Advocates Fear A Piece of Nashville’s Remaining Countryside Is Threatened By Dense Subdivision

The Metro Planning Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on a 170-home subdivision in a hilly, forested area of Whites Creek on Brick Church Lane.

The specific slice of land, just above Briley Parkway, has had development tensions for years.

“There’s not much rural and country setting left in Nashville, and this is one of those areas that there’s a lot of desire to protect,” said Will Worrall, a civil engineer and local environmental advocate.

The latest attempts to build come from a subsidiary of PulteGroup, one of the nation’s largest home builders with revenue of about $11 billion in 2020.

In December, Tennessee courts overturned the planning commission’s previous approval of a PulteGroup development, which would have clashed with Nashville Next land restrictions.

But by April, the developer was back at the planning commission with an altered proposal — which has been deferred five times this year.

“This is out of control, and it’s not fair to the community or neighbors that they have to be fighting this same thing over and over and over again,” said Worrall, who says this “relentless” repetition is a common strategy used be developers to wear out residents.

PulteGroup did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Opposition has been successful, thus far, in blocking development proposals on legal grounding. Back in May, Worrall completed his own engineering analysis of one proposal, which at the time involved plans to blast slopes and construct artificial hills.

Worrall found the plan wasn’t compliant with multiple sections of Metro Nashville code — despite being recommended for approval by the planning commission.

“The Planning Department failed to discover these items. The developer failed to engineer this according to the code,” Worrall said.

Flooding, tree loss and community character are concerns for Whites Creek residents, many of whom submitted comments to the planning commission prior to the Sept. 9 meeting:

• “The proposed development does NOT match our current rural community. Brick Church Lane is approximately a mile long with about 15 homeowners on it.” – Stephanie McGee.
• “Nashville needs its trees and open spaces. We need the protection that the tree canopy provides for the very air that we breathe. In addition, it seems that no lessons have been learned in the wake of the 2010 flood.” -Laura Bigbee-Fott.
• “This is a densely forested area that absorbs a lot of water…It is home to a lot of wildlife, also, that are being [pushed] here from other developments.” -Wesley Hudson.
• “Adding large amounts of dense, clustered rooftops with asphalt and concrete will be detrimental to residents that already face flooding in their neighborhoods. It will only get worse through the years. Please be proactive and think about the big picture.” – Lisa Proctor.

The latest redesign complies with zoning code and subdivision regulations, according to Worrall.

But there are lingering concerns over extensive tree removal and the expected increase of flooding south of the project near Ewing Creek — based on Worrall’s analysis of planned stormwater infrastructure and existing floodplains.

“That water is going to go downhill,” said Jim Gregory, president of the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps, “and there are people that live downhill.”