Robertson County
Comprehensive community plans
As one of Tennessee’s premier agricultural producers, Robertson County has stepped up to protect its vibrant rural economy through smart growth. With the aid of CRT, Robertson County citizens completed
AIA-sponsored community visioning workshops in April of 2007, especially focusing on preserving agricultural space and revitalizing historic town centers. The final report has been published and implementation is expected to begin at the end of 2010.
On top of its own community plan, Robertson is collaborating with its neighbors Sumner and Wilson Counties to draft a
Tri-County Land Use Plan with the aid of the
Nashville MPO. Work began in April 2008 and the results were incorporated into the MPO’s
2035 Long Range Transportation Plan, revealed at CRT’s Power of Ten Summit in May, 2010. As Robertson County works to create a comprehensive plan it will build from the findings of the 2035 Plan. This effort will produce our region’s first collaborative MPO and county-wide comprehensive planning efforts.
Design for protection and enhancement of community character
As one of the leading agricultural counties in Tennessee, Robertson takes pride in its agricultural heritage and rural open space, and its comprehensive plan reflects that commitment. County Mayor Howard Bradley has embraced smart growth. “We’re evaluating our county and how we live now with an eye on maintaining our rural heritage and developing more new urbanism,” he noted in BusinessTN interview after the workshop results were unveiled. The community comprehensive plan includes guidelines for incentivizing development removed from agricultural areas.
The historic Public Square in Springfield—featuring a 125 year-old courthouse— frequently garners admiration from surrounding communities, and the city government has recently spent $4 million to renovate the courthouse. Further renovation and streetscaping projects are in progress, and many other municipalities are following Springfield’s lead by focusing funding on historic preservation.
Redevelopment of cities, towns, rural communities
Of Robertson’s ten municipalities, five boast historic downtown districts, and the other five seek to build such iconic town centers by revitalizing older buildings in the urban core. Additionally, Robertson has a higher rate of vacant industrial developments than the Middle Tennessee average, so many of those spaces can be converted to other uses. The community is also moving to renovate several tobacco warehouses around the county, converting them for business or residential use or preserving those of historic value. Workshop participants also desired a Farmer’s Market along I-65 to support local agriculture and encourage further development along the interstate rather than in rural areas.
Springfield broke ground in February for new community college facility, hoping to offer educational opportunity to the 89% of the population without a college degree, as well as attract jobs requiring higher education that can raise the county standard of living. As the college community grows, so too will opportunities to redevelop the surrounding area.
Housing
Robertson County offers a housing stock rich in high end properties, but citizens are searching for more affordable middle-class options. The county has also renewed its focus on mixed-use housing, specifically surrounding town centers and other areas already high in pedestrian traffic. Robertson also has an office vacancy rate of only 3.7%, indicating a strong demand for existing office and retail space. Renovating existing space to create mixed-use developments can provide more office space in the urban core while also encouraging neighborhoods and reducing the need for new construction.
Conservation
As a primarily agricultural community, especially in its more northern areas, Robertson County is home to thousands of farmers in possession of hundreds of thousands of acres, and many face economic pressure to sell land to developers. Therefore, a key component of Robertson’s comprehensive plan is providing alternative options such as the sale or transfer of development rights.
County officials are also building a fledgling “agritourism” industry in which visitors interact with local farm through tours, crop picking and other entertaining activities. Agritourism can generate both revenue for farmers and awareness for participants, and the newly founded Tennessee Agritourism Association aims to capitalize on the latent potential of the state’s plentiful farm resources.
Robertson is also home to numerous freshwater streams, many of which are facing environmental challenges as the county has gradually grown. In visioning workshops, citizens overwhelmingly asked to protect these valuable water resources; furthermore, residents also requested greenways to conserve streams while also providing outdoor recreation space.
Land use and transportation
With more than 20,000 of Robertson’s 64,600 residents commuting into Nashville every day, major transit corridors merit special attention, but the county also hopes to grow opportunities within rather than outside of its borders. The release of the 2035 Tri-County Plan will significantly progress transportation efforts and direction for the county.
Efficient use of existing infrastructure
Given the large amount of vacant industrial buildings and the slow population growth projected for the county, the potential to capitalize on existing infrastructure is immense. To incentivize redevelopment, participants in the AIA visioning workshop recommended restricting sewer access to developments within the city limits, among other policy proposals. Furthermore, the location and well-maintenanced infrastructure along the I-65 corridor also creates a prime environment for development, thereby relieving development pressure on surrounding agricultural lands.
Thinking and acting regionally
As a participant in the first collaboration between the Nashville MPO and surrounding county comprehensive planning officials, Robertson County is blazing a trail for Middle Tennessee. Once the 2035 Plan moves into its implementation phase, Robertson and its neighbor counties will be able to cooperatively establish landmark policy changes that will hopefully set the bar high for regional smart growth.