Rutherford County
Comprehensive community plans
Once a quiet county of extensive agriculture and light industry, Rutherford County today boasts more than 250,000 residents and an astonishing population growth rate of 36% over the last decade, making it the fastest growing county in Tennessee. Given such immense expansion, Rutherford is currently drafting a comprehensive plan, which especially emphasizes historic town center revitalization, rural space conservation, and cost control for community services. With the aid of CRT, Rutherford’s Vision for the Future Steering Committee participated in Quality Growth Toolbox training in October 2008. Rutherford citizens recently contributed their input through public meetings this past fall and a land use
draft vision of the future was completed in June of 2010. Planners are currently working to distill those desires into the final document, tentatively set for release in 2011.In addition the Murfreesboro Planning Department did complete a
Comprehensive Community Plan for a historic district in the downtown area. The purpose of this plan was to address long standing infrastructure issues and to guide future development patterns.
Updated zoning, subdivision and building codes to implement plans
Rutherford County is the first quality growth pilot project to combine the phases of Comprehensive Plan Development and Zoning Updating into one project and consulting contract, a pioneering step that sets an excellent example for its neighbors. Once the final plan is released, many of the essential code revisions will already be in place, expediting the implementation process and laying vital groundwork for further smart growth policy.
Design for protection and enhancement of community character
In public meetings, citizens repeatedly emphasized their passion for maintaining the integrity of Rutherford’s rural landscape. By revising zoning and incentives to prevent islands of development in rural areas, the comprehensive plan can preserve the “entryway effect” into the unspoiled landscape that so enchants visitors and residents. The residents of Rutherford also place a premium on respecting land rights, so plan crafters are working closely with the landowners to ensure that their land rights and individual concerns are honored in the drafting process.
Redevelopment of cities, towns, rural communities
Though the current Vision for the Future document highlights few concrete procedures, it offers broad goals for redevelopment that the final document can distill into actionable steps. Most notably, it calls for overlay districts in rural communities that direct dollars to refurbish existing developments. By funneling the immense population growth into redevelopment rather than new subdivisions, the county can create higher densities rather than sprawl.
Housing
Given Rutherford’s exponential growth over recent decades, housing supply must continually strive to meet demand. Through the new comprehensive plan, Rutherford will implement regulations designed to ensure that most of that new housing stock follows smart growth principles. In addition to diversifying its housing stock to accommodate multiple incomes and uses, Rutherford is also dedicating itself to site schools closer to existing and planned housing. Those regulations will incentivize constructing new community features (baseball parks, theaters, etc) closer to school sites.
Conservation
As plan drafting proceeds, county planners are updating their greenprint to mark key areas to be preserved for environmental purposes. Specifically, the plan designates zoning overlay districts that will protect sensitive areas and ensure aesthetic consistency with the surrounding landscape. In public meetings, citizens also requested a more integrated system of greenways throughout the county.
In order to both maintain the economic and environmental value of Rutherford’s many agricultural lands, the county plan creates two new programs: First, the plan will endow a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) scheme, a privately-driven development rights market that designates sending and receiving areas for selling the right to develop rural or environmentally sensitive land so that development can instead improve density in already developed areas. Such a program would allow Rutherford’s citizens to preserve rural character without sacrificing economic value. Second, the plan will also create “right to farm” protections in development regulations, which insulate farmers from public and private nuisance actions and other municipal regulations that often clash with the necessities of farming. Through these two policy proposals, Rutherford can better conserve its valuable agricultural and environmental resources.
Land use and transportation
County stakeholders plan to coordinate with the Chamber of Commerce to ensure land use is both attractive to businesses and highly sensitive to the surrounding environment. Additionally, community leaders hope to identify key transportation corridors and funnel development along these “Gateway Districts,” directing construction away from rural areas and into existing economic hotspots. Rutherford’s plan also calls for a broader system of bus routes that will reach out to currently isolated parts of the county. Transit working with the Nashville MPO to evaluate the possibility of a commuter rail between Murfreesboro and Nashville.
Use of Existing Infrastructure
Given the county’s skyrocketing growth rate, many municipalities are struggling to manage infrastructure costs. By incentivizing redevelopment within established sewer, water, and electric systems policymakers hope to curb costs and simplify maintenance functions.
Thinking and acting regionally
By combining plan drafting and code revision into one contracted step, Rutherford has already pushed the bar higher for Middle Tennessee’s future planning initiatives. As Murfreesboro continues to grow, along with its neighboring cities, the need for regional cooperation can only grow. The county sets a strong precedent for regional thinking by collaborating with the Nashville MPO on transit alternatives, and many more such partnerships will be beneficial once Rutherford’s comprehensive plan debuts.