When news broke last week that the Tennessee Titans and Metro leaders were considering building a replacement for Nissan Stadium, some in Nashville were enthusiastic about the possibility for future Super Bowls and other major events.
The news (read here) also stoked preexisting community concerns about development in the East Bank, where tech giant Oracle is building a sprawling future campus and several other major developments are planned or underway. Advocacy groups, including those that were involved in negotiations regarding development adjacent to Nashville SC’s new stadium at the Fairgrounds, are organizing community input in hopes of staving off potential gentrification in the East Bank area.
Local advocacy group Stand Up Nashville and other organizations are hosting near the stadium on Sunday a fish fry, at which they plan to seek feedback from residents regarding potential development.
Nate Carter, director of workforce and employment at Stand Up Nashville, has been canvassing nearby neighborhoods, including the Metro Development and Housing Agency’s James A. Cayce Homes and other residential areas located near the southern end of Dickerson Road. Carter says, for example, that the Riverchase Apartments are slated for demolition this spring, and he is worried for the families living in the area.
“They’re trying to find places to put people,” Carter says, noting that a recent survey found that almost all of the 68 families at Riverchase depend upon public rental assistance. “If these families don’t find anywhere to live, where will [they] go?”
Carter is setting aside his football fandom for the moment. He adds that affordable housing holds a different definition for various people, and that $1,700 monthly rents are “not affordable for the people I know.”
“They throw ‘affordable’ out there, but the word affordable is used loosely,” Carter says. “If you fall under that demographic of making less than $40,000 a year, then you need somewhere to live.”
However, Metro Councilmember Brett Withers, whose District 6 includes Nissan Stadium and much of the East Bank, says residents should not be concerned about displacement related to stadium-area development.
Brett Withers
“There are presently no housing units on the Nissan Stadium campus or anywhere in the East Bank,” Withers says. “Therefore, unlike some infill development, no one will have to move to make way for development on the East Bank. … This is why building housing on the East Bank is so important. There is presently a residential population of zero there, so we can build housing on the East Bank without any displacement.
"Gentrification and rent increases are taking place anyway without the East Bank redevelopment,” he adds. “Adding housing inventory to the East Bank will help to absorb some of that housing demand pressure and may provide job opportunities that East Nashvillians can get to increase their incomes.”
Withers says there are new affordable apartment projects breaking ground at South Fourth Street-Shelby Avenue and at Cleveland Street-Dickerson Road near the East Bank. He added that there is a mixed-income mixed-used project proposed for the Riverchase Apartments site at Spring Street and Dickerson.
According to Withers, adding housing inventory to the East Bank would help eliminate housing demand pressure and could be beneficial to the community due to inevitable gentrification and rent increases.
Withers says that, in part because of the Envision Cayce plan, no public housing residents in Cayce, Edgefield Manor, Parkway Terrace and Settle Court would be displaced or see rent increases due to East Bank development. A new grocery store, park space, school and workforce training facility are also in the works in the area.
"For the East Nashville community in particular, Metro Planning is working with various departments, landowners and other stakeholders and community organizations to design a new multimodal street network that helps East Nashville connect with downtown and beyond,” Withers says.
“This redesign of the street network and utilities will make life better for East Nashvillians than the current interstate interchange areas, which were designed a half century ago with little regard for East Nashville neighborhoods and businesses.”
This article originally appeared at our sister publication the Nashville Post.
