Nashville's growth is like a wildfire out of control
The development that started in the downtown core is now spreading across Middle Tennessee like a wild fire out of control.
If you don’t believe it, just check out Crane Watch from the Nashville Business Journal. It’s an interactive map of Nashville that shows there are 163 cranes operating in Davidson County today.
The latest proposal is in Nolensville, a beautiful community just thirty minutes south east of Nashville.
It is a $90 million proposal to create a “downtown” area called Nolensville Market Square. As proposed it would contain 250,000 square feet of space for offices, retail and condominiums. The artist’s rendering of the site looks similar to the Hill Center that was built in Green Hills and the one under construction in Brentwood. The size of it would fall somewhere in between these two.
Now, I can’t speak for the residents of Nolensville, but it looks like the kind of development that I would want in my town with one exception.
Nolensville is suffering from the same problem as most of Metro Nashville, traffic. And, almost no one that’s developing is talking about a plan to handle the increase.
Eventually our growth will stall and we will be stuck with gridlock if we do not address this issue soon.
One of the biggest problems with regional transportation is the time it takes to implement. What we plan today won’t happen for 5 – 10 years at a minimum. So we can’t wait until it is unsustainable to take action.
Taking action seems to be another huge problem for us, mainly because we cannot agree on what is the best route to take.
We are beyond the point where a single solution will have any meaningful impact. Any successful solution will require a comprehensive plan that looks at our roadways, public transportation, walking/biking routes, freight movement, land use and the environmental impact.
We’ve already lost businesses to other cities due to our problem with gridlock. These business leaders were trying to escape the kind of traffic that we are experiencing today. Even with all of the other benefits of living here, these leaders choose elsewhere because of transportation.
How do you think we could solve the transportation problem in Nashville?
What options would you like to see? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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