Setting the stage for more toll lanes
Plus, what’s next for a church property destroyed by the 2020 tornado and a greenway expansion
Good morning, Nashville! It’s Monday, August 17th. Writing today’s edition from ESPRESSO BAR in Bordeaux.
⚡ Quick hits
Weather: 🌦️ Chance of thunderstorms. High: 98 with heat index as high as 113, Low: 72.
TDOT appears to be setting the stage for toll lanes on I-65, and tonight you have an opportunity to give your input.
Metro announced more than $100 million in new transit projects, including 99 new traffic signals. I looked at six months of complaints to find out which signals get reported the most for timing issues.
What’s new in Nashville’s neighborhoods, including what’s next for a church property destroyed by the 2020 tornado, the “immediate action” the mayor’s office wants for Broadway pedestrian safety, and a greenway expansion.
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🛣️ Setting the stage for more toll lanes
TDOT appears to be setting the stage for toll lanes (TDOT prefers to call them Choice Lanes) on another Nashville interstate, and tonight you have an opportunity to give your input.
The agency just launched a PEL study, which essentially looks for ways to improve congestion, for I-65 from I-440 to Maury County.
One of the questions on a new public survey for the study mentions potential benefits of toll lanes, and then asks how likely you are to use the lanes. Just last week, I reported on a similar study asking the same question for some of the busiest stretches of interstate surrounding Downtown Nashville known as the inner loop.
“The toll-lane question in the PEL and Inner Loop surveys isn’t a throwaway,” Nashville State Senator Heidi Campbell told me by email. “It’s TDOT gauging public appetite for the next phase [of toll lanes] while I-24 [toll lane project from Nashville to Murfreesboro] finishes its procurement.”
“I-65 isn’t hypothetical here,” Campbell said. “TDOT’s own 10-year plan and its 2023 Choice Lanes rollout named the Nashville-to-Spring Hill stretch of I-65 as the next likely candidate, alongside similar projects being explored in Chattanooga and Knoxville.”
You can give your feedback on potential I-65 traffic solutions at Woodmont Hills Church (3710 Franklin Pike, Nashville, TN 37204) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. tonight.
A TDOT spokesperson did not respond to my request for comment.
🚦 Top locations for traffic signal complaints
When the mayor’s office announced $100 million in transportation projects on Friday, one part that immediately got my attention was a plan to install 99 new traffic signals. They’re part of the “Choose How You Move” program paid for with a half-cent sales tax approved by voters.
Nearly every day I review data for this newsletter, I see complaints about signal timing. Part of the pitch for Nashville’s transit program is “smarter traffic signals that adapt to traffic and reduce delays.”
I pulled six months of signal timing complaints to Hub Nashville — about 300 total — and analyzed the data using the artificial intelligence platform Claude to help me look for any potential problem areas around town. Three of the top six are around Downtown Nashville, but here’s the ranking for most complaints:
McGavock Pk & Two Rivers Pkwy — 7 complaints
Old Hickory Blvd & Cloverland Dr — 7 complaints
1st Ave S & Korean Veterans Blvd — 4 complaints
905 Dr. M.L.K. Jr Blvd — 4 complaints
398 1st Ave S — 4 complaints
Lebanon Pike & Old Hickory Blvd — 4 complaints
Friday’s announcement includes 56 new lights on Gallatin Pike, six on Wedgewood Avenue, five on Edgehill Avenue, and 32 on Hillsboro Pike.
🏠 What’s new in Nashville’s neighborhoods
Hermitage
New life for the Dodson Chapel United Methodist Church property: after it was destroyed by the 2020 tornado, Vulcan Materials won zoning approval from Metro to use the property (and others) for an employee center that’ll be concealed by wildflowers and native trees. Plans include a memorial to the church with its original bell, according to Metro Council member Jordan Huffman.
Metro Codes opened four property standards cases — mostly for high grass — within a few blocks of each other: Bonnavue Drive, Bonnafield Drive, and Bonnabrook Drive. Last week, I reported on codes audits in Antioch and South Nashville, but these cases are not described as audits. Their origin is listed as “inspector reported.”
Berry Hill
Starbucks filed for a building permit to build a new location at 2015 8th Avenue South, almost across the street from a relatively new Dunkin’ and 8th and Roast.
Downtown(ish)
Pedestrian safety on Broadway: after one person died and three others were injured when a car hit them on Broadway, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said, “We would love to get some immediate action in the form of TDOT’s opining on NDOT’s proposed bollard design.” TDOT has oversight of the road because it’s a state highway.
Strip club to affordable housing: zoning approved by the Metro Planning Commission allows the former Crazy Horse strip club at 300 McCann Street to be redeveloped into a 16-story apartment building with more than 300 units. Metro Council member Terry Vo called it an “affordable housing” project.
Antioch
After complaints about truckers parking on the sides of roads like Old Franklin Road and Old Hickory Boulevard because they reached their 12-hour federal driving limit, Metro Council member Joy Styles said she’s “trying to find out if there's some land that might be available where we could put a new truck stop, and that would save us significantly from having these vehicles in residential areas.”
More growth near Century Farms: developers asked to rezone four acres behind the Nashville SC facility to allow multi-family housing. Council member Styles wasn’t ready to share details, but she told me it includes “housing that will provide people with an opportunity for homeownership.”
Tonight at 6 p.m. - community meeting about plans to turn five acres of land at 13181 Old Hickory Boulevard, known as the Kersey property, into a mix of 46 residential units and commercial space. Details about the meeting here (location is on right). And here’s a link to the plans.
Madison
Tonight at 5:30 p.m. - virtual traffic calming meeting for Sanitarium Road (link to the meeting here.)
Donelson
Addressing “a lot of misinformation” about the future of the historic Logue House at 115 Cottage Lane, Metro Council member Jeff Gregg said plans to build four townhomes on each side of the property will be addressed at a community meeting at the Donelson Library on Saturday at 2 p.m. The historic home can’t be torn down, Gregg said. You can see the plans here.
Green Hills
ThirdLove, known for half-cup bra sizes, filed plans to open a store in the Mall at Green Hills.
West End
Extension to 440 Greenway: construction on the quarter-mile segment from Park Plaza Trailhead at Metro Parks James H. Fyke Administrative Complex to Centennial Park is expected to begin next month, a Metro Parks official confirmed. “The new segment will be routed along Park Plaza and will cross 31st Avenue North,” according to a department website.
📰 A few final headlines…
“Nashville” actress Hayden Panettiere has died, according to TMZ. She was 36 years old. A cause of death has not been announced.
One of the ideas to address the quadrupling in some cases of Broadway bar property tax bills after the most recent property assessment: “setting property values — and ultimately taxes paid — based on the amount someone paid for their property rather than the current value of the property,” according to The Tennessee Lookout. I reported earlier this month that Tennessee’s House Speaker promised business owners he would ask the governor for a special session to address property tax concerns, but the Lookout’s article says a special session “seems highly unlikely” to happen this year.
New restaurants expected to open at Nashville International Airport by 2028: “country singer Eric Church’s Broadway bar, Chief’s; New Orleans-based sandwich shop Turkey and the Wolf; Hawkers; and Burger Republic,” WSMV reports.
🍔 Restaurant inspections
Only one listed for Friday: The Fairgrounds Kitchen at 625 Smith Avenue received a 91. Read inspection here.
Thank you for reading nash.news! Just reply to this email if you have a correction, story idea, concerns about my coverage, or anything else. You can also email me at ryan@nash.news. I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow! - Ryan