Maury County

Comprehensive community plans

Maury County recently adopted its Comprehensive County Plan, connecting the visions of the Maury County government with those of the municipalities of Columbia, Mt. Pleasant, and Spring Hill.  Currently home to more than 85,000 Tennesseans, Maury is expecting to grow by nearly 35% in the next two decades as Middle Tennessee as a whole continues to expand. The county is working overtime to attract investment and accommodate the influx, beginning with its quality growth plan.  Overall, Maury hopes to be less of a commuter community for Nashville and more a destination in itself.  In visioning workshops facilitated by CRT, residents focused most on revitalizing the quality of public education, developing affordable mixed-use housing and vibrant businesses, and creating tourism through new parks and historic downtown areas.

 

Updated zoning, subdivision and building codes to implement plans

Since the county plan only recently received approval, Maury planning officials are currently updating a diversity of codes to catalyze plan implementation.  Housing codes are being revised to encourage Traditional Neighborhood Design principles, mixed-use residences and increased urban density.   One popular technique Maury’s plan employs is that of Planned Unit Development (PUD), a zoning category that encourages innovative design by integrating multiple land uses in one area.  They are also zoning to promote roadside corridor development between Mt. Pleasant and Spring Hill, rather than in vibrant agricultural areas.

Additionally, Maury planners are working to eliminate “spot zoning” areas where single property units are designated uses that contradict the uses surrounding them.  Maury planners are especially targeting zoning along the existing corridor between Mt. Pleasant and Spring Hill, as well as islands of industrial space throughout the county.

Design for protection and enhancement of community character

Maury County is home to 54 historic sites and 9 historic districts designated by the National Register of  Historic Places, many of which are clustered around Columbia.  Columbia residents want to capitalize on their historic assets by protecting such sites and contextually redeveloping the surrounding built environment to support renewed business and tourism.  In addition to its historic offerings, Maury also features a rich rural landscape: 74% of its land use is agricultural. In an effort to honor this rural spirit, the community is disincentivizing development outside of each city’s urban growth boundary and encouraging clustered housing to maintain open land.

Redevelopment of cities, towns, rural communities

In order to honor the history of the county, planners are focusing on revitalizing municipal hubs by both encouraging businesses to move downtown and preserving historic buildings to make them tourism centerpieces. By imposing zoning overlays on the surrounding built environment in Maury’s towns, planners can ensure that the historic character of the downtown area is preserved. Furthermore, the municipalities of Maury have pledged to incentivize infill development to reduce the brownfields plaguing urban centers.

In the community visioning process, Maury citizens prioritized workforce development and public education.  First, improving the job market can create a higher standard of living, especially if the county truly shifts the economy towards service-oriented jobs.  Though attracting industrial business remains a valuable mission of the county, it recognizes the immense potential benefit of transitioning more fully into the service sector. Second, county residents are frustrated by the county’s poor school quality and hope to use urban design to re-prioritize education. By siting schools more prominently in the community and ensuring appropriate funding for school facilities, county officials can cultivate a culture conducive to education.
   
Housing   

Property values are on the rise, but Maury homes remain cheaper than Nashville area homes; therefore, many Nashville residents are flocking to Maury County.  Though this is economically good news, Maury is host to an aging housing stock, especially in Columbia and Mt. Pleasant. As a result, many families avoid the maintenance associated with older homes and opt for sprawling new subdivisions.  Maury’s community plan battles this trend by reinvigorating existing housing and prioritizing complementary infill development.  By curbing unnecessary construction of suburbs, Maury officials can also buttress their neighborhood school siting, existing infrastructure and environmental initiatives.

Conservation

One of the pressing conservation issues for Maury County is that of securing another long-term water source by environmentally sensitive methods. The residents’ water supply is already squeezed, and as Maury continues to grow, county officials are searching earnestly for a tributary to tap.  Despite its water woes, Maury remains committed to cleaning up and better protecting the Duck River and the surrounding riparial areas.  Their directive to protect sensitive lands and rivers also complements their need to protect the county’s growing list of endangered and threatened wildlife, so Maury is cracking down on damage to crucial habitats.  

In keeping with this commitment to conservation, Maury’s plan also calls for a greenway connecting the three major cities and their respective natural areas.  Such protected space can both defend sensitive environments and encourage county residents to interact healthily with them.  The Natchez Trace natural area, which already runs through the county, provides a treasured example of such an initiative. The Maury Planning Commission is in the process of assembling Natural-Open Space (N-OS) areas to make the greenway reality. 

Land use and transportation

In the visioning process, Maury residents emphasized the need for a focus on school siting.  Too many of the county’s schools are too distant from the students’ homes to be walkable, increasing traffic and removing the neighborhood spirit of the school system.  Since the county must build numerous new schools in the coming years, its plan calls for new schools to be built smaller and nearer to the students’ communities.  By locating schools in existing neighborhoods, a city can curb traffic and promote healthier lifestyles simultaneously.  This initiative also goes hand-in-hand with residents’ calls for more diverse transportation options such as safe walking paths and bike lanes.

To ensure the viability and character of the county’s rural lands, the comprehensive plan calls for maintaining and expanding a slew of Rural Open Space areas (R-OS), mostly privately owned lands outside of the municipal sewer and water systems.  The plan also encourages conservation rural development, which regulates houses per acre and clusters homes to maximize space.

Efficient use of preexisting infrastructure

Given that Maury already boasts strong development along the I-65 corridor, the county plans to capitalize on its asset by incentivizing further expansion on the interstate, thereby concentrating development away from agricultural areas.  As mentioned earlier, rapid housing growth has strained city services and contributed to sprawl, so the county is redeveloping the aging housing stock of Maury County instead of constructing new subdivisions. By utilizing existing infrastructure, the county and city governments can cut costs and more efficiently provide vital services.

Thinking and acting regionally

By pushing for and rapidly completing a comprehensive development plan, Maury already exemplifies thinking regionally.  County officials are taking the next step by reaching out to their municipalities and coordinating service agreements and other cost-saving, land-sensitive policies to implement their vision at the best level.  Maury residents are also becoming active in region-wide planning processes, acting as role models for many of their neighbors.