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In
the News
from
The Nashville City Paper, 6.16.04
Smart
Growth aids Metro plans
By
The Metro Planning Department is getting some help on updating its
subdivision regulations in the form of a technical assistance grant
from the Washington, D.C.-based Smart Growth Institute.
Ann Hammond, assistant executive director of Metro’s Planning
Department, said, current subdivision regulations tend to be “one-size-fits-all
regulations.”
She said the Smart Growth Institute “has provided a team of
three professional planners who have assisted us in doing an audit
of our subdivision regulations. We have thought for some time that
our subdivision regulations for Nashville needed some updating.”
The grant will help the department gather information for a large-scale
update of the subdivision regulations that will include planning
partners of the department, the Planning Commission, neighborhood
stakeholders, developers, Council members and other community members.
Hammond said it was not a monetary grant.
She noted that regardless of whether developers are building an
infill project in Germantown or a new development in Bellevue, they
have to deal with very similar standards even though the character
of those two areas is very different. Therefore, the planning department
is thinking about updating its subdivision regulations to accommodate
and integrate them according to smart growth principles.
“They’re [also] taking a look at zoning to see whether
we’ve got any huge conflict between subdivision and zoning,
and they’re looking at some other standards that relate to
subdivision, but the focus is on the subdivision regulations,”
Hammond said.
Consultants will provide Metro planners with information about how
current subdivision regulations measure up with the generally accepted
principles of smart growth, Hammond said.
“That’s just one of many pieces of information that
will be available, when we have the resources to put into the generalized
update of the subdivision regulations,” she said.
The Metro Planning Department expects a report from the consultants
in about a month.
The consultants are paid through a grant from the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and in its call for application
the Smart Growth Leadership Institute said it was looking for “communities
that have made a commitment to smart growth but are struggling with
implementation, building support, identifying the most problematic
policies, and other issues that typically accompany a major change
in development practice.”
The institute’s overall goal is to help selected communities
that attempt to implement smart growth principles weed through a
thicket of outdated codes, misinformation, and defensive residents.
In addition, the institute plans to develop a national Smart Growth
Implementation Kit “that will allow other communities around
the nation to gauge whether their current policy and regulation
frameworks, their approval of review processes or design standards
encourage and support smart growth.”
Nashville was selected from more than 100 communities that applied
for the grant, according to the Smart Growth Leadership Institute.
Smart Growth America, a coalition of nearly 100 advocacy organization,
defines Smart Growth as “well-planned development that protects
open space and farmland, revitalizes communities, keeps housing
affordable and provides more transportation choices.”
To learn more about Metro’s subdivision regulations go to
www.nashville.gov/mpc/SubdivisionRegulations/toc.htm.
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