Montgomery County
Comprehensive community plans
Montgomery County is rapidly expanding, posting a 15% population growth rate over the last decade. The county seat, Clarksville, while often called an exurb of Nashville, is a vibrant city in its own right. Clarksville was the fastest growing city in the nation in 2007 and is home to Tennessee’s largest employer, Fort Campbell Army Post, as well as a rapidly expanding university, Austin Peay. In response to such exponential growth, the county produced a twenty-year comprehensive plan in 2003. In conjunction with city and county planning departments, the independently chartered Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission drafted its
Land Use Plan Update using visioning workshop techniques borrowed from CRT. In addition the city of Clarksville recently launched phase one of the
Clarksville Smart Growth Plan 2030 website.
The first phase of the Clarksville
Smart Growth Plan 2030 website provides access to the Executive Summary, Overview, Resources and Citizen Involvement sections. Additional content will be added soon including renderings, descriptions and action plans for 10 Opportunity Zones identified in the plan, and a section outlining implementation steps and priorities to achieve the vision of the plan.
Updated zoning, subdivision and building codes to implement plans
From their most recent long-range plan, two major ordinance changes merit mention:
new landscaping laws and the extension of site review mandates across commercial, industrial, and multi-family developments. The landscaping ordinance delineates plant species, fence types, buffer widths and other design methods of minimizing noise and litter pollution among densely developed lots. The city is also still debating revisions to the Planned Unit Development portion of the zoning code and the addition of clustering regulations in the subdivision ordinance to maximize open space.
Design for protection and enhancement of community character
One of Montgomery citizens’ two highest planning priorities is historic preservation. Clarksville features a historic district downtown and the surrounding rural area is home to several pioneer outposts that continually face development pressure. Additionally, the Cumberland and Red River basins represent the very essence of the community and Montgomery’s land use plan therefore pledges to protect them for reasons both environmental and historic. While protecting known historic areas is of high priority, so too is pinpointing lesser known historic sites in the county, so planners dedicated much of their 2003 efforts to identifying areas of historic interest. Implementing planners are currently working to codify protections of valuable areas marked on this new county greenprint.
Redevelopment of cities, towns, rural communities
Clarksville is prioritizing infill development by offering fee waivers and price reductions for projects that will increase density and utilize existing infrastructure. More specifically, Clarksville is prioritizing mixed-use infill development that can revitalize historic but now ailing neighborhoods. In 1999, a tornado devastated downtown Clarksville, heavily damaging properties both private and public, and the planning commission hopes to make the best of a catastrophic situation by rebuilding using smart growth principles.
One such area prioritized for infill development is the historic Madison Street corridor in Clarksville. In keeping with the need for historic preservation and new business development, the city of Clarksville has adopted zoning overlays for the area, its central business district. The Urban Design Overlay (UDO) District for Madison Street seeks to revive the area by creating developments that complement each other in appearance and function. For example, Clarksville planners are specifically targeting isolated zoning areas and revising them to promote mixed-use housing with improved sidewalks and smaller setbacks to encourage pedestrian traffic.
Housing
Montgomery County is focusing its housing energies on diversifying the housing stock to accommodate a variety of incomes and functions. Nearby Fort Campbell employs more than 28,000 soldiers, many of them fairly young, and most of them have families; therefore, maintaining and expanding affordable multi-family housing options remains a priority. The county is also working to link industrial, commercial and residential functions throughout its communities, providing ease of access to residents and encouraging density in existing urban areas.
Conservation
The Regional Planning Commission has made environmental considerations a major priority in its Land Use Plan. First, Clarksville seeks to reverse a damaging trend of clustering low-income communities in areas of high environmental health risks. By both cleaning up such areas and building affordable housing throughout the city, Clarksville hopes to reconcile its geographic disparities.
Second, the planning commission is addressing the county’s recurrent problem of storm water pollution, publishing a detailed Storm Water Prevention Plan in 2008. The plan creates barriers to further floodplain development, better regulates erosion and discourages septic tank installation, among other policy additions. It also calls for notorious industrial polluters to clean up or face fines. Third, the plan calls for protection and open space conservation along the Red River and other vital water sources. Clarksville was founded because of its waterway access, and the community wants to honor that heritage by creating a greenway system throughout the county, following rivers and streams.
Land use and transportation
As Clarksville continues to expand, so too must its transportation capacity. The city currently faces significant congestion along school routes, and planners are working to provide a diversity of transit options to offset traffic. The highly developed area along Interstate 24 has also garnered focused attention, and the Land Use Plan directs future development towards the existing corridor rather than in less dense areas. A plan to create a specialized transit route between suburban areas and the urban core is gaining steam.
Efficient use of existing infrastructure
Clarksville is gradually annexing urbanizing areas just beyond its city limits in order to more uniformly provide infrastructure and influence growth patterns; however, the city also has prioritized redevelopment not only within its Urban Growth Boundary, but within its more narrow urban core area. Planners are also revising zoning codes to allow for development decisions based on degree of existing infrastructure and ability to service the potential development.
Thinking and acting regionally
By creating its Regional Planning Commission in 1963, Montgomery County and Clarksville took a pioneering step towards regional thinking. Clarksville is currently conducting community surveys to draft an updated Strategic Master Plan in the coming year, but the next step is to integrate planning efforts with the greater ten-county Middle Tennessee region. So far, CRT maintains no formal partnership with Montgomery County, but their local smart growth efforts bode well for future collaboration.