Green pastures forever. That’s the blessed fate of 274 acres in Leiper’s Fork owned by Aubrey and Cora Preston. Tuesday, the Land Trust for Tennessee announced the receipt of a conservation easement on the Prestons’ property, which represents the first triumph of the trust in its fight to preserve open space and prevent sprawl.
The easement means that the land, the gleam in the eye of many subdividers, will never be developed.
The way the process works is that a property owner gives a conservation easement to the not-for-profit land trust in exchange for a tax break. The property is appraised at its current undeveloped value, and then at its value if it were developed for so-called “highest and best” (read most lucrative) use. The owner then deducts the difference in the appraisals from his/her federal income tax. The trust gains the right in perpetuity to oversee the conservation of the property, while the land remains in private hands.
Several years ago, Aubrey Preston began buying up property in southwest Williamson County to prevent its conversion to a McMansion habitat. The three parcels whose easements he donated to the trust lie near the Natchez Trace Parkway, in a broad agrarian valley dotted with historic buildings. Mayor Phil Bredesen, the trust’s founder and chairman, noted in his remarks the urgency of preserving such vistas.
“In my eight years in public life, I’ve learned that some things are fixable. If the football team is not a good idea, it will pay off its bonds and then go away,” Bredesen said. “The development of beautiful land like this can never be fixed.”
Intersection
Metro’s boards and commissions are full of potential conflicts of interest. Latest case in point: Bredesen’s nominees to Metro’s Traffic and Parking Commission. Margaret Slater, a former member of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, as well as the staffs of Metro’s Planning Commission, Historical Commission, and the Metro Development and Housing Agency, is currently a senior planner for the consulting and engineering firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas.
Ed Owens, who crafted Metro’s new zoning ordinance as a former staffer with the Planning Commission, is currently with the architectural and engineering firm of Gresham Smith and Partners.
Both firms serve as consultants to Metro on transportation plans that can require votes by the Traffic and Parking Commission. Gresham Smith is always a top contestant in the Metro consulting sweepstakes. The firm served as lead consultant on the initial Franklin Corridor study and the Second Avenue streetscape that returned the thoroughfare to two-way traffic, among other studies.
Parsons served as the lead consultant on the landport. Parsons is the lead firm, and Gresham Smith is a chief consultant, on the team developing the Downtown Transportation Plan for Public Works, which is expected to be complete by July of this year.
Owens has had no personal involvement in the Downtown Transportation Plan. Slater has not worked on the study since January 1999, and both are highly respected professionals with no taint of unethical behavior. Mayoral spokesperson Mark Drury says the issue of potential conflicts of interest “has already been vetted. I spoke with Margaret, and she said she’ll recuse herself on any vote in which Parsons has a stake.” Owens also says that he will “absolutely” recuse himself on votes affecting Gresham Smith.
Nevertheless, it’s not a good idea to have board and commission members whose firms are on the Metro gravy train. The best case scenario is that such members recuse themselves from voting on a number of important issues. Owens, for example, would be sitting on his hands more than he’d be raising them if Gresham Smith’s pattern of involvement with Metro transportation plans continues.
Worst case is that commission members whose firms are dependent on Metro dollars would find it difficult to disagree with the initiatives of government officials who have the power to turn off the cash flow. In either case, why not pick people who can vote freely, and vote often?
Breaking wind
For those who doubt that the May 5 storm was of tornado strength, let them go to Shelby Park. Gone with the wind are 750 trees, with another 150 suffering major limb damage, according to Metro Parks and Recreation director Jim Fyke. “It’s a lot worse than the 60 to 80 lost trees originally reported,” says Fyke. “It’s worse than Centennial Park after last year’s tornado, and it’s the best kept secret in Nashville.”
Fyke says his department has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for relief, but whatever funds FEMA supplies will only help with clean-up. Metro’s self-insurance could provide up to $20,000 in additional funds, but that won’t go far after repairing damaged buildings such as the Shelby Community Center.
“Purchase price alone will run $150 a tree to get anything of any size at all,” says Fyke, “and that’s if Parks does all the planting. If we contract that out, you’re talking $250 to $300 each.” Total replacement costs, therefore, could be as high as $225,000, money that’s not available in a lean Metro budget year.
ReLeaf Nashville may be able to help. The program was developed by the Nashville Tree Foundation to replace trees lost in last year’s tornado. “Because Shelby Park is within the area originally designated as tornado-damaged, we are looking at what we can do to help Parks replace some trees,” says foundation board member Kim Hawkins.
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