Connect the Dots

Check out this agricultural census data. I found some interesting comparisons to Nashville's "competitor" cities. [*]Nashville, TN - Total Acreage - 320,000 acres (500 square miles) 50,000 acres of farmland

For those concerned about the amount of farming area, I was looking at the latest agricultural census (http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/47000.html) and there is over 50,000 acres of cropland in Davidson County and over 200,000 each in Williamson, Wilson, and Robertson Counties. This includes acreage for grain, bean, oilseed, egg, meat and dairy production. Even with the 600 acre May Town Center development, I think there may be just enough open land in the metro Nashville area to support the population if it's all intensively farmed and if the infrastructure can be put into place to distribute it.

The people of Bells Bend are lucky that May Town Center's developers are actually giving consideration to the surrounding area/residents. A crew could pull building permits TOMORROW and erect homes on their private property. No re-zoning required

sorry, by "it" I meant The Tennessean's thoughts on the development and the other three editorials.

Anyone see the editorial from The Tennessean last Saturday? Doesn't seem to be much discussion on it... interested to hear some thoughts. Here's the Tennessean's view: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...ION01/802230337 An editorial from Tony G: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../802230340/1008 An editorial from a Scottsboro resident Brenda Butka: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...ION01/802230334 Editorial from Lonnell Matthews, councilman for the Bell's Bend district: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../802230338/1008

I read where the developer has said they propose a "permanent" conservation easement and that he mentioned the land trust or some sort a permanent agreement with metro parks. I also understand that they proposed "connectivity" with the Bells Pend park thus increasing it from 800 to more than 1700 acres. As an aside I would note that "connectivity" is an interesting idea for these parks given that no one is really using them now. I go all the time to Bells Bend park and NEVER, I mean NEVER, see anyone there. The idea, as I understand it, is to provide walking and bike access from west Nashville across the new bridge. I know that needs to fleshed out a lot, but if you look at Google Earth you will see that a lot of folks live really close to this site on the west side of the river. I know the neighbor's in the Bend likely don't want us over there but a 1700 acre park that I could get to on my bike would be really cool.

As proposed, May Town appears to be one of the most green developments in the history of Tennessee. LEED, very very very dense, preserves over 900 acres of the 1500 as park land, and saves literally 1000's of acres of farmland that would be developed for all these office buildings somewhere else "but for" this project. Of course, IF your world view is the 25,000 acres and the 65 people in Bells Bend then perhaps one could differ, if however one takes a slightly larger view, oh say, Davidson County or heaven forbid all of Middle Tennessee then this is a winner in my opinion on the environmental front of biblical proportions. The projections in the press are that at full build out in 15 years or so this project would generate in excess of $50,000,000/year in NEW property taxes alone and means that 1000's will work and shop in Davidson County vs. Williamson, Wilson or Sumner Co. The folks fighting this in my opinion could care less if we have enough tax revenue to pay for schools, sewers, police and fire for Woodbine, Inglewood, Lockeland Springs, Hedley Park, so long as Bells Bend stays "exactly" as it always " has been". "Has been" means that they live there and the rest of us don't. In the end, if everyone works, shops and lives in Williamson, Wilson or Sumner County, then all of us that can't afford to move to some toney Williamson Co. subdivision are screwed - no joke, totally and completely screwed. It is about time that we got our heads out of our collective backsides and simply acknowledge that we need to address this. This proposal appears to a way to start doing that.