Most weeks, fervent Metro government observer @startleseasily recaps the bimonthly Metro Council meetings with her column "On First Reading." Startles is taking the week off, so Scene staffer Eli Motycka has filed a substitute column in her stead. Startles will return in two weeks.
Marathon meetings always bring a special gravity to the Metro Courthouse. We can usually expect one every season: Agenda items stack, comment periods align, shirts match, and sheets of prepared remarks crinkle in the gallery. Vice Mayor Jim Shulman knew it was coming, trading his mini Diet Coke for a zero-calorie Red Bull, which he cracked around the three-hour mark of Tuesday's Metro Council meeting.
Southeast councilmembers pleaded with their colleagues about their districts’ struggles to absorb growth after neighbors contested a proposed development in Cane Ridge. After extensive public comment on two controversial real estate developments and a handful of charged debates on the floor, the meeting wrapped past 2 a.m. The zoning change sought by Cypress Real Estate Advisors for the former site of RiverChase apartments was deferred a sixth time at the request of District 5 Councilmember Sean Parker. Last week, the Austin-based company threatened to scrap affordable housing conditions if met with another deferral, and now Nashville awaits CREA’s next move. The council approved Mayor John Cooper’s requested allocation of $50 million in American Rescue Plan funds for a plan to address homelessness, broken down into four legislative prongs. A Wednesday morning presser followed. The council advanced a $500,000 allocation to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. Late into the night, District 33 Councilmember Antoinette Lee interjected with questions about a virus scan on her computer, prompting a brief cyber-attack scare.
The Great Displacement
Cypress Real Estate Advisors started demolition on RiverChase this summer, the latest in an 18-month saga that has been both case study and precedent for sudden large-scale displacement in an unaffordable housing market. Stand Up Nashville, the community organization that successfully secured a community benefits agreement with Nashville SC's owners in 2018, spearheaded CBA negotiations with CREA. Stand Up Nashville sought firm guarantees on issues like affordable housing guarantees and resident relocation. Talks deadlocked in June, and CREA reached a new agreement with the Urban League of Nashville and Middle Tennessee in July.
The developer wants to put 1,150 units — of which 225 are tied to percentages of Nashville’s Area Median Income ($96,700 in 2022) — on 14.4 acres and needs a rezone from the council. That leaves Parker to play referee. His middling attitude toward CREA’s community engagement process has led to five deferrals. The sixth came Tuesday night.
Neighbors and CREA reps queued up to support the plan. They spoke about the protracted CBA process, clearly frustrated with SUN’s persistent opposition in what they cast as good-faith negotiations. Developers spoke about their extensive efforts to hammer out a solution and explicit commitment to affordable housing, a rare stipulation amid the city’s luxury-housing explosion. They’ve also found a partner seemingly more willing to acquiesce to their vision (and relatively inexperienced in community benefits agreements) in the Urban League. Time kills the bottom line, and developers want to move along.
On the other side, displaced residents and community organizers explained the chaos and lopsided power dynamics of more than 150 families trying to reestablish their lives amid rapidly changing circumstances legally determined by property owners. RiverChase was one of the only complexes near downtown that honored Section 8 housing vouchers, and many residents identify as low-income. Tuesday night, a few former residents explained how the displacement has pushed them and their families into homelessness. For those still pleading with CREA for more time and adequate due diligence, Urban League crossed the picket line and collaborated with the enemy, straining whatever bonds of solidarity exist between nonprofits that share mission statements about social inequity and community advocacy.
The council went with Parker and deferred once again, though not without some expressed frustration. “It’s time for us to make a hard decision — we’re not going to please everybody,” At-Large Councilmember Sharon Hurt told the floor as the meeting headed into its fifth hour. “We need to make a decision. Nothing is going to change in the next four weeks.”
Significant Gestures
A month ago, a slate of councilmembers filed for a $500,000 allocation to Planned Parenthood. The proposal — both supported and derided as a mere gesture in the direction of critical state and federal issues — saw a series of floor arguments that ultimately ended in approval. One of the opponents’ main arguments rested in the allocation's redundancy: Why not just task Metro Health with some of the sexual health benefits we’re hoping to see from Planned Parenthood? While the money itself was a significant legislative move, responses to this line of argument revealed a shared lack of faith in the Metro Health Department among some councilmembers. Members didn’t get specific, but referenced “the news,” perhaps referring to recent Scene reporting on the department’s dysfunctional internal dynamics.
Some Good News
The council approved a huge package of legislation pieced together by Mayor Cooper to address homelessness in Nashville. Totaling $50 million, the four bills draw from remaining one-time American Rescue Plan funds to bulk up the Metro Homeless Impact Division and seed affordable housing lending that will be overseen by MDHA. The models and asks are not new, but the scale of investment may help build some much-needed momentum against one of the city’s most critical humanitarian crises.
Usual first-reader Nicole (aka @startleseasily) will return to her post soon.
