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The early drawings for the Red Oak Townhomes in Envision Cayce were revealed at yesterday's Envision Cayce Town Hall. I can't recall whether those have been posted on here, but MDHA has them now. EOA Architects is working on those to coordinate with the Red Oak Flats project next door. Very contemporary in style. Cayce resident and community member feedback at yesterday's Envision Cayce Town Hall was positive.

Thanks for sharing, @DJIII. Eastminster Presbyterian Church experienced a tragedy when they lost their church building due to arson a few years ago now. They have since been worshipping in our building at Woodland Presbyterian across from the East Library. Eastminster is an unique congregation that holds bilingual services. There were many delays on the sale of this property and I am glad to see things moving forward for them so that they can move on. I know that both North By Northeast and SmithGee will do a good job with this project once it is approved.

I have been working with these owners for quite a while now on the Metro permitting side. We had a variance hearing for this one a while back. One of the tenants will be Parks Realty. I'm not sure who the other tenants will be. With 927 Woodland also being prepped for renovation this portion of Woodland Street will be getting a refresh in 2020.

@ArongG There was a fair amount of neighbor opposition to this base zone change from CN to MUN-A among neighbors on Fatherland and the next-door neighbor on S 14th Street. The Planning Commission's Public Comments document contains at least some of those comments and some of my responses https://www.nashville.gov/document/ID/51e34685-7104-40d2-b70f-3e5d4e966d0b/December-12-2019-Comments-received-through-December-12. One of those neighbors had requested that the original request for MUL-A be changed to MUN-A, and the applicant agreed to do that, but still the neighbor and other neighbors on Fatherland wrote in opposition and came to the hearing to pull the item off of the consent agenda for a full deliberation. The neighbor on S 14th asked me why the owners couldn't simply put a house there, and I replied that the Community Plan for that parcel is Neighborhood Center, the present base zoning is Commercial, not residential, and that the intent of the MUN-A base zone change is actually to allow residential units. I also pointed out to the Commissioners during my testimony that going all the way back to the community input that resulted in the MDHA Five Points Redevelopment District land use plan and design guidelines in 1991, the community specifically allowed for Mixed Uses on this parcel and its inclusion in the Commercial Corner subdistrict section of the design guidelines calls for mixed uses with ground-floor retail/commercial with residential above and rear or pull-under parking. So the same community that has worked on the Conservation Overlay and neighborhood preservation efforts also specifically has called for mixed-uses on this site going back for almost 30 years. The Commissioners did recommend approval and so the item will now come before the Metro Council at a future public hearing, possibly the February public hearing.

Yes, interior demolition as well as tuckpointing and roof replacement work is commencing. Although the buyers have not contacted me to discuss their plans for the site, my understanding is that they intend to develop within the Specific Plan that was negotiated through extensive outreach through the Eastwood Neighbors organization as I was ending my term and Cliff was starting his as the neighborhood association president. With any luck, we both will live to see that plan that we and our neighbors shaped become a reality!

Thanks to Mayor David Briley for providing funding that will enable construction to begin on this project as well as Boscobel IIIa in Envision Cayce.

@WebberThomas4 Yes. Today.

@smeagolsfree I think I recall that this is to add residential space upstairs.

That article - and the Scene's article referencing that article - got some East Nashville Facebook Page love last night Everyone's a critic, right? For better or for worse, we can't put building proposal images on a FaceBook group and use the ensuing comments loop to gauge whether or not people get to build their project if the project is being built within existing zoning entitlements and has been reviewed by the Commission appointed to determine compatibility with the applicable design guidelines. The feedback from my community meeting about the last proposal was that neighbors wanted to focus on keeping the height of any building on this site within the three-story limitation, with the third floor being stepped back as per the design guidelines, rather than allowing five stories there. And this project does meet those criteria from the design guidelines and the prior community meeting feedback. The Scene's article is critical of the terracing aspect as the units descend down Main Street, and at first I wasn't crazy about that either. But on the other hand, building a large retaining wall that allows all of the Main Street units to be built along one horizontal plane at grade with Forrest would create a less-activated streetscape from the pedestrian perspective and would make this project taller relative to the adjacent Walnut Exchange Building with Marche/Duke's than this terraced design allows. The Scene's article also cited the vacant lot as a favored neighborhood parking spot, but it was a pay-lot and I rarely if ever saw more than two cars there. I may have overlooked something. Drivers will not be able to park on the new sidewalks anymore, but otherwise nobody is removing any currently existing free public parking for this project. I am encouraging the applicants to work with ChamberEast on selecting a mural and an artist. ChamberEast has done a good job with those in East Nashville. Usually the murals that people complain about are not the ones that come from artists who are hired to create a work on a specific space. I will be glad to get some privately funded-and-maintained street trees installed on Main Street. That will help soften this streetscape, too. @Edgefield DYes. I had heard about that a while back but I thought that the plans had been abandoned. I believe that the plan is to add living space up there. That's pretty unusual, but it appears to be allowed by Code. The building plans and exteriors will have to be reviewed by Metro Historic Zoning Commission staff.

Hey, it's East Nasvhille's Lynn Taylor!

@arong You are right that a neighborhood is made up of more than just housing. That's pretty much what Cayce is today. And that is why we did a Community Plan Amendment around 2016 to allow mixed uses along the western portion of the campus closer to South 5th and also in select "corner commercial" locations along the new central park frontage. Adding the new school inside the campus will be a game-changer, but mostly (although not exclusively) for residents with children. But we are hoping to get started on the new East Nashville Library branch next door to the Kirkpatrick Park Community Center soon. I am also excited about the potential to add a YMCA branch to the Cayce campus along South 5th Street to continue bolstering the redevelopment of privately- and publicly-owned land along that corridor in the form of a Complete Street. The YMCA would add not only gym membership offerings beyond what the Kirkpatrick Park Community Center can offer, but it could also provide additional services to the community and of course, job opportunities that Cayce residents can walk to. The same is true of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office HQ that is under construction: it will provide at least some job opportunities, partnership opportunities with the DCSO in terms of mentoring programs and things of that nature that Sheriff Hall already supports, as well as the car trips that are necessary to entice a full-service grocery store. Adding a YMCA branch on South 5th Street would help to make the Envision Cayce Master Plan desire for a full-service grocery store at 5th/Shelby a more viable proposition. The health clinic that is referenced is the present Neighborhood Health clinic, which we really need to relocate if we are to continue to the street grid as planned and construct the 11-acre park. Neighborhood Health owns their parcel and building outright, though, and so making it work to move them to another location on the campus is a challenge. I personally believe that they would be more accessible to more people if they were included in a shopping center or mixed-use project alongside the grocery store at 5th/Shelby. But that is a ways off in the future. There is still talk of adding a commissary or smaller grocery market/food prep site somewhere near the new Nashville Public Library, but that is far from a done deal at this time. The Nashville Public Library Director and staff are quite interested in creating new jobs-training and business incubation opportunities at that branch location. But stay tuned!

Nevertheless, there will still be second-guessing in East Nashville until the sign goes up on the building. The new buyers need to make an appointment to meet with me about their potential plans. Just saying.

@MLBrumbyThanks for posting this article and image. Maybe this story will provide me with some respite from the nearly daily questions that I receive about whether or not the "rumored" Publix deal has fallen through. Although I am just noticing that line about Pepperfire: this site is not next to Pepperfire: it's across the street and north one block from Pepperfire. But oh, well.

@Nashville Cliff Agreed! I have not yet been contacted by the potential buyers to learn whether they plan to build out some version of the Specific Plan that was approved in 2015 or to work on a new plan. The latter option would take a while to process. But I mostly hear from neighbors that they are ready for "something" to happen here within the historic buildings. I appreciate you and the other adjacent neighbors for continuing to watch over these buildings and for remaining engaged about this site's future. The Hobson Chapel property is the centerpiece for the Eastwood neighborhood which is on fire right now. The capital and interest for these historic property adaptive reuse projects is high right now - vacant church buildings are being snapped up at the moment - so perhaps something will move forward this time.

@markhollin I love this project! I hope that it comes to fruition sooner rather than later. The site has some constraints and I have been working with the applicants and Metro Departments for a while to establish setback determinations to approve a buildable footprint that also allows for sidewalk construction with an alternative design along the Neill Ave frontage. This block of Neill Ave was originally an alley. Without this project the sidewalks would likely not be a priority for Metro to construct, and so this infill development project will create some public infrastructure benefit along a street that sees a fair amount of pedestrian traffic already and with the ongoing redevelopment of Main Street that pedestrian traffic is likely to increase. This project's height, massing and and materials should complement the Fieldhouse Jones project across Neill Ave nicely.

@WebberThomas4 Thanks for posting this. I'm not sure about the status of the sale, but I have seen the preliminary site plans for 1201 Gallatin. The contact is someone who has a lot of experience with good projects on the Main Street/Gallatin corridor. The sidewalks along the Greenwood Ave ROW frontage do not meet Public Works standards and there is not sufficient room to expand them quite to that required width; however, I am in communication with the applicants and Metro Departments to find a potential alternative sidewalk design compromise that provides an acceptable unimpeded pedestrian travel zone along the Greenwood frontage. That sidewalk connection will grow increasingly important as the Hill Center Greenwood project comes online across the street and the connection to the new signalized crosswalk at West Greenwood/Gallatin is installed.

@smeagolsfreeThat's basically what I told NewsChannel5 yesterday. Cumberland Park isn't going anywhere. Bridge relocations aren't going to be approved by Metro, TDOT or TDEC for that matter. And the Titans get first priority for any new construction since they are the incumbent tenant with a long-term lease. The team owners need to look at the PSC site, LOL!

@AronG What happened with Eastland/Chapel was that a handful of folks went to extreme lengths to either demand every possible pedestrian/bike/what-have-you known to creation be installed all at once or to kill the project entirely. I literally had to resurrect the project from the dead that neighbors in Eastwood had worked together on for years because a few advocates had pretty much killed it and I would not let a handful of folks kill a project that benefits so many. And it has. Yes, it is improved over the original design. I had to work with Public Works quite a bit to get the improvements that I did. Thanks for noticing that. There is a point at which Public Works and Metro Departments decide that they are simply going to move extremely finite time and funding resources on to where people DO want infrastructure investments and have reasonable expectations about what those are within the time and budgets that we have available. Let me give everyone a practical, life-experience-based tip: if you give Public Works an indication that you don't want something because it doesn't have XYZ bells/whistles, then often they will take you seriously and move on to other projects and you won't get anything. My approach is often quite the opposite: I keep working at something from as many angles as I can and looking for opportunities to revisit a problem that needs solving. Then often if I can get a project on a list, I work hard to see what additional details I can get incorporated within the scope of work or to expand the scope of work slightly. I have more success at building projects collaboratively and with community support from the minimum upwards than my colleagues who take the opposite approach and demand best-in-class and browbeat people whose help they actually need to get anything done. Some CMs who have taken that approach have gotten little or nothing done in terms of physical infrastructure upgrades. For instance: I am still working on the Eastland Ave sidewalk project from 16th to 17th and every single time I talk to the engineers I remind them that if we can ever get the property owners past their objections to building a sidewalk in the public right of way that we already own across their yard, that I want the sidewalk project to incorporate a crosswalk at 16th/Eastland to serve the bus stop. Will the crosswalk have every bell/whistle known to humanity? No. Absolutely not. But it is better than what we have. If I can get a couple of property owners over the potential loss or relocation of their landscaping that happens to be planted in existing public ROW. I am also advocating to have something added to the existing crosswalk at 17th/Eastland but again, property owners on Eastland have raised objections to that possibility. So I am advocating to get what I can, where I can, when I can, because those assets will benefit the public for generations. But it is not nearly as easy as it looks. I have more success working at projects and seeking add-ons while-we-are-at-it with a collaborative approach between Metro Departments than asking for everything under the sun first and being rude or dismissive to staff, raising the ire of property owners and stakeholders whose support I need anyway, and then criticizing the Departments' intelligence or acumen because things do not meet absolutely best standards. Is it better than what was there (nothing)? Probably. Can I work collaboratively with people over the two years that it takes to get even the smallest things done to make them even better? Yes - probably. Can I then continue to build on projects with short-term and long-term goals? Yes. For Eastland/Chapel, I had car drivers telling me that the traffic signal would cause huge backups and that they would simply drive around the signal anyway down Franklin (which has four-way stop signs at Chapel, and Setliff, btw). I also had everyone in the world tagging me on FaceBook and every other social media platform for two years plus emailing me about cars almost hitting pedestrians, etc. That went on every day for about two years (is it done yet? is it done yet? is it done yet? what's happening with that? is it done yet? why isn't Metro doing anything? is it done yet? is it done yet?) until it was finally installed. I have heard almost nothing since then in the form of safety complaints other than occasional drivers who misbehave, just like what happens everywhere. I actually receive a lot of positive feedback from neighbors on Chapel Ave who express to me that they now feel safe crossing Eastland to visit restaurants and businesses that they can see from their house. Fannie Battle Day Home parents are thankful for the stop light that helps them get to their childcare facility. Business owners are happy with the infrastructure upgrades. I would say that the problem of crossing Eastland at Chapel safely was solved by most people's standards to the extent that we could get it done with that amount of ROW and with that budgetary limitation. We can always revisit it in the future. I believe that my accomplishments advocating for funding for public infrastructure improvements for District 6 compares favorably with that of any CM in the county. District 18 has a highly engaged community that actually participates in community meetings and also has two universities who have Institutional Overlay Districts that require them to add a lot of infrastructure at their own expense. So lots of great things are happening in D18 thanks to the universities. And the D18 neighborhoods also participate and work to get what they can in a well-coordinated manner. It still takes years and lots of persistence, but many helpful hands participating in the process make the work lighter. Districts 17 and 19 have some good projects that have been implemented or are underway. But our friends in the advocacy community need to understanding that in Metro where we have one or two people doing what an entire office building floor full of employees would be doing in other cities, the perfect is often the enemy of the good. Working to keep at least basic infrastructure projects moving along requires an exhausting amount of coordination, communication and persistence on the part of the CM who must also answer thousands of emails about Short Term Rentals or whatever the topic of the day is, respond to constituent service requests every day, attend lots of meetings that often go to midnight and also work a day job. Then the advocate community wants to come in and criticize everything but don't want to be part of actual solutions and sometimes communicate in a method that alienates the Departments and the general public and even the very members of the community who have participated in the process of deciding upon a solution that Public Works and Planning can actually fund and install given time, funding, and ROW constraints. It is not that Metro Government waits for pedestrian strikes to do things: it is that the areas where pedestrian strikes ARE occurring are where resources are focused before we divert resources to where things hypothetically might happen which is kind of everywhere and this county covers over 500 square miles. The areas where patterns of pedestrian strikes are occurring and where problem intersections exist are the priorities. Fix those first. Then move down the list. But drivers crashing into pedestrian islands on Nolensville is a driver problem. Drivers also plow over cherry trees on Riverside Drive repeatedly. A driver drove through the front of 3Crow in the middle of the afternoon, and last week a driver drive through the front of Urban Juicer on Gallatin near my house. WTH? I am with you about infrastructure design being important, but driver behavior is also important. We in Metro do not have the multiple billions of dollars that it would take to fix all of Nashville's infrastructure to make it idiot/accident-proof. We just don't. So we need everyone to use basic Drivers Ed skills and pay attention to their surroundings. Metro Council does not control Metro Departments, but we can advocate. That's all that we can do. Thank you for your support. If you or anyone else wants to run for District 6 and gain practical experience of getting things like this done I could use an intern and the seat will be open in 2023.

Turbo did the corner at 11th/Gallatin, which could use some refurbishment now. I could see something like this for the southwest corner of Woodland/11th where the sidewalks are so narrow and the trees that are in the sidewalks block pedestrian traffic and make the sidewalks inaccessible to wheelchairs. We would have to take away the one-hour parking spaces (which are not monitored) in order to install something like what is captured in the above photo, but it would be worth it. Five Points business owners call me to tell me that there is no parking in Five Points, but of course there is lots of parking, it's just not free parking. Sigh. I'll take a wait-and-see approach to 10th/Main. @AronGThe new traffic signal equipment and curbs are only four years old: they were installed in late 2015 and so they meet the latest Public Works and ADA standards. If cars are coming flying down Gallatin through this intersection they are running the red light that turns on before the pedestrian crossing signal is activated. The Hunter's Station project is technically located in District 5, and so there may have been discussions with the prior CM (or not) about what level of pedestrian enhancements were needed. I'm just not certain about that. The information that I receive from Public Works is that raised crosswalks interfere with drainage, and so that is why they are not done unless you re-do the curb-and-gutter system entirely. That's what I am told, anyway. Public Works doesn't like the textured crosswalks, either, because they are a maintenance hassle. But again, traffic is supposed to be stopped by a red light when the pedestrian crosswalk is activated and I would have to check but there should be sign indicating to drivers that they must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk before turning. If drivers are not doing that, I am not sure that raising a crosswalk an inch is going to change much. At some point, this is a Nashville-drivers issue. The pedestrian crossing islands are so expensive that we need to focus those first where the most pedestrian strikes are occurring. One of the ones on Nolensville Road in front of Casa Azafran has been installed only a short time and has already been hit and damaged by drivers numerous times. SMH.

Most of Main Street and quite a bit of Gallatin out to Briley Parkway already has MUG-A zoning that allows at least five stories, and potentially more depending on the lot size. For this particular property, there are height restrictions through the Lockeland Springs-East End Conservation overlay in order to help ensure that whatever is built on this site does not overwhelm the historic buildings on either side: the Walnut Exchange Building (Marche, etc), the East Library and others. But otherwise there is plenty of underutilized or even vacant land along Main and Gallatin where 5+ stories can already be constructed without a zone change and without a dwelling unit density cap.

I attended the MDHA Design Review Committee for this one. Note that the DRC's are not public hearings but are committee meetings, and public comments - including comments from the District Council Member - are not considered. But I still couldn't believe that this one did not elicit more scrutiny from the Committee and it passed easily with me in the room and not happy about it. One of my concerns was the prospect of an unsupervised hotel of this type inviting lots of potential problems, particularly at that specific location. The design of the building actually makes the prospect of those problems much more likely. The rear of the building presents some security concerns for the guests. The front of the building does not address the street in an inviting manner. Where is the entrance? It's just a mess. The materials came out better than I had anticipated, but otherwise, this building's design leaves so much to be desired. I'll try to leave it at that.

@AronG There are crosswalks at 10th/Main leading to this project from Marche/Five Points. Can you please elaborate more? It would not have been prudent to invest in a concrete median or pedestrian island on Main Street if a transit line were to go there. So much of the infrastructure along Main/Gallatin would have been updated with funding from the transit referendum, which failed. Now that East Middle has moved back to the Main Street/Gallatin Ave campus, they are again eligible for a MNPD crossing guard. The more urgent pedestrian safety project for me and D5 CM-elect Sean Parker will be to get the street lights repaired on Main Street: the underground wiring was severed at some point and those are MDHA-installed light poles, not NES poles, and there is basically "no one" in charge of or responsible for repairing them. @DJIIIDrawings were submitted for the MDHA Design Review Committee (DRC). This parcel assemblage is part of the Lockeland Springs-East End Conservation Overlay District and so the proper routing of that project is for it to come before the MDZC first and then to the DRC. I would stay tuned to the MHZC meeting agenda for next month since I believe that it was submitted too late to be reviewed by staff in time for the September MHZC meeting.

@FatherLand Yes, it is a Publix at Gallatin/Greenwood. All four corners of 17th/Fatherland have legacy commercial zoning from decades ago that was continued in the MDHA Five Points Redevelopment District land use plan. That1629 parcel had been subdivided years ago under the old subdivision regs, and so the house behind it (in the back yard) also has commercial zoning because it was part of that same parcel that had commercial zoning since at least the 1980s. I believe that Aerial Innovations is moving into that one on 17th, but I am not sure who is moving into the one in the front on Fatherland. Progress is continuing on 1700 Fatherland but those projects take time.

@AronG Yes, the drawings that I saw included a ground-floor retail component at the corner of Forrest/Main. The rest of the street frontage was doors/porches for the units. @smeagolsfree There had been a five-story proposal but there was no chance that that would meet the design guidelines, which limit the height to three stories. I do not believe that I have seen a four-story proposal. That would still be taller than what the design guidelines allow.

Chamber East had funding for another mural project for that building a while back but we had difficulty establishing communication with the building owners. The ChamberEast-funded murals are pretty high quality and pay local artists. This one is … different.