Resources

Cumberland Region Tomorrow has a long history of providing valuable resources and publications to aid in the advancement of quality growth planning and action. Our extensive library of resources tells the story of where the region has been, where it is today and how we can work collaboratively to build future economic vitality while ensuring a high quality of life.

Below is our expansive library of research and information CRT provides for our ten-county Middle Tennessee region.

Regional Visioning and Scenario Planning

CRT Regional Visioning Project “A Report to the Region”
One of the first national models for regional scenario planning. From 2001 to 2003, Cumberland Region Tomorrow engaged more than 500 residents in Middle Tennessee to define a vision for the future growth of our region. The “Report to the Region” was published to help define different growth related choices and expected outcomes for our region’s future. Efforts of the Regional Visioning Project produced the following information that is still used to understand our growth and planning opportunities today:

20 Year Growth Trend Data
Expected Base Case Scenario
An Alternative Case Scenario

Quality Growth Resources

CRT Quality Growth Toolbox
CRT’s award winning Quality Growth Toolbox contains Tennessee’s premier Quality Growth Strategies, Best Practices, and Tools for addressing local and regional growth issues.

Workshops and Training
Cumberland Region Tomorrow offers one, two and four-hour Quality Growth Toolbox Training sessions for local officials, planning commissions, chamber and economic development organizations, community groups and design professionals. We also award Continuing Education Credit through several partner organizations like UT IPS/MTAS, APA, and Middle Tennessee AIA.

Quality Growth Technical Assistance Services
CRT facilitates Quality Growth Technical Assistance Services in our ten-county region. Some these are described in detail in the CRT “Quality Growth Toolbox Pilot Project Report”. Contact our office to learn more about Quality Growth Technical Assistance Services for your community.

Quality Growth Case Studies
Across Middle Tennessee communities are coming together to create and implement quality growth strategies through comprehensive planning. Since the release of the Quality Growth Pilot Project in 2007 several success stories have emerged in addressing the regional challenges of rapid growth, preserving open spaces and character, enhancing livability and promoting economic growth. These case studies serve as a highlight for some of the best planning practices currently happening in our region.

AIA 150 Blueprint for America
In 2008 CRT partnered with the American Institute of Architects to celebrate 150 years of the profession. In that year CRT and AIA conducted community visioning workshops in three Cumberland Region communities. These case studies are results from those workshops and are intended for local officials interested in implementing similar programs in the region.

GIS Greenprint Tools

CRT’s GIS Greenprint Tools for Quality Growth
The first of its kind in Tennessee, CRT released the GIS Greenprint: Tools for Quality Growth 3.3 in 2010. This web-based document helps planners, developers and designers in our ten-county region use GIS mapping in determining which lands are best suited for certain uses. Land types such as: agriculture, conservation, recreation, transportation, residential, natural and cultural resources and pre-existing development are included. Version 3.4, released in 2012, includes expanded GIS data layers in partnership with state-wide agencies.

GIS Greenprint User Manual
A must have companion piece for the web-based tool. The manual explains all the functions of the Greenprint and also explains the implications of the findings

Rural Issues and Resources

Cost of Community Services Study
The Cost of Community Services Study performed by the American Farmland Trust, in partnership with CRT, analyzes revenues and expenditures on a land use basis, including: residential, commercial, industrial, and farmland within a specific fiscal year. Revenues by these land use categories and fiscal demands of public services (e.g. public safety, government administration, schools, courts, etc.) are examined to show the cost of providing these services. Results of these studies provide local government decision makers a snapshot in time of the net cost to local county governments by land use types for a particular fiscal year.

Agriculture Economic Profile for the CRT Region
The CRT Rural Agriculture Economic Profile highlights the value of the rural economy within each of the ten counties in our region. These profiles demonstrate that conserving our rural landscape is an economic decision as well as protecting beautiful places.

CRT’s GIS Greenprint Tools for Quality Growth
Our web-based publication and project is a significant part of enhancing our region’s rural economy. The information in this report is intended to provide a better basis for decision making as projected impacts and costs of land use and transportation decisions are being made and land resource conservation priorities are included in local and regional plans. Consolidated GIS information can also assist other lead agencies identify and establish land, water, natural and cultural resource priorities and use existing resources for strategic land conservation within the scope of their activities and missions.

Collaborative Leadership

CRT is nationally recognized for its innovative approach to creating regional thinking and action through a collaborative leadership model. Formed in 2000 by regional leaders and Vanderbilt University CRT’s mission to help the ten-county region grow in a sustainable manner and prosper by keeping livability and economic vitality. Since that time CRT has formed many successful partnerships in the private, public, non-profit and government sectors at the local, regional and state level.

Tennessee Regions’ Sustainable Communities Roundtable
CRT is currently in the organizational phase of creating the Tennessee Regions’ Sustainable Communities Roundtable. The purpose is to bring together public, private, and philanthropic leaders and organizations across the unique and diverse regions of Tennessee. This new state-wide network will advance joint regional Sustainable Communities efforts through knowledge and resource sharing, education, communication, and collaborative efforts.

POWER OF TEN Regional Summit
CRT hosts the annual POWER OF TEN Regional Summit which brings together local, regional, and national leaders from the business, government, design, planning, and non-profit communities to discuss our Six Issues of Regional Importance.

POWER OF TEN Regional Summit 2011
POWER OF TEN Regional Summit 2010
POWER OF TEN Regional Summit 2009

Perceptions on Regional Collaboration and Key Regional Issues: Prince Market Research, 2009
CRT conducted research among government, business and community leaders to learn about perceptions, opportunities and challenges in the region. The survey revealed regional leaders thoughts and perceptions on regional collaboration and issues of importance.

Clinic on Regional Collaboration, Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, 2006
Cumberland Region Tomorrow and Partners Leadership Middle Tennessee and the MTSU Chair for Regional Planning applied for and were selected for one of two 2006 Clinics for Regional Collaboration. The Clinic gathered government, business and non-profit leaders to discuss the opportunities and obstacles for successful regional collaboration in our ten Middle Tennessee counties. View the Report to learn where regional leaders were in our thinking of our potential for successful regionalism and possible first step project efforts to create collaborative thinking and action in 2006.

First Regional Summits
CRT has a long history of bringing the region together. Read about the region’s first summits and the findings.

Regional Planning Summit Report Oct. 2003
The first of what would become many CRT regional summits, this report highlights the day’s findings. It includes big idea discussions for regional growth issues and the results from polling citizens on what they considered to be the most pressing challenges and opportunities for region.

Regional Planning Summit Proceedings, Dec. 1999
The first regional summit in the state of Tennessee was sponsored by the Tennessean and Vanderbilt University. The summit brought together over 300 citizens concerned about quality growth issues raised by the Peirce Reports published earlier in the year. Several topics were addressed, one of the more important was discussion of regional quality growth non-profit to guide and drive future development in the region—what would be later know as Cumberland Region Tomorrow.

The Peirce Reports: 1999
Recognizing the burgeoning trends in our region, 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, highlighting 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.