Nashville’s MLS Stadium Stays Alive, But Council Kills Development Built Around Transit

The Metro Council advanced the ordinances required to build a new stadium for a Major League Soccer team Tuesday night and abandoned efforts to put the project up for a vote as a ballot initiative.

The successful stadium bills allow the city to demolish old buildings, establish a ticket tax and create a land deal for private development nearby. But they continued to spark intense debate. Council member John Cooper spoke against declaring the fairgrounds as surplus government property.

“This is the exact site of the current fairgrounds,” he said. “It is not surplus if somebody is using it, just because somebody wants it more.”

Several council members, including Erica Gilmore, said they will not support the package of proposals on the final reading if a so-called “community benefits agreement” has not been worked out between the team and surrounding residents.

“If nothing else, we can provide affordable housing. This is in the community benefits agreement,” she said. “We can offer jobs. We can also offer protections to our workers, and there’s even talk of child care.”

The stadium plan moved forward with support from 24 council members. The proposals need 27 votes for final passage next month.

And there are yet more components that need approval. The Metro Council holds a public hearing on rezoning the stadium property next week and votes to authorize the necessary bonds in September.

Transit-Oriented Development Fails

A transit-oriented development in Donelson has been narrowly blocked, coming in two votes shy. Created by the city’s housing authority, the development had hoped to build affordable housing and commercial space on 145 acres surrounding the Music City Star train station in Donelson. But some elected officials and housing advocates railed against the multi-million dollar plan.

Councilman Bob Mendes forcefully argued that the project didn’t warrant a substantial subsidy because housing in Donelson is already considered affordable.

“There really isn’t a need at that point for affordability, and there’s absolutely no dollars whatsoever in this plan to do any preservation of existing affordable units,” Mendes said.

The transit-oriented development in Donelson would have been the
first of its kind in the region.

Scooter Regs

Nashville easily approved its new rules for dockless electric scooters by a vote of 29-1, paving the way for a return of the ubiquitous-yet-controversial transportation devices.

The Metro Council has scrambled to regulate the scooters, which arrived suddenly in the spring when scooter-sharing company Bird brought hundreds of their devices to the streets. Other companies are expected to bring their scooters to town as well.

The new permit process includes parking regulations and a long list of
other requirements.