Dear ,

Returning from Spring Break, there’s a lot going on, so please see below for updates (and, quick reminder, we’ve got a district tree-planting event on Saturday: meeting up at 9am at Lipstick Lounge plant some street trees!)

The Groove aka 1103 Calvin

TL;DR: Don’t mess with District 6.

As you all know, the building at 1103 Calvin, formerly home to The Groove record store, was knocked down a few weeks ago by its owner without notice and without a permit. That building was a historic structure protected by an overlay, and knocking it down like that was a total violation of our city’s rules. I said then that I would work to ensure that such things cannot happen with impunity, and have advanced that position throughout the Metro bureaucracy ever since.

Thankfully, we’ve now taken a big step toward that outcome. The issue will be heard by the Metro Historic Zoning Commission on Wednesday (2:00pm at the Howard Building, 800 2nd Ave. South). Procedurally, the owner has applied for a demolition permit (i.e. is seeking retroactive approval for the unlawful demolition), and the staff recommendation is to disapprove that request and require the re-construction of the building. (An exact replica isn’t achievable because we don’t have the exact blueprints, etc, but we do have photographs, etc, so it can be built back substantially the same, and that is the recommendation.) The goal is to restore the building to the neighborhood at the owner/violator’s expense, and to ensure that the replacement building will not be a source of greater commercial value than what was knocked down.

Also of note is that the report recommends plans for the new build be submitted within 180 days so that time won’t drag out, and that designs for the new build be submitted to the Commission for public discussion and approval, instead of allowing approval at the staff level without public input. You can see the report here. As bureaucratic documents go, it’s a pretty satisfying read! Metro has not always stood up for residents and neighborhoods in this way so I want to thank the staff for this excellent report.

But—it’s not a done deal! The Commission still has to consider and make its decision. I will be there on Wednesday to encourage the right outcome, but if you are inclined you can do the same by emailing the Metro Historic Zoning Commission at: [email protected]

Shelby Community Center Gym

I want to keep everyone fully updated on the Shelby Community Center Gym closure. The update since my last newsletter is that the engineers have reviewed everything at the site and are currently scoping out the needed repair work. We should have a cost estimate soon. I am talking with the Parks Dept and the Mayor’s office about this frequently, and I am even more confident than I was the last time I wrote that this repair can be covered by existing appropriations. But If that changes and we need to mobilize for a supplemental appropriation, I will definitely let everyone know! Parks is moving here as quickly as they safely can and I am continuing to advocate for that.

Also, many folks have asked me if the Shelby Community Center summer program will still be happening this summer, so I want to make sure everyone knows that the answer is: Yes. There will be some adjustments, of course, which are under discussion, but the program will still be happening. Is really is a great thing that Metro does and I am proud to support it and help navigate this year.

Scrap Yard

The Scrap Yard rezoning proposal is still pending, and I want to thank everyone who came out to the All-East Community meeting about it on the 5th, or who has reached out to me about it. Keep ‘em coming. We were able to obtain a deferral of this proposal at the last Council Meeting, so we are not in as much of a rush as before, but third and final reading is currently scheduled for 4/7. I am not a fan of a quick timetable on this, but as you know, this land is not in District 6 or any other east side district, so we are not in control of the calendar, or the bill. But I am doing my utmost to channel our concerns into meaningful improvements to the bill. Today’s Planning and Zoning Committee meeting included a solid discussion of many issues (you can watch it here), and there will be at least two more committee hearings about it, from the East Bank committee (currently scheduled for 3/30) and another P&Z committee meeting on 4/6. I will be bringing amendments and will be asking for more time if necessary.

Some major concerns are:

• Traffic/congestion/ways of getting into and out of the East Bank that are not cars. We will be making a huge, once in a century mistake if we build this area primarily for cars. Most those cars will go through our neighborhood. And we will have something worse than a scrap yard if traffic congestion makes it impossible to get out of our neighborhood due to this development. I am working on ways to require something more solid than good intentions here. Stay tuned.

• Land use limitations. It’s critical that we build a neighborhood here and not another Broadway party zone. A lot of land use restrictions to promote that are already in this bill, which is great (no short term rentals, limitation on the number of bars, etc). But I am interested in limiting the hotel uses so that more of this area will be housing for Nashvillians, so that we are building a real neighborhood.

Some Legislation I am Bringing: Making Child Care Centers Less Expensive, and Faster, to Open

Child care has for years been extremely expensive, and scarce, in Nashville. It’s a huge problem for families and child care providers. One reason is that we’ve been applying the same development review process to child care projects that we do for major developments, even though they have much smaller budgets and resources. So I am bringing legislation to create a process for expediting review of permits for eligible child care projects. This will enable an up-front meeting to get a handle on the process, and will save a lot of time, and, thus, money for people who want to care for our children, and that will help more child care centers get online. This won’t make the review itself less rigorous, only more predictable and faster. It’s a sound update to our city’s process that can have bigger downstream impacts on making child care more affordable, and available. You can read the bill here (it also creates a new code section to bring some similar things that we already do into the right place in the code, if you’re wondering why there’s other stuff in the bill). This will be on first reading at tomorrow’s council meeting. I look forward to seeing this through and to hearing your thoughts!

As always, please reach out to me directly at [email protected] or 615-864-0008. You can also use Hub Nashville for an array of city services and other Metro requests. 

Hope to see you soon. Yours in service, Clay