The Cumberland Region’s population and land development exploded in the 1990’s. Several unsettling patterns such as lower density development, accelerated land consumption, and increased traffic congestion began to emerge, and the effects of these trends became widely visible throughout the region. Communities jolted from the rural traditions to the unforeseen demands of sprawling new suburbs, towns and counties strapped for resources to provide basic services, large employers entering the region finding it profitable to pit one county against another, elusive successful urban infill and a region choked by traffic congestion.

Recognizing these burgeoning trends, a 1999 study sponsored by the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies and published in the Tennessean was the impetus for the formation of Cumberland Region Tomorrow. The Peirce Report gathered a broad perspective on the region’s assets and challenges and highlighted possible strategies available to deal with those challenges. A one-day Regional Planning Summit sponsored by Vanderbilt University and the Greater Nashville Regional Council was organized around issues raised by The Peirce Report. Local and national speakers spoke about the current state of the region and shared best practices from other regions faced with similar growth issues.

Simultaneous with the Regional Summit was an exploratory effort to determine if a non-profit organization, such as Bluegrass Tomorrow in Kentucky, Central Carolina Choices in Charlotte, or New Jersey Future, would be of benefit in Middle Tennessee.  A group of organizers was recruited to work with Vanderbilt University staff and resources to define the proposed organization's mission and goals, to begin raising funds for its support, and to recruit its founding Board of Directors.  Organizers, including Cyrus Booker, Jeff Carr, Marion Fowlkes, Robert McNeilly, Jr., Jean Nelson, Susan Russell, Paul Sloan, and Quenton White, recruited a Board of Directors whose geographic distribution corresponded with the population distribution of the region, and more importantly, whose interests and backgrounds represented so many parts of the region, ranging from the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation to Dollar General and everything in between.

Along with the recruitment of the Board, the organizers began a campaign to raise operating funds for CRT. Due to their hard work and the increasing sense in the region that the issues of growth planning were approaching a critical point, CRT was created with a solid base of funding from a variety of sources.