A developer proposing more than 1,000 residential units at the site of a former East Nashville apartment complex will get a final vote after months of delay.
The Metro Council on Tuesday gave Austin-based Cypress Real Estate Advisors approval on second reading for its proposal for up to 12 buildings including retail space and 1,150 residences on the site of the now-demolished RiverChase Apartments. A final vote is scheduled for the council’s Nov. 15 meeting.
District 5 Metro Councilmember Sean Parker had delayed a public hearing and second vote on the project several times as he sought additional public input on the project, especially related to the affordable housing component.
CREA was originally negotiating with community group Stand Up Nashville and other organizations on a community benefits agreement for the development, but those negotiations fell apart and the developer then struck a CBA deal with Urban League of Middle Tennessee.
In late September, CREA said it would move forward with a drastically scaled-back development with significantly fewer housing units and no affordable component if the Metro approval process was delayed further. According to Parker, some opponents of the project have in recent weeks shifted to a neutral outlook.
“I always strive to work out issues with zoning bills before they go to public hearing," says Parker. "That’s obviously not always possible. I do my best to address the concerns of opponents to the extent possible. … It’s good to see a lot of the concerns having been addressed with this and being able to move forward with it.”
In a letter to Metro Council shortly before the vote, CREA development manager Stephen Buchanan said the company had met with representatives from advocacy group Nashville Organized for Action and Hope to address concerns raised at previous meetings. According to his message, CREA made modifications to its CBA promises related to most of NOAH’s concerns.
“CREA remains incredibly excited about this project and believes the voluntary contribution of affordable housing can serve the city as a model for future private residential development,” Buchanan wrote. “The agreement with the Urban League that increases and protects affordable housing is a first of its kind on private land and private housing in Nashville. Affordable housing is a difficult issue, and this proposal offers a roadmap to begin assisting with this problem.”
Of the 1,150 planned residential units, 225 will be reserved for varying levels of affordability. Additionally, CREA is pledging to give priority to residents displaced from RiverChase.
Kay Bowers, co-chair of NOAH’s affordable housing task force, was part of the group that met with CREA. After the proposal’s early October public hearing, Buchanan reached out to Bowers to meet about her concerns, she says. Those conversations, which included other advocates, produced modifications to the CBA that made it stronger and more enforceable, Bowers says. As a result, the organizations told Metro Council it would no longer stand in the way of the zoning request.
“We believe the new agreement did have stronger language, provided more confidence to the public and, yes, we still had concerns and don’t believe it met best practices, but we decided we would not stand in the way of the zoning request passing,” Bowers says.
Not all opponents have turned entirely neutral on the proposal.
"RiverChase should not be lifted up as a model going forward,” says Michael Callahan-Kapoor of Stand Up Nashville, which was part of the coalition with NOAH. “Right now our economic development policies are fueling the housing crisis, and residents made vulnerable by low wages are paying the price. … I hope we can take the painful stories shared by former RiverChase residents to heart and come together as a city to solve displacement and economic insecurity so all Nashvillians can thrive. Otherwise it's going to keep happening."
This article first ran via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
