Funding is up this year in Nashville’s latest blueprint for tackling city infrastructure projects.
Mayor John Cooper has proposed allocating $568 million for transportation, schools, parks and a few niche projects in the new capital spending plan, which was released Friday. That amount tops the previous, delayed plan by nearly $100 million — which was smaller in part because the city was navigating a financial rebound.
“Nashville’s population increased by nearly a hundred thousand residents in the last decade,” Cooper said in a release. “We are investing in our neighborhoods and our community and cultural assets, building deep public value in a Nashville that is one of America’s most desirable places to live, work and play.”
Transportation claimed the biggest funding chunk at $141 million, which could be expanded with an additional $200 million in state and federal grants. In addition to the usual transportation projects, the city proposed spending $5 million on upgraded lighting and crosswalks.
Education initiatives followed closely with $134 million to expand capacity at four new or renovated elementary schools — Antioch, Percy Priest, Haywood and Paragon Mills — to complete the new Hillwood High School and to repair about 100 facilities city-wide.
Parks get boost
To Metro Parks, the plan devotes a record $85 million, largely going toward adding more than 60 acres of public green space. Of that, 10 acres will become Antioch’s first park, to be located on Tusculum Road.
“Our children will finally have a safe, outdoor space to play,” District 30 Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda said about the new park.
The plan would also open access to 53 acres of green space in Trinity Hills, expand the greenways network and complete the Old Hickory Community Center. Additionally, the plan continues funding centuries-old stonework stabilization at Fort Negley, a UNESCO Slave Routes Project site, and adds new riverfront additions: Wharf Park at 88 Hermitage Avenue and a park where First Avenue and Gay Street meet in downtown.
High-profile sites funded
The plan would fund a new 14-acre juvenile justice campus on Brick Church Pike that will include a green space, sports facilities and a new juvenile court. The previous juvenile court facility was found to have security problems, sewage overflows and space constraints for staff and attorney meeting rooms.
To complement ongoing repair at the Christmas Day bombing site, the plan allocates $20 million for pedestrian and streetscape improvements on Second Avenue, First Avenue and the Cumberland River’s West Bank.
The city also hopes to tackle parking at the Nashville Zoo, affordable housing initiatives, a new fire station in North Nashville, stormwater flooding mitigation projects, facility improvements at the downtown library and the Global Mall in Southeast Nashville and $22 million in infrastructure work at the Nashville Fairgrounds.
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