@startleseasily is a fervent observer of the Metro government's comings and goings. In this column, "On First Reading," she'll recap the bimonthly Metro Council meetings and provide her analysis. You can find her in the pew in the corner by the mic, ready to give public comment on whichever items stir her passions. Follow her on Twitter here.
On Tuesday night, the Metro Council wrapped up its debate on parking reform and gave the administration permission to search for a development partner for the East Bank.
Hall Pass
Embattled Councilmember Jonathan Hall was absent from Tuesday’s council meeting, which gave CM Freddie O’Connell a chance to be a hero for some folks in District 1. The topic? A pair of rezoning bills, both unanimously disapproved by the Planning Commission. The weapon? Procedure.
There’s been a steady chorus of criticism building over CM Hall’s lack of communication with his constituents, who’ve expressed frustration in public hearings and emails to other CMs. Even CM At-Large Bob Mendes, who’s fairly strict about staying out of district CM business when he can avoid it, stepped into the fray at the Nov. 1 meeting, asking neighbors to email the entire council with their thoughts. (Subtext: Hall won’t read your emails.)
The neighbors took his advice, and CM O’Connell answered the call. He signed on to both disapproved bills as a co-sponsor and, in Hall’s absence, moved to defer the bills to the second meeting in August 2023. Why that meeting? That, my friends, is the final meeting of this council term. So the bills are now as good as dead. Could O’Connell have simply moved for disapproval? Sure. Would it have been as fun? Absolutely not.
To be fair to Hall, he’s probably been too busy trying to come up with the $360,000 he owes the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance to worry about pesky matters like serving his constituency.
People > Cars, Officially
Nashville will now be added to the growing list of cities that have instituted sweeping parking reform measures, after CM Colby Sledge’s bill to end parking minimums and institute parking maximums in the urban zoning overlay passed on third and final reading Tuesday night. Adding to the sense of urgency was satellite city Berry Hill, nipping at our heels with its own parking reform discussions.
When CM At-Large Burkley Allen — who had requested a deferral in committee to allow more time for Sledge to “take his show on the road” to every neighborhood association in town — dropped her objection to taking action, I thought it would be smooth sailing.
But then CM Dave Rosenberg, whose non-UZO district will not be directly affected by the new policy, attempted to defer the bill. CM Sledge countered with a tabling motion. A showdown ensued. Sledge defeated the deferral with 20 votes. This led to a last-minute frenzy on the floor, as supporters of the bill worked overtime to find the extra vote they’d need to pass it on third reading. In the end, they found four more votes. Take that, Berry Hill!
Look What You Made Me Do
With the passage of a resolution Tuesday night, Metro has the green light to solicit a “development partner” for certain Metro-owned parcels surrounding the footprint of the proposed new Titans stadium. Three of the council’s four at-large CMs introduced amendments to the resolution.
CM Sharon Hurt’s amendment calls for utilizing minority- or women-owned business enterprises “to the fullest extent allowable by law” (read: as much as the state will let us). CM Allen’s amendment makes reference to the Imagine East Bank Vision Plan, in hopes that any development plan would reflect priorities like walkable streets and affordable housing.
On this last measure, the resolution earns a D- from me. Rather than calling for affordable housing, the resolution simply mentions “attainable housing” — whatever the hell that means — and lists no actual targets for us to achieve. In a state where the legislature makes it virtually impossible for us to require private developers to help ease our affordability crisis, we should go all-in for affordability on land that we own.
But CM Mendes’ amendment takes the cake. It rewrites the “whereas” clauses to blunt the Cooper administration’s attempts to pass off their assertions as statements of fact and to place responsibility for the new stadium proposal at the feet of the Titans. It also adds a clause that states, in no uncertain terms, that passage of this resolution does not indicate council approval of a new stadium.
Will this stop the mayor from spinning this as the Metro Council’s tacit approval of a fancy new domed stadium? Probably not.
My very first column ran one year ago. As we head into Thanksgiving, I’d like to give thanks to Scene editor-in-chief Patrick Rodgers, who saw a random nerd tweeting about Metro Council and thought, “Yes, that’s exactly what the Scene needs.” Thanks for taking a chance on me, Patrick. This continues to be one of the coolest opportunities I’ve ever been given.
