Maury County-Anchor of Southern-Middle Tennessee

Situated just 30 miles south of Nashville and less than an hour’s drive from the Alabama state line, Maury County serves as an economic and cultural hub for South Central Tennessee. The county is also an important contributor to Middle Tennessee’s economic growth through the Spring Hill General Motors plant and the headquarters of the Tennessee Farm Bureau.

Serving as the county seat, Columbia is home to over 30,000 residents living along the Duck River. The city boasts vibrant neighborhoods full of antebellum architecture and historic districts. The city’s most famous event, the Mule Day Festival, happens every year in April. Mt. Pleasant, a rural community in southern Maury County, has a long history of mining and industry. Presently, the Mt. Pleasant has a diversified industrial base with company ties to Japan, Canada, and Europe. Straddling the Williamson and Maury county line, Spring Hill has been one of the fastest growing cities in the country over the past decade. It was first put on the map in the 1980s with the opening of the Saturn plant, now operated as GM at Spring Hill.

As one of the first CRT Quality Growth Toolbox Pilot Communities, CRT worked with Maury County, Columbia, Mt. Pleasant and Spring Hill leaders to address infrastructure, transportation, and land use related to growth and development challenges and opportunities through comprehensive planning.

Agriculture, grand architecture, sites of Civil War conflicts and the home of the country’s eleventh president mark just a few of the milestones you will find along 200+ years of Maury county history.

Named for pioneer surveyor, Abram Maury, Maury County was open for settlement after the signing of the Dearborne Treaty of 1807. The next year, a small group of South Carolina Presbyterians moved into the area and established a settlement known as the Zion community.

Prior to becoming a city or having a name, the site of Columbia was land granted to Nicholas Long, a North Carolina Revolutionary War colonel. Passed down by his heirs, it eventually sold to John White who later sold 150 acres on the south bank of the Duck River for the county seat. Other communities settled in the county are: Mount Pleasant, Spring Hill, Culleoka, Hampshire, Santa Fe, Water Valley, and Williamsport.

Agriculture dominated Maury County’s early industry with a number of mills and tanneries. A leading mule market for more than a century, Columbia continues to celebrate the working breed during the Mule Day celebration on the first weekend of April.

Maury County was home to the eleventh President of the United States, James Knox Polk (1845-1849). His restored ancestral home in downtown Columbia and is one of many homes where visitors can take a walk into the past.

Maury County is known as the antebellum homes capital of Tennessee. Between 1810 and 1860, plantations flourished. Many of the homes were built by master craftsman, Nathan Vaught. The Athenaeum Rectory, built by Vaught in 1835, currently serves as headquarters for the Maury County Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities (APTA). Elm Springs, built by Vaught in 1837, serves as headquarters for the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.

During the Civil War, Columbia changed hands several times between Confederate and Union occupations. Plantations and the antebellum homes were occupied by soldiers and battles were fought at Franklin and Spring Hill.

Mount Pleasant became the center of a mining boom before the turn of the century when phosphate was discovered. The production of elemental phosphorus brought industrialization to the county. Today, you can rediscover the heritage of the phosphate era by visiting the Phosphate Museum in Mount Pleasant.

In the mid-1980′s, Maury County’s economic future was shaped by the announcement that the Saturn auto plant would build in northern Maury County. Today, Maury County boasts a diversified economy, a thriving Courthouse Square and downtown area in Columbia. Spring Hill, the northern city in Maury County, is one of the fastest growing cities in the State.

Reinvesting in the Downtown: Columbia, Tennessee

Quality Growth Case Study

Written by Kasey Talbott and Dustin Shane, 2011

Like many communities in Middle Tennessee, Columbia’s downtown square looms above its surroundings, indentifying both the political and historical significance of Maury County’s seat. However, not like all communities in Middle Tennessee, downtown Columbia has experienced a renaissance both economically and culturally that has spread beyond the immediate downtown.

How to Include Housing in Revitalization Efforts: Columbia Case Study

Quality Growth Case Study

Written by Kasey Talbott and Dustin Shane, 2011

Columbia Housing and Redevelopment Corporation (CHRC) works with the city’s current planning process to implement reinvestment and development in historic neighborhoods. These collaborative efforts have allowed the city to garner federal funding to revitalize blighted communities.

Form-Based Code, One Tool for Building Better Corridors: Columbia, Tennessee

Quality Growth Case Study

Written by Kasey Talbott and Dustin Shane, 2011

Form-based codes have design guidelines and requirements that are tailored to allow new developments to blend well with their surroundings. This regulatory approach can encourage reinvestment by allowing greater flexibility regarding possible uses and tenants, as well as by requiring sites and building design that is sensitive to surrounding ones.

Integrating City Planning with County Comprehensive Plans: Maury County

Quality Growth Case Study

Written by Kasey Talbott and Dustin Shane, 2011

A comprehensive community plan that expresses public policy regarding redevelopment within a jurisdiction or specific neighborhoods is essential to success. Without an overall vision or strategy and a plan to carry it out, other actions will lack a clear sense of purpose about how community resources should be allocated. Columbia and Maury County have experienced this firsthand, and it this experience with laissez-faire, auto-oriented development that led to the adoption of a county-wide comprehensive plan.

Maury County: A Multi-Jurisdictional Approach to Comprehensive Planning

Quality Growth Case Study

Written by Kasey Talbott, 2010

Maury County leaders took a proactive approach when taking on comprehensive planning. Instead of just commissioning a county-wide plan, leaders from all major municipalities worked together to create one large plan that addressed the needs of the county and individual municipalities. This approach, assisted by CRT, not only was a wise use of fiscal resources by each jurisdiction, it has led to more efficient and effective planning efforts.

Maury County: 2008 Agricultural Economic Profile

Employment in Agriculture and Forestry made up 4.4% of total jobs created in Maury County in 2008 with 1,897 total jobs in these sectors. Primary agriculture was the largest job creator with 1,594 jobs or 84% of total agriculture jobs created. Overall, the forestry industry created 190 jobs in 2008.

 

Progress On CRT Principles for Quality Growth:

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.