NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — An apartment complex with 288 units has gotten the green light for Southern Davidson County. Metro council members just approved the project with a third and final "yes" vote, but the project won't break ground for another year.
The nearly 15-acre development is off Nolensville Road and Old Burkitt Road in Metro Council District 31, which is represented by councilman John Rutherford. He said it's been about three years in the making after an adjacent development got off the ground.
"It fit with what Nashville was looking to do in terms of building along mass transit, in terms of creating walkable communities," said Rutherford. "There's a lot of businesses that front Nolensville Road that will be walkable from this development and the adjacent development that I mentioned to you. It will all be connected and therefore walkable. And so this is what we've been talking about, for sometime, in terms of what we want to build, in terms of density on our major thoroughfares."
Rutherford says this will all help to address Nashville's affordable housing crisis, but the apartments will be market rate studios, and one and two bedrooms.
"Affordable housing or workforce housing in this area in particular, that would generate some additional concern from people who live here and because we've addressed that issue. We brought that issue up before with developers who wanted to identify their property as workforce housing that they're building," said Rutherford. "As much as we need as a city to go down that road and create more affordable housing, I'm just drawing the distinction that this particular property is not it, but it helps in the overall situation, because it's adding needed housing, which helps to keep the overall price of housing under control."
Click here to view the development plan.
He explained the overall plan underwent several amendments, like changes for lighting.
"We had a development that basically its lighting shined into another development and was like a nuisance shining the lights from it in the windows," he recalled. "We were able to amend this, to control that lighting, to make sure that lighting is pointed inward and just for that community, and not outward into adjacent neighborhoods."
In terms of infrastructure, he says the developer will improve Old Burkitt Road by widening it and adding a crosswalk.
"We're in a housing crisis, and that's part of what's driving up our rent prices in particular is that demand," said Rutherford. "We still have a serious influx of people who are moving to Nashville, which is not a bad problem to have, but it's a problem that needs to be mitigated by adding additional housing. And so it's not unique to district 31 and it's not unique to Nashville. Other cities face this as well."
Metro Council approved the project on the third reading, but Rutherford said some residents outside his district had concerns.
"They raised concerns related to traffic and to schools, which is common with any new development in terms of how it's going to impact the area," said Rutherford. "But of course, this particular development won't break ground for another year. It won't be actually online and have people living there for another three years. The Nolensville Road project, widening project will be done by then."