Growth Develoment Strategies for Our Future

A Report to the Region, pg 16-19 – View the “Report to the Region”, PDF

Through participant input during the workshop sessions, CRT has developed a set of concepts or strategies that encourage the types of growth we would like to see in our region. The concepts embrace the guiding tenets while applying real-world growth planning tools. They also represent CRT’s three areas of emphasis: land use, transportation, and preservation of open space and the distinctive character of the region’s communities.

The workshop concepts include reinvesting in towns and city centers; promoting placement of imminent growth into already developed areas; encouraging concentric growth around existing cities while discouraging leapfrog development; developing a diversity of housing; investing in smart arterial street systems, such as green arterials, boulevards, main roads and couplets; exploring mass transit alternatives such as bus rapid transit; preserving open space; rewarding conservation rural development; and keeping our heritage of agriculture viable in our region. It should be noted that the strategies are interrelated as they weave together CRT’s three areas of emphasis ensuring desired managed-growth outcomes throughout the region.

Reinvesting in Town and City Centers

One of the most significant elements to arise from the workshop process was the emphasis on directing growth to existing cities and towns, focusing on the region’s historic centers and main streets. In the last decade, many inner cities in the country that had been experiencing decline have reversed trends increasing population for the first time in decades—for example, Chicago added 120,000 people and Denver added 90,000. In addition, these cities also experienced strong job growth.

There is no reason the Cumberland Region cannot also encourage and experience this kind of growth and reinvestment. To do so will require attention to the details of urban development—zoning and building codes that are designed for redevelopment and reuse, rather than promoting development predominately on vacant land. It will also require an investment in safety, schools and transportation infrastructure that is multi-modal with transit options and attractive places for people to walk and ride bikes. Most regions have found that such investments pay off in reduced infrastructure costs while significantly improving the quality of life for residents.

Reversing trends of decline in areas that are the historic cores of communities should be an important regional strategy. Comprehensive approaches such as the national Main Street program have proven highly effective in guiding downtown revitalization efforts during the last two decades. The Main Street program employs a four-point approach in engaging necessary stakeholders in creating vibrant town and city centers in keeping with local architecture, historic properties and community functions for civic, legal, retail and professional services. A vital Main Street area or community center reduces sprawl by concentrating retail and community services in one area and uses community resources wisely, such as infrastructure, tax dollars and land.

Promoting Placement of Imminent Growth into Already Developed Areas

Given that the Cumberland Region is projected to receive an influx of hundreds of thousands of new residents in the next twenty years, the region must think about how it wants to absorb these residents and the homes, businesses, parks, schools, and other land uses their arrival necessitates. Creating policies and incentives that encourage the placement of growth in already-developed or partially developed areas makes more efficient and effective use of land, infrastructure, buildings and capital. Rather than building on the periphery of a developed area, which requires funds for new infrastructure and the consumption of additional land, policies such as infill development, brown- or greyfields redevelopment and a general attitude of “re-use and recycle” serve to preserve both “greenspace” and the capital that its development would require.

Returning to Concentric Growth

When growth cannot be accommodated within already developed or partially-developed areas, the policy commitment to return to concentric growth is a strong alternative. “Concentric growth” attempts to develop as close to the city center as possible, instead of jumping ahead of development in a “leapfrog” pattern.

The State of Tennessee has already debated this and provides tools to help concentric growth happen. Public Chapter 1101 requires cities and counties to negotiate urban growth boundaries, within the context of 20 year county-wide growth plans. PC 1101 plans have been adopted by all 10 counties in the Cumberland Region. These county-wide growth plans are an important first step in shaping county level growth policy for they officially designate areas that are intended to experience future growth and areas that are to remain undeveloped.

Developing Diversity of Housing

As future growth and development is directed to currently developed areas, it can contain a greater diversity of housing types than found today providing more choices and options for the Region’s residents. New housing could be developed in mixed-use neighborhoods—containing a higher density mixture of housing types organized within walking distance of services such as shops, schools and libraries. This would provide both greater affordability and a better match for many more senior, ethnic and single-person households, many of whom would choose an alternative to single-family homes on large lots if this choice were available to them.

Designing Innovative Transportation Systems

Many of the workshop participants relied on freeway improvements to design their growth scenarios. However, excepting Highway 840, there are few new potential freeway routes in the Cumberland Region and fewer dollars for their construction. Even though the Nashville area has some of the highest freeway miles per capita in the country and the highest per capita use of them, time lost to congestion is still rising at a rate greater than most cities.

Secondary Road System Development

What is needed is greater attention to the secondary road system, those arterials that run through the region’s business districts. Freeways are a great invention for traveling long distances at highspeeds but they tend to become less and less useful if too many people try to access them for local movement at the same time. If short trips (less than 5 miles) were diverted to a practical secondary system, the existing freeway system would function as it was intended. Another advantage to investment in the arterial system is that improvements are in many cases one-tenth to one-fifth the costs of freeway improvements.

Rapid Transit

Another idea that was brought up frequently was the use of commuter or light rail transit. This has been a successful strategy in many communities; however, the low density development of the Cumberland Region indicates that light rail transit may not be feasible outside of the core of Davidson County. Commuter rail, while feasible, is useful mainly for travel to highly concentrated employment centers.

In most of the nation’s communities bus transit is the main public carrier of travelers. While bus systems are often viewed as an option only for those who do not have access to an automobile, the most successful systems attract a large majority of riders who are there by choice—they have access to a car but prefer to use transit for some trips. Often we think only of the trip to and from work when designing a public transit system. In several communities some of the most substantial growth in transit usage has in fact been for non-work or errand trips.

The success of these systems has led to research on providing rubber-tire systems that combine some of the advantages of rail transit with a reduced cost. Called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), it is currently the subject of much research. Relying on a paved guideway unlike rail transit which enters and operates within the existing travel lanes, BRT systems are not only less expensive to develop, but can also be created much more quickly. The high costs associated with rail transit crossing of intersections can also be avoided. Several such systems are under construction in the United States and are showing great promise.

The need to further develop the secondary highway system and the advantages of Bus Rapid Transit can be combined to provide a more feasible transit grid for the Cumberland Region. Existing roadways can either be retrofitted with BRT or where BRT is not currently feasible, be built with a corridor set aside for its eventual development. This strategy paves the way for a more innovative transportation system design.

Green Arterials

In rural areas that are planned to be retained as green space or rural housing, green arterials can be developed as roads with limited access and allow near-freeway speeds. They can be landscaped with medians, providing greater safety and allowing for connection to inter-city BRT where and when feasible. In addition to addressing transportation needs, these green arterials also help create the desired physical separation of communities.

Boulevards

Where the arterials connect to urban areas, a combination of transportation designs can be used to provide a multi-modal corridor. Rather than many current street examples, boulevards are cross-sections or streetscapes that encourage pedestrian activity and access to the BRT stations. BRT runs in separate guideways. Many fine streets worldwide have a similar design, where through traffic is separated from local traffic, speeds are generally lower and wide sidewalks and buildings close to the street provide for active main street environments.

Main Roads and Couplets

When the boulevards enter downtowns or other concentrated centers the roads can be split into couplets that provide better movement and access. Couplets are defined as pairs of one-way streets that function as a single high-capacity street. Couplets are usually separated by one city block, allowing travel in opposite directions. Couplets are usually two to four lanes and emphasize roadway capacity. Because all traffic is flowing in the same direction, couplets have fewer movements at intersections and better synchronization between traffic signals. In addition, pedestrian crossing distances are generally less, encouraging a pedestrian-friendly setting. Turning movements are simpler and safer than in two way arterials, cross-sections can be narrower, and adjacent buildings can be close to wide sidewalks. This style is used in many traditional downtowns and has been selected for some emerging new centers. In these sections BRT would run in dedicated lanes in the street.

Greenspace Preservation

Almost all the workshop maps showed different ideas about where development would happen but there was a great deal of consensus about the retention of open space. There are beautiful natural areas around the Cumberland Region and their preservation is critical to maintaining the region’s common values and quality of life. One of the key strategies for the Cumberland Region could be a comprehensive assessment of the region’s existing open spaces and natural areas, their value, how threatened they are by development, and establishing a method for the protection of the most valuable and most threatened open spaces. Farmland, wildlife habitat and riparian areas would also be considered in this effort.

Conservation Rural Development

Another popular idea in the workshops was the development of rural housing in a manner that retains the desired natural landscape many people move to the country to enjoy. Rather than relying on minimum lot sizes to control density, conservation rural development relies on regulating the number of houses per acre and emphasizes clustering them in order to retain large, natural areas or viable agricultural plots. While popular in other parts of the country, conservation rural development is not permitted in most counties in the Cumberland Region. This concept shows great promise as a method to retain the rural landscape between cities that would otherwise grow together.

Keeping Agriculture Viable

The Tennessee State Seal contains the motto “Agriculture and Commerce.” Keeping the first part of that motto viable in the Cumberland Region was a concern to many. Methods vary, but success has been achieved both locally and nationally to conserve farmlands with the purchase of conservation easements, transferable development rights, and other land protection programs.

Limiting the pressures that make agriculture unfeasible, such as leapfrog development patterns, is another idea that had much support. Workshop participants explored ways to connect local markets to the agricultural produce of the region through farmers markets and to emphasize the local
agricultural products in regional tourism. Both are successful techniques used in other areas of the United States and Europe to make agriculture economically viable. Regional strategies for our area should contain aggressive policies to retain and encourage agriculture as a viable part of the regional landscape.