
Within neighborhoods, a broad range of housing types and price levels can bring people of diverse ages, races, and incomes into daily interaction, strengthening the personal and civic bonds essential to an authentic community.
Transit corridors, when properly planned and coordinated, can help organize metropolitan structure and revitalize urban centers. In contrast, highway corridors should not displace investment from existing centers.
Appropriate building densities and land uses should be within walking distance of transit stops, permitting public transit to become a viable alternative to the automobile.
Concentrations of civic, institutional, and commercial activity should be embedded in neighborhoods and districts, not isolated in remote, single-use complexes. Schools should be sized and located to enable children to walk or bicycle to them.
The economic health and harmonious evolution of neighborhoods, districts, and corridors can be improved through graphic urban design codes that serve as predictable guides for change.
A range of parks, from tot-lots and village greens to ballfields and community gardens, should be distributed within neighborhoods. Conservation areas and open lands should be used to define and connect different neighborhoods and districts.
The neighborhood is the foundational building block for livable cities. In past years, health problems such as obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and the maladies associated with social alienation have become a normal response to a built environment that does not allow or encourage walking or facilitate human interaction.
The young and the elderly of Nashville, especially, have been left behind by an urban form that necessitates driving long distances. NashvilleNext proposes strategies to bring more of the activities of daily living within walking distance based on a framework of accessible transportation alternatives including transit and bicycle systems.
The core of this framework links neighborhoods and districts through reinvestment and revitalization of corridors into mixed use environments. Providing choices in mobility and encouraging walkability helps in meeting the needs of all population groups and will support healthier lifestyles.
Building complete places that provide access to work, play, and shopping options also enable neighbors to connect and will help create and retain close-knit communities.
NashvilleNext celebrates the block, street, and building by recognizing the importance that they play in building a community that provides opportunities and choices for all. The plan encourages block patterns that provide mixed-use opportunities where appropriate, but context sensitive redevelopment where established patterns exist.
The plan acknowledges the essential and critical role of streets as the lifeblood that either enables, discourages, or prevents social interaction and economic vitality. The street network and the characteristics of our streets and the transportation system that relies on our streets and rights of way are the most critical element in determining the future of Nashville.
NashvilleNext accepts that “...the design of cities begins with the design of streets.” To make a good city, you need good streets, and that means where people want to be. Streets need to be safe and comfortable, they need to be interesting, and they need to be beautiful. They need to be places. NashvilleNext builds on recent policies by clearly changing the way streets have been planned and designed by returning the design of streets to provide equal opportunities for all modes of transportation and creation of a public realm worthy of Nashville’s aspirations.
NashvilleNext understands the importance of the design of our buildings and public spaces. Well-designed buildings, that recognize their context, create great spaces and add significantly to the quality of life of a community and neighborhood. The plan revives the idea that additions to the built-environment must be functional and long-lasting but also delightful and attractive. NashvilleNext recognizes that design matters.
A primary task of all urban architecture and landscape design is the physical definition of streets and public spaces as places of shared use.
Individual architectural projects should be seamlessly linked to their surroundings. This issue transcends style.
The revitalization of urban places depends on safety and security. The design of streets and buildings should reinforce safe environments, but not at the expense of accessibility and openness.
In the contemporary metropolis, development must adequately accommodate automobiles. It should do so in ways that respect the pedestrian and the form of public space.
Streets and squares should be safe, comfortable, and interesting to the pedestrian. Properly configured, they encourage walking and enable neighbors to know each other and protect their communities.
Architecture and landscape design should grow from local climate, topography, history, and building practice.
Civic buildings and public gathering places require important sites to reinforce community identity and the culture of democracy. They deserve distinctive form, because their role is different from that of other buildings and places that constitute the fabric of the city.
All buildings should provide their inhabitants with a clear sense of location, weather and time. Natural methods of heating and cooling can be more resource-efficient than mechanical systems.
Preservation and renewal of historic buildings, districts, and landscapes affirm the continuity and evolution of urban society.
Goals set broad direction for the plan by applying the Guiding Principles to NashvilleNext’s seven plan elements. They identify, for each element, what NashvilleNext is trying to achieve.
Policies extend goals by providing more detail. They give more direct guidance on community decision making, without specifying which tools to use. (Identifying and adopting which tool is a job for actions and implementation.) As implementation occurs, if one particular tool is rejected by the public, the policy guidance remains.
Actions (Volume IV) are short-term steps to carry out these Policies and achieve these Goals. The plan is structured so that the Action plan is updated the most frequently. During the annual update process, actions can be removed if accomplished or if they were deemed infeasible. Removing an action because it’s infeasible leaves the overarching Policy in place. During the update, the Planning Department would seek to identify alternative ways of accomplishing the policy.
The Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure (LUTI) element is structured differently than the other elements in NashvilleNext. This element is primarily built around the Growth & Preservation Concept Map, which shows, at a broad, county-wide level, where different kinds of investments and regulations are appropriate. This gives the other elements geographic context for their goals and policies.
What does geographic context mean? Consider Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation: this element calls for both preservation of open space as well as improvements to transit service and increasing density. Where each of these happens in the county is critical to Nashville’s success. The Growth & Preservation Concept Map provides this guidance.
LUTI matches the Growth & Preservation Concept Map with Goals that lay out what the map is intended to achieve. However, this element rarely provides its own policies to implement the Goals; instead, it relates Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Goals to Policies in other elements that carry out the goal.
With a strong commitment to annual updates and review, the General Plan is able to play a key role in providing coordination between other agencies and plans. It helps other departments understand long term goals and how their work shapes that, even if they must focus on short term needs that are out of step with the long term plan. For example, the long term vision for transit is to build a high capacity transit network operating along major corridors, with few deviations from those corridors. In the short term, MTA needs to conduct its operations to connect to riders, who may not live along those major corridors. Eventually, MTA operations should merge with the long range vision, but it will take time to build the infrastructure and housing to support the high capacity network.
Thus, Element chapters highlight related plans when discussing NashvilleNext Goals & Policies.
Much of what Nashvillians want for the future goes beyond what Metro can achieve on its own. Partnerships with community groups, nonprofits, and the private sector are critical.
» MTA Strategic Plan » MPO Regional Transportation Plan 2040 » Strategic Sidewalk and Bicycle Plan » Parks & Greenways Master Plan » Partnership 2020 » Arts Commission Strategic Plan
New commercial and residential growth improves the quality of life for Nashvillians by supporting their vision for Nashville’s future.
NashvilleNext’s six other plan elements provide topical policy direction and action steps to achieve the future Nashvillians have supported through this plan. This element — Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure — works differently. It unites those elements by identifying where policies from the other elements are related to land use, transportation, and infrastructure. The community’s vision for the future is conveyed by the Growth & Preservation Concept Maps. The goals below link to various components of the Growth & Preservation Concept Maps.
The Growth & Preservation Concept Map reflects Nashvillians’ vision for how Nashville should grow in the future. It identifies a green network that provides access to nature, requires environmental protection, and preserves natural resources. It also identifies and preserves the physical character of rural, suburban, and urban areas.
Smaller and larger activity centers accommodate most future growth, improve public spaces, support transit, provide walkable areas close to most parts of the county, and sustain economic activity. The locations of these centers are generally where centers and mixed use areas were identified in prior Community Plans. In some cases, the Concept Map will propose more intense centers than were identified previously. Infill development should be encouraged along transit and multimodal corridors in between and immediately around activity and employment centers.
The Concept Map also identifies a network of more frequent and reliable transit service. These routes should be more direct, with fewer stops. The most heavily used routes will be identified for high-capacity transit running outside of traffic.
The Goals below show how Policies from other elements frame how Nashville grows in the future, what places are preserved, and how changes in land use, transportation, and other infrastructure are coordinated to improve the quality of life for all Nashvillians. These goals also provide greater detail on how the Concept Map brings together competing concerns into an overall framework for making land use and transportation decisions in the future.
⬚ figure
| Centers | Green network | Neighborhood | High capacity transit corridors |
|---|---|---|---|
| ![orange circle] Tier One | ![green circle] Green network | ![yellow circle] Neighborhood | ![thick dark blue line] Immediate need |
| ![gold circle] Tier Two | ![light green circle] Open space anchor | ![tan rectangle] Transition | ![thin blue line] Long-term need |
| ![pale yellow circle] Tier Three | ![dotted green circle] Missing an anchor | ![grey circle] Special impact area | ![grey arrow] Regional connection |
Invest in the near term in the places identified by the Growth & Preservation Concept Maps as most critical to shape or manage demand in order to create mixed income communities that support a healthy environment, strong neighborhoods, high-capacity transit, walkability, and a prosperous economy.
Nashville's 14 community plans have guided development decisions since 1988. These plans were the starting point for the NashvilleNext process and the Growth & Preservation Concept Map.
In 2008, the Metro Planning Department reorganized its approach to community plans. The guiding document for plans prior to 2008, the Land Use Policy Application, delineated land uses and density characteristics. However, it was unable to capture nuances in the character of different parts of the county. These nuances were often central to residents' concerns about new development. The new approach focused on the current and proposed character of different parts of the county and lessened the focus on density. It used a new tool called the Community Character Manual. The CCM was adopted by Planning Commission in 2008.
All 14 plans have been updated alongside the creation of NashvilleNext. The 2015 updates bring all plans into a consistent format that more fully relies on the guidance of the Community Character Manual. The Community Character Policy Maps have each been updated to align with NashvilleNext.
In updating these maps, planners sought to adhere to community input from each plan's last update. Planners also incorporated feedback from each community in response to re-zoning and plan amendment requests. Finally, throughout NashvilleNext, community members have provided input on proposed changes.
The Growth & Preservation Concept Map and the Community Plans have different roles. The Concept Map guides decisions over the course of 25 years and beyond. The Community Plans have shorter planning horizons, looking ahead only five to 10 years. Because of this, they need not incorporate all growth that could occur through 2040. Regular Community Plan updates can provide better guidance for development as it plays out in the coming decades.
Health, Livability & the Built Environment
» BE 3.6
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation
» NR 3.1 » NR 3.2 » NR 3.4
Health, Livability & the Built Environment
» BE 1.2 » BE 1.1 » BE 2.1 » BE 2.4 » BE 2.6 » BE 3.2 » BE 3.5 » BE 3.6
Housing
» H 1.1 » H 1.3 » H 3.1 » H 3.2 » H 4.2
Education & Youth
» EY 4.1 » EY 4.4
Economic & Workforce Development
» EWD 1.3 » EWD 2.1
Arts, Culture & Creativity
» ACC 1.2 » ACC 2.1 » ACC 2.3
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation
» NR 3.1 » NR 3.2 » NR 3.3 » NR 3.4 » NR 4.1 » NR 4.3
Nashville strives to ensure that all communities share in the county’s prosperity and enjoy a high quality of life.
Achieving the vision from NashvilleNext will mean reflecting and respecting the rich diversity of cultures in Nashville while welcoming newcomers. We remain a welcoming city when we celebrate our cultural richness and pursue initiatives that benefit all Nashvillians. New Nashvillians add to our richness and enhance our culture, places, and economy.
All neighborhoods are safe, affordable, and welcoming to Nashvillians, regardless of background, ability, or income. The plan carefully uses infill, transitional areas, and centers to create opportunities for residents to join and contribute to communities across the county. Our homes, workplaces, parks, and public spaces support wellness by design and in construction.
Meaningful transportation choices improve quality of life, reduce the cost of living, and make daily life easier for people who do not want or cannot afford a car. An efficient, effective transportation system gets people from homes to jobs, school, and services. Better alternatives also allow more Nashvillians to make walking and other physical activities a daily part of life, improving their health.
Employment centers are coordinated with the transit system to provide more ways for people to get around the county. This gives residents more access to job openings, training programs, or school options. Getting more people into the workforce makes Nashville more competitive for economic growth. Small businesses thrive in centers and along corridors throughout the county.
The diversity of Nashville’s places supports our diverse economic base. These places are ready for investment across different sectors and prices. This supports a range of jobs across different skill levels and incomes.
Nashville’s neighborhood schools provide a high quality education, while students from across the county have genuine access to different kinds of school curricula and focus. Our carefully created neighborhoods that are affordable across income levels help to reduce concentrated poverty and disadvantage, so that all children have access to educational opportunities. Doing so will relieve the school system from trying to create integrated classrooms from unintegrated neighborhoods.
A healthy environment and access to greenspace are available across the county to all communities. Parks, public places, and open space are culturally relevant to and supportive of nearby communities. Unwanted land uses are not concentrated in one area or near one community.
Engage affected communities when making long-term land use decisions, with particular attention to communities vulnerable due to residents’ lack of time or resources to participate, historic or current discrimination, or other barriers to participation.
Create mixed income communities that support good health and access to quality educational opportunities by maintaining affordability in gentrifying areas and incorporating affordable and workforce housing when new development occurs across the county.
Ensure jobs, education, and training opportunities are located close to transit service, in centers, or in high-need areas.
Build a complete, efficient transportation system that gives Nashvillians access to work, housing, cultural activities, and other needs throughout the county and region.
Recognize and reflect Nashville’s cultural diversity and diverse needs when delivering programs or building, improving, or maintaining infrastructure, the built environment, or access to public art.
Ensure all communities have access to parks, green areas, cultural amenities, and recreation opportunities that support mental and physical well-being.
Support efforts to improve equity throughout Middle Tennessee.
Nashville conserves its natural resources in order to mitigate floods and other natural hazards, ensure clean air and water, raise food locally, provide outdoor recreation, and preserve the culture and character of Davidson County.
On the Growth and Preservation Concept Map, the Green Network shows large, countywide natural resources and environmental features. It includes parks, rural areas, floodplains, and steep slopes. It also shows key water features: the Cumberland River; the Harpeth River; Old Hickory, Radnor, and Percy Priest Lakes; and Browns, Mansker, Mill, Richland, Seven Mile, Stones, and Whites Creeks. We protect these for their beauty and because they mark this part of the country as unique. We treasure these places because they keep us healthy and active. We prevent or reduce development on or near them because it places people and property in harm’s way. We preserve them because they provide a vital good or service.
These features frame Nashville’s future by identifying what parts of the county should remain natural or rural. The Open Space Network shows a more detailed breakdown of these features. They are incorporated into Community Character Maps through Conservation (CO) Policy.
Part of what makes Nashville special is the diversity of places in the county. From the bends of the Cumberland to the hills of Joelton and the Warner Parks, Nashville contains the kinds of places that have vanished from most other major cities. Keeping a connection to the land helps remind us of who and where we are.
Nashville’s park system should bring green space into every neighborhood. Parks and greenways provide room to roam and exercise, for people of all ages. They also give communities a place to come together.
Protecting the floodplains and slopes that weave throughout our neighborhoods provides green spaces that help keep Nashvillians physically and mentally healthy. However, limiting development along and within features such as these also keeps our neighborhoods strong by keeping them safe. Staying out of the floodplain and off of steep slopes reduces the risk of harm to people and property by natural disasters, which can disrupt our lives and communities.
Health, Livability & the Built Environment » BE 2.5 » BE 2.1 » BE 2.6
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation » NR 4.1 » NR 4.2 » NR 4.3 » NR 5.2
Slopes and terrain
⬚ figure
⬚ figure | Water Bodies | ⬚ figure | Centers | Priority Corridors | Slope | Terrain | |
⬚ figure | Anchor Parks | ⬚ figure Immediate need | ⬚ figure Over 20% | ⬚ figure | High | ||
⬚ figure | Floodplain Areas | ⬚ figure Long-term need | ⬚ figure | Low | |||
⬚ figure | Wetlands |
Tree canopy
⬚ figure
| Water Bodies | Priority Corridors | Centers | Tree Canopy | ||
| Anchor Parks | Immediate need | ||||
| Floodplain Areas | Long-term need | ||||
| Wetlands | |||||
Our greenway network becomes a key part of Nashville’s transportation infrastructure, serving as key bicycling routes away from auto-heavy streets.
Nashville’s rural areas should be an important part of our local economy, providing local food and supporting a network of local food processors and sellers.
Our natural amenities contribute to quality of life for current residents and draw new residents, who bring new talent, skills, and perspectives to Nashville. New models of economic development acknowledge that new and expanding businesses follow talented workforce, and tomorrow’s workforce is interested in a location due to quality of life.
These natural, working, and recreation places help all of Nashville’s environment work better. They clean our water and air, and cool the city. Open spaces with natural vegetation absorb rainwater, reducing stormwater runoff during heavy storms.
Environmental protections, clean air and water, and healthy land should not be concentrated in one part of town or within one community. Throughout the 20th century, low-income communities and communities of color have received more than their share of unwanted land uses, such as landfills, and fewer protections for environmental quality. Nashville should ensure that all places in the county are healthy and support healthy lifestyles for their residents.
Nashville’s neighborhoods provide residents with a choice of places to live, preserving neighborhood character and history while accommodating housing choices across income levels, interests, ages, abilities, and races or ethnicities.
On the Growth and Preservation Concept Map, Neighborhoods are predominantly residential parts of the city. Many of these include small pockets of other land uses, such as small, local-serving commercial areas and centers or civic uses like schools, churches, or small parks.
Nashville’s neighborhoods all have distinct characteristics—how buildings relate to one another and the street, how tall they are, and sometimes a consistent architectural style. The Community Character Manual (Volume III) identifies three broad types of character: rural, suburban, and urban. It also recognizes there is considerable variation within these three types. The Transect Map shows where these character areas, along with centers, downtown, and districts, are located throughout the county.
Nashvillians cherish their neighborhoods, and wish to see what they love about them preserved. However, a growing and increasingly diverse population with cultural, social, and demographic differences poses a challenge. Even without changing the buildings, a neighborhood can change substantially over time. Small homes that once held families may become attractive to young workers, living alone or with roommates. Families continue to look for larger and larger homes, with more rooms. Finding tools that allow neighborhoods to accommodate these changes without losing their essential character will continue to be a key goal for Nashville.
Nashville’s neighborhoods, ranging from the vibrant, LEED-certified skyscrapers of the Gulch to the rural quietude of Union Hill, will continue to evolve. As they do, their fundamental character should not be lost. If all of Davidson County grows to have the same character, we have lost something important to Nashville.
Health, Livability & the Built Environment » BE 1.1 » BE 5.4
Housing » H 1.1 » H 1.2 » H 1.3 » H 1.5 » H 2.1 » H 2.2 » H 3.1 » H 4.1
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation » NR 5.2
Arts, Culture & Creativity » ACC 2.3
Education & Youth » E&Y 4.4 » E&Y 4.5
Economic & Workforce Development » EWD 2.2
Character areas in Davidson County
⬚ figure
Transects Legend
⬚ figure | Centers | Priority Corridors | ⬚ figure | T1 Natural | ⬚ figure |
⬚ figure Immediate need | ⬚ figure | T2 Rural | ⬚ figure | ||
⬚ figure Long-term need | ⬚ figure | T3 Suburban | ⬚ figure | ||
⬚ figure | T4 Urban | ⬚ figure |
Nashvillians are changing—there are more of us, more of us are older, and we have a wider variety of backgrounds and needs. Because of this, the kinds of places we want to live are changing. We cherish our different neighborhoods, and wish to preserve them, even as we ourselves are changing. We must find ways to preserve the basic, and varied, character of our neighborhoods, even while accommodating the changing needs of our population.
Within each neighborhood, diverse housing options support transit, walkability, and bikeability. The exact form of buildings and how roads accommodate transit users, walkers, and cyclists will vary based on the character of the neighborhood. Generally, however, it will be easier for residents to use active, healthy ways of getting around.
Strong neighborhoods allow people across all income levels to find a safe, welcoming place to live in Nashville. This affordability and the distinctive character of our neighborhoods help us attract and sustain our workforce across different skill levels and economic sectors.
Our neighborhoods should welcome families with children, whether they are looking for a yard to play in or trading that yard for a smaller home closer to a walkable school and park. Our neighborhoods should also support children in learning about the world outside of school, by having safe and welcoming places to roam and explore.
Our neighborhoods should provide access to green spaces and parks. They should also make it easy to live a more sustainable lifestyle. In addition, encouraging growth in dense, walkable centers reduces the need for clearing and building on undeveloped land at the edge of the city.
Strong neighborhoods should be accessible to everyone in the community. Neighborhoods that are strong now should work to find graceful ways to accommodate a diversity of residents. Neighborhoods that have deteriorated due to public and private neglect should receive re-investment. Doing so will make them more attractive to people across a range of income levels. To prevent displacement, these neighborhoods will need new tools, to maintain affordability, encourage integration of old and new residents, and ensure that all residents benefit from improvements to the neighborhood.
Health, Livability & the Built Environment
» BE 1.2 » BE 1.3 » BE 2.4 » BE 3.5
Housing
» H 2.2 » H 3.2
Arts, Culture & Creativity
» ACC 2.1 » ACC 2.2 » ACC 2.3 » ACC 2.5 » ACC 3.1
Economic & Workforce Development
» EWD 1.1 » EWD 1.2 » EWD 1.3 » EWD 2.1
Education & Youth
» EY 2.7 » EY 2.8 » EY 4.1
Nashville’s neighborhoods include mixed-use, walkable centers, commercial districts, and corridors that fit within their context and character and offer housing affordable across a range of incomes.
Current housing and land use trends shaping Nashville point to an increased demand for walkable centers that support high-capacity transit service: downsizing seniors, young adults who seem more open to transit and smaller homes while also having less access to homeownership, more non-white Nashvillians, safer cities, and a more competitive school system. Walkability—along with a strategy of re-investing in existing Nashville neighborhoods, centers, and corridors—offers other benefits as well. Daily physical activity is higher in walkable neighborhoods, and time spent traveling by car goes down, resulting in improved health. A denser, more compact city preserves more of Nashville’s natural features that contribute to our unique beauty and keep us healthy and safe.
However, Nashville has very few complete walkable neighborhoods. Because demand overwhelms supply, only a small number of people who would like to live in these kinds of places can afford to.
To deal with this, the Growth & Preservation Concept Map proposes two general solutions. First, new homes should be added where complete, walkable neighborhoods exist now. Second, Nashville should coordinate some portion of infrastructure investments in centers with appropriate development entitlements to make more places in Nashville walkable, while also encouraging the market to add new homes, workplaces, and shops.
The first key strategy to accomplish this is to invest in common, public parts of neighborhoods: parks that anchor and are integrated into mixed use areas, as well as the streetscapes that connect individual buildings to sidewalks and roads. Building design, shade trees and native plantings, ample sidewalks, public art, and other tools create welcoming public places.
Second, expand Nashville’s transit system, including its service frequency, to align with these walkable centers and corridors. Providing an attractive, competitive alternative to driving reinforces the value of density in appropriate locations throughout the county.
Third, develop a flexible toolkit that allows new development to be separated from its parking while minimizing overflow parking into surrounding neighborhoods. Parking poses multiple problems for affordable, walkable neighborhoods. First, it can be a significant cost, particularly when builders shift from surface parking to structured or underground parking. That cost is exacerbated when regulations require building half a parking deck—developers must either overbuild for parking (a cost they cannot recapture) or seek additional entitlements. Second, parking poses costs to the walkable form and environment that Nashvillians desire: curb cuts, parking lot entrances, and surface lots make walking less safe and comfortable. Greater flexibility can allow for more off-site parking, better support for shared parking, better use of on-street parking, and an integrated residential parking program.
Fourth, walkable centers should include a mix of active uses that bring a variety of people through them across different parts of the day. These should include jobs and employers that keep the center active during the day. However, civic uses, public services, and cultural amenities should also be located within these centers, especially schools that provide a focal point for the entire community.
Centers and commercial areas help give definition to different parts of town. They help Nashville be Nashville by letting Donelson be Donelson and Bordeaux be Bordeaux, rather than letting all parts of Nashville blur together in homogeneity. The physical and cultural distinctiveness of all of our communities should be celebrated.
Centers have close ties to their surrounding neighborhoods. They serve as places where the community comes together for basic needs, shopping, work, schools, or festivals. They also help to connect different neighborhoods together. Nashville currently has a small number of thriving centers. These have become victims of their own success, as wealthier households bid up the price of housing in and near these centers. By creating more walkable centers like this, we may reduce how much each center becomes overpriced.
Centers and mobility corridors provide the density of people and access to jobs necessary to support frequent, high capacity transit. They also expand mobility by providing more places that support walking and biking.
Most jobs are encouraged to locate in centers, so that they are more readily accessible by transit. Metro invests and regulates land uses to maintain a supply of places where businesses can start, grow, or move to, in line with broader community goals.
Community schools located in centers provide local and countywide access to high quality education, as well as social services that support families. Centers should be places where families feel safe to walk around and meet their daily needs.
Generally, centers are located on large, already developed areas (sites that are generally currently developed at low densities, with large surface parking lots). By redeveloping these sites more intensely and encouraging the introduction of housing and employment uses, centers improve the environment by reducing the need to develop vacant land; provide more modern, energy efficient homes and workplaces; and supporting alternatives to travel by car.
Centers are key to creating mixed income neighborhoods, seamlessly integrating market-rate homes affordable at different income levels with homes for people who cannot afford market rates. By creating more walkable neighborhoods, we reduce the sharp increases in home prices that places like 12 South and East Nashville are experiencing. When centers are located in places that currently have a large number of low- and moderate-income households, the existing affordability should be preserved so residents are not displaced. Shopping and services in centers should also reduce the cost of living by, for example, placing homes close to grocery stores and other healthy food options.
Invest in the built environment in and around centers to improve quality of life and attract private investment. The built environment includes gray infrastructure (such as buildings, streets, sidewalks, parking, sidewalks, and water and sewer pipes), green infrastructure (like trees, parks, and landscaping), and placemaking (such as urban design, public art, gateways, or creative signage).
Create mixed income communities by encouraging more market-rate housing at lower price levels, preserving affordable housing in gentrifying neighborhoods, and creating new affordable homes when new market-rate homes are built.
Provide jobs, transit access, groceries, schools, child care, parks, cultural amenities, and other daily needs within centers. Align social services, health care, workforce development opportunities, and other critical services within centers.
Use Metro services and programs and private community-building efforts to build relations between old and new residents.
Health, Livability & the Built Environment
» BE 1.1 » BE 1.2
Housing
» H 2.1 » H 2.2 » H 3.2
Nashville uses housing infill along mobility corridors to provide more housing choices that support walking and transit use and to transition gracefully between residential neighborhoods and more intense mixed use and commercial centers and corridors.
The Growth & Preservation Concept Map identifies areas for transitional and infill development close to activity centers and high capacity transit corridors. Generally, these will be smaller scale but still higher density homes. In some places, small commercial uses may also help form the transition. In addition to creating a better urban form, transitional areas can provide a buffer between active corridors and centers and quieter neighborhood interiors. By allowing more small-scale residential density, transitional areas also help more people live close to centers and corridors, while using building types that are less costly.
Transitional and infill areas provide guidance for review and updating Community Plans’ Community Character Maps (Volume III) to identify appropriate places for these uses. The Community Plans provide an opportunity to balance the countywide interest in allowing a greater mix of housing types close to centers and corridors with very localized issues like neighborhood character and topology.
Transitional areas help bring places that are developed at different scales together gracefully, improving the sense of place in Nashville. Careful attention to these transitional areas can help to unify more intense centers and corridors with their surrounding neighborhoods.
Infill and transitional areas contribute to a more diverse housing stock, which can be built at a lower cost, without disturbing the character of the core of these neighborhoods.
This diversity in housing stock is placed close to mobility corridors, increasing the number of people served by transit or able to walk and bike to daily needs.
By supporting market mechanisms to provide more housing opportunities across income levels in more places, moderate income households have more choices in where to live. Subsidized housing for people with very low income also benefits when more market rate housing is affordable at lower and moderate incomes, reducing the demand for public subsidies.
For more information on transportation plans, see Volume V of NashvilleNext, called Access Nashville 2040.
Complete Streets are safe, comfortable, and convenient for all road users, no matter who they are or how they travel. They give people meaningful choices in how they access social and economic activities around Nashville. In recent years, Nashville has worked to adopt policies that will ensure that our streets are planned, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained to provide safe access for all people.
The NashvilleNext policies and action items reinforce that Metropolitan Government will uphold Complete Streets as the standard. Transportation investments will serve all people who use our streets. Projects will meet needs voiced by the community and trends Nashville is facing. Transportation planning and urban design will strive to make streets more livable by encouraging more social interaction, mixing together a variety of land uses to serve a broader range of daily needs, and balancing access to those needs. Our streets are used for more than just moving vehicles—they must contribute to Nashville’s quality of life by enhancing access, prosperity, equity, health, and safety. By putting people first, Nashville’s complete streets will create a livable, vibrant city with meaningful transportation choices.
Nashville residents have safe, meaningful transportation choices within their neighborhoods for commuting to work, meeting daily needs, and getting to all of the places Nashvillians want to go throughout the county.
Nashvillians need meaningful transportation choices to get where they need to go throughout the county. Over the past 50 years, Nashville’s street network has grown rapidly. Oriented primarily to cars, this has left infrastructure for other ways of getting throughout the county lacking.
Looking to the future, the street network will continue to be a vital asset for Nashville. However, it will be increasingly important to adapt it to better support other users: pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders. Expanding and implementing the current Complete Streets policy will be critical as more places in Nashville look to become more walkable, with higher densities and more mixed use areas.
A high capacity transit system is the key organizing framework for making these changes. Increased transit service should expand along with increases in density. Places served by transit should not be the only places that become more walkable in the future, but they will be a substantial part of it. Coordinated investments—better transit service, sidewalks and bike lanes to get there, and streetscape improvements to make transit-supporting centers more welcoming—are critical to manage Nashville’s anticipated growth while improving quality of life for existing residents.
Providing more transportation choices will require safer streets, with slower traffic. These choices can also reduce the cost of transportation for households that wish to own fewer cars and improve the quality of life in Nashville’s neighborhoods.
Much of Nashville’s extensive roadway networked is overburdened with traffic during peak travel times. While the economic vitality that draws people to particular places is important, congestion is frustrating, unhealthy, and bad for the environment. Adding more roads or lanes is an expensive, short term, and increasingly infeasible solution. A longer term solution requires Metro to use its existing right of way more efficiently,
giving more people more choices in how to get to the places they need to go. Transit, walking, and biking all provide healthier alternatives to travel by car.
Making Nashville more accessible requires more than just roads, buses, and sidewalks. It requires land uses that support different transportation patterns, as well as more connections between places.
Economically prosperous places draw a crowd—whether they are busy shopping districts or bustling downtown office complexes. The crowds that prosperity draws can limit economic vibrancy if they limit people’s ability to get around. Providing more ways to get around, particularly in the busiest areas, increases economic prosperity for our community as a whole and increases economic opportunities for those with the least means.
Transportation shapes the lives of young people and students. A complete transportation system provides them with reliable, affordable ways of getting to school, increasing school attendance and performance. As Nashville’s middle and high schools increasingly move toward providing more choices and specialization, having meaningful transportation choices increases the ability of students to attend their schools of choice. This is especially important when parents do not own a car or work shifts that make it difficult to drive their children to another part of the county. A complete transportation system can also give students more opportunities for daily physical activity and give them more flexibility in participating in sports and cultural activities outside of school hours.
Middle Tennessee is close to having unacceptably high levels of air pollution. Alternative modes of transportation can reduce the amount of pollution we put into the air. In addition to being good for the environment, this also reduces the incidence of diseases like asthma and lung cancer.
Health, Livability & the Built Environment
» BE 2.1 » BE 3.2
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation
» NR 3.4
Education & Youth
» E&Y 2.8 » E&Y 4.1 » E&Y 4.4
Housing
» H 1.3 » H 4.2
Households struggling with the cost of car ownership also face the toughest choices in where to live, where to work, how to get their kids to school, and how and where to do their shopping. By coordinating where homes affordable to a range of incomes are located with transit-supportive, walkable, and bikeable neighborhoods, we can reduce some of the burden faced by aging seniors, lower income families, immigrants, people with disabilities, students, and many others.
» Centers: Prioritize projects that support walkability and transit access in centers identified in the Growth & Preservation Concept Map and fill in gaps that the private sector is unlikely to address through the redevelopment process. » Coordination: Incorporate recommendations from the Mayor’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee’s Connectivity Study, Public Works’ Downtown Multimodal Mobility Study, and the Planning Department’s Major and Collector Streets Plan. » Pedestrian Safety: Eliminate preventable pedestrian injuries and deaths through engineering and design that prioritizes pedestrian safety, educational initiatives for all road users, and enforcement of existing laws that protect vulnerable road users. » Maintenance: Equip Metro Public Works and Metro Parks with the equipment, staffing, and funding necessary to ensure that bikeways and greenways are free of debris and functional. » Design: Embrace proven street design tools such as NACTO’s Urban Street Design Guide that incorporate green infrastructure, street furniture, public art, and other things that create an inviting streetscape. » Context Sensitivity: Create design guidance for bicycle and pedestrian facilities that is sensitive to a site’s underlying character and land use, recognizing that a “one size fits all” approach will produce unfavorable results and unnecessary costs. » Protected Bikeways: When appropriate, build bikeways that are physically separated from automobile traffic to improve cycling comfort and safety for people of all ages and skill levels. » Neighborhood Greenways: Outfit strategically identified local street corridors with traffic calming measures that maintain access for all road users but prioritize local and active transportation, such as curb extensions, road diets, diverters, and roundabouts. » Bikeshare: Integrate bikeshare locations into identified Centers, High Capacity Transit Corridors, MDHA housing, and new or redeveloped Metro Government facilities to provide Nashvillians with transportation choices and help transit riders complete the last mile of their trips. » End of Trip Facilities: Create incentives or tax credits to encourage developers and employers to provide end of trip facilities like showers, lockers, and secure indoor bike parking. » Encouragement: Support Safe Routes to School programming and community events that encourage people to take advantage of active transportation.
The Major and Collector Street Plan (MCSP) outlines the vision for major and collector streets in Nashville to ensure that these streets serve the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, and drivers in a manner that is sensitive to the context of the street and the land uses on the street. As Community Plans are updated, the MCSP may be updated to reflect changes in the vision for the street.
To see the current MCSP, go to http://maps.nashville.gov/mcsp/.
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Major and Collector Street Legend
⬚ figure Potential Multimodal Freeway Corridor | ⬚ figure Planned Arterial-Boulevard | ⬚ figure Local Street |
⬚ figure Planned Multimodal Freeway Corridor | ⬚ figure Collector-Avenue | ⬚ figure Planned Local Alley |
⬚ figure Arterial-Parkway Scenic | ⬚ figure Planned Collector-Avenue | |
⬚ figure Arterial-Boulevard Scenic | ⬚ figure Downtown Local Street | ⬚ figure Ramp |
⬚ figure Planned Arterial-Boulevard Scenic | ⬚ figure Planned Downtown Local Street | ⬚ figure Planned Ramp |
⬚ figure Arterial-Boulevard | ⬚ figure Planned Downtown Alley |
Centers
⬚ figure | Tier 1 |
⬚ figure | Tier 2 |
⬚ figure | Tier 3 |
Figure LUTI-14: Pedestrian generators This map shows which parts of the county have the most potentially walkable destinations. Because it was developed to help prioritize new and replacement sidewalks, it reflects only the destination and route, and not whether sidewalks are currently present.
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Pedestrian Generator Index Legend
⬚ figure | Centers | Priority Corridors | Pedestrian Generator Index | ||
⬚ figure | Water Bodies | ⬚ figure | Immediate need | ⬚ figure | High : 65 |
⬚ figure | Anchor Parks | ⬚ figure | Long-term need | ||
⬚ figure | Schools | Low : 0 |
Figure LUTI-15: Bikeways
⬚ figure
| .... | Protected Bikeway | ▬ | Buffered Bike Lane | ▬ | Greenway, Paved | Centers |
| .... | Bike Lane | ▬ | Bike Lane | ▬ | Greenway, Unpaved | █ |
| .... | Signed Shared Route | ▬ | Signed Shared Route | ▬ | Mountain Bike Trail | █ |
| .... | Bike Boulevard | ▬ | Wide Outside Lane | ▬ | Park Trail | █ |
| .... | Greenway or Multi-Use Path |
⬚ figure
| ![green dashed line] | Greenways Master Plan | ||
| ![solid green line] | Trails Completed | ![light blue square dotted line] | Future Trail Development |
| ![solid brown line] | Unpaved Trails | ![solid light green line] | Community Planned Greenways |
| ![orange square dotted line] | Trails Coming Soon | ![thin brown dashed line] | Bike Lanes |
Nashville thoughtfully locates special impact areas in a manner that acknowledges the need for, and benefit from, special impact areas, while seeking to protect the safety of all nearby residents.
Special impact areas include intense industrial areas, airports, landfills, and other uses that should be kept separate from homes. The Growth & Preservation Concept Map recognizes current special impact areas (including places zoned, but not used, for intense industrial uses). It does not identify new locations for these areas.
While noxious uses and intensive facilities should not be mixed with residences, they are often important parts of the community, providing jobs or necessary services. Identifying places for them to locate, in an equitable fashion, ensures that they can continue to serve our county’s needs.
Historically, noxious uses have often been concentrated in minority or low-income neighborhoods. Special care should be taken to ensure that these uses are kept away from all neighborhoods, and that new concentrations of locally unwanted land uses do not occur within or near vulnerable communities. In addition to recognizing the importance of environmental justice in making decisions about these kinds of uses, public engagement, with special efforts for hard to reach communities, is also vital.
Economic & Workforce Development » EWD 1.2
Housing » H 1.2
Health, Livability & the Built Environment » BE 2.2 » BE 4.2
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation » NR 2.1 » NR 4.1 » NR 4.2 » NR 4.3
Arts, Culture & Creativity
» ACC 1.4 » ACC 4.1 » ACC 4.4
Economic & Workforce Development
» EWD 1.2 » EWD 2.2
Education & Youth
» EY 2.5 » EY 2.6 » EY 4.2 » EY 4.3 » EY 4.4
Housing
» H 4.2
Health, Livability & the Built Environment
» BE 1.2 » BE 2.1 » BE 2.2 » BE 2.5 » BE 2.6 » BE 3.1 » BE 3.2 » BE 3.3 » BE 3.4 » BE 3.6
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation
» NR 1.1 » NR 1.4 » NR 1.5 » NR 2.1 » NR 3.1 » NR 4.1 » NR 4.3
Nashville will have safe, adequately maintained, and intentionally planned infrastructure.
Too often, infrastructure is hidden from public concern until it gets to the breaking point. When it fails, lives and property may be threatened. Daily life and work are disrupted, and resources must be immediately committed to repairing or rebuilding.
Inadequate or unavailable infrastructure also shapes how and where new development occurs. Limiting sewer access in rural areas will help preserve their undeveloped character. Older infrastructure must be updated to maintain health and safety. However, optimizing utilities for future demand is an important part of managing growth and maintaining quality of life in Nashville.
Infrastructure affects everyone in the county. It shapes the opportunities available for residents, employees, and visitors. When functioning and well-maintained, it keeps us safe and healthy. Adequate infrastructure, appropriate to its context, is critical to allow all communities in Nashville to thrive.
Infrastructure creates access. Two places may be close together, but without a route—a road, a bikeway, a sidewalk—connecting them, they be as well as be inaccessible. Similarly, places that are far apart can be convenient if linked by transportation.
Online tools increasingly collapse distance as well. Online access makes many services instantly accessible from across the county; fast and in some cases same day delivery make physical things nearly as accessible. Planning for infrastructure for online access is critical to overcoming the digital divide.
Infrastructure undergirds daily life at home and work. It is taken for granted until a disaster disrupts daily life through flooding, power outages, or water main breaks. More and more, life relies on clean water, pristine natural areas, and telecommunications.
Providing genuine access to Nashville’s proliferating opportunities in school, from pre-K to our colleges and universities, requires meaningful transportation choices. Like other things today, schools and lifelong learning provide broader opportunities when paired with universal broadband access to eliminate the digital divide.
Still, schools, libraries, community centers, and other facilities continue to support children, youth, and families in their neighborhoods.
We recognize that natural areas and greenery are vital infrastructure for keeping daily life pleasant and for remaining resilient in the face of natural hazards. Natural areas soak rainwater into the ground, reducing flooding and keeping streams and creeks healthy. The urban forest cools buildings, reducing energy use, as well as outdoor spaces like sidewalks and parks, making them more pleasant.
Smart cities seek to leverage new technology and data sources to improve the functioning of the city. A Smart Cities Council should oversee incorporation of new technology into Metro operations. In particular, the council should 1) take an inventory of existing smart city assets including “gaps and overlaps,” 2) seek to better leverage existing investment in smart city technology, 3) pragmatically assess commercially available technology to fill identified gaps, and 4) address emerging trends and technologies (e.g. smart buildings and connected vehicles). The Smart City Advisory council should include sub-councils to address the following:
Smart transportation including parking, transit, traffic management, connected vehicles
Smart water including waterway management, storm water, wastewater, and freshwater supply
Smart public safety
Smart energy (supply-side) including electric and natural gas utilities, renewable energy policies
Smart buildings
IT and connectivity
City-wide integration of 1 – 6
Ultimately, the creation of a Smart City Advisory Council should result in citizen-centric improvements to livability, efficiency, sustainability, and resiliency.
Provide regular reports on the condition of Nashville’s infrastructure and the cost of repair, upgrades in new infrastructure.
Create infrastructure plans that are in line with community goals and growth strategies, recognize lifecycle costs of new infrastructure, and maximize and maintain existing infrastructure investments.
Recommend expansions to the Urban Services District over time to include all areas identified as T3 Suburban or more intense.
Limit sewer extensions and expansions into areas identified as T2 Rural Agriculture, Countryside, or Maintenance on Community Character Policy maps.
⬚ figure
⬚ figure
Sanitary/Clean Water Nashville
Stormwater
Water projects
Centers
⬚ figure
| $\bigcirc$ | Special programming | R | Rebuild or relocate | $\Box$ Rebuild/relocate general area |
| $\bigcirc$ | Remain in service | N | New library | $\Box$ New library general area |
⬚ figure
⬚ figure
Fire Stations
Tier
Figure LUTI-21: Access to parks by service area and walkable distances
⬚ figure
■ All Parks ■ Serviceable Area to Mini Parks < 1/4 Mile □ Serviceable Area to Schools < 1/4 Mile ◤ Serviceable Area to Neighborhood, Community, and Regional Parks < 1/2 mi
Recognizing its status as the center of a thriving region, Nashville embraces coordination with surrounding cities and counties to ensure greater prosperity and well-being for all.
Nashville is the “brand” of Middle Tennessee. Actions that keep Nashville unique are vital to maintaining the region’s success.
Increasingly, life for Tennesseans in the Greater Nashville region does not recognize city or county lines. Most workers in the region cross a county line to get to their workplace. As more workplaces locate in suburban counties, more Nashvillians will make a reverse commute. Managing our transportation system efficiently is crucial to the region’s success.
Nashville’s economy is tightly entwined with the rest of the region. We share key economic sectors in health care, advanced manufacturing, shipping and logistics, and others. We shared our talented pool of workers, who choose among all of the communities of Middle Tennessee when finding a place to live.
The region also shares 18 higher education institutions, offering a wide variety of course offerings.
Natural features meander through the region, without regard for political boundaries. Nowhere is this more evident than with the Cumberland River, which connects southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee to the Mississippi River. The river is one of our ultimate shared resources. Progress has been made in preserving natural features across the region, but more steps—including linking green spaces across the region—are needed.
Related Policies
Health, Livability & the Built Environment » BE 4.2
Natural Resources & Hazard Adaptation » NR 5.1
Economic & Workforce Development » EWD 1.2
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