Climate, Housing, Transportation, The Future Is T.O.D.
By Eric Hoke, Design Director
5 min read: This opinion piece talks about the need for transit-oriented development as a way to address the many challenges Nashville faces. This is the extended version of an article written for the Tennessean.
A vision of Rep. John Lewis Way S interesting diagonally with Lafayette St where a future Sobro Mobility Hub with affordable housing could be built.
Our population and job growth have exceeded Nashville Next's (Metro’s general planning policy document) projections and our housing costs have constantly been well above the national average since 2016. Faced with a surging population, lack of housing options, warming climate issues like the heat island effect, and gentrification and displacement challenges, we need more tools for managing Nashville’s growing pains. We need to implement strong transit-oriented development.
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a neighborhood planning strategy that focuses on creating an appropriate density among buildings that are mixed-use, providing housing needed with access to food and places to play to support and encourage well-used public transportation. By prioritizing the integration of housing, office and commercial spaces, and public amenities close to mobility hubs (a transportation facility that accommodated people waiting for transit, riding a bike, or people walking in an air-conditioned place to cool off or warm up, these places are important to the function of transit routes), TOD is a powerful tool for promoting sustainable urban living and smart growth for our city.
While adopted plans such as Nashville Next and more specifically N Motion (Metro’s transportation plan) would suggest implementation of TOD around neighborhood centers, we don't have enough incentive for developers to create this type of housing. MDHA has created Redevelopment Districts that can use tax increment financing which is made available for “positive community development” approved by a Design Review Committee that follows a set of basic principles that determine the appropriateness of a project. The policy is not specific to transportation needs and is mostly focused on the inner highway loop areas or directly adjacent neighborhoods.
Metro Planning has taken steps that would help new developments do this with their draft amendment to the Downtown Code’s Bonus Height Program which evolves the existing program to align with current and future priorities for development projects downtown and incentivizes things like green buildings, historic preservation, as well as mobility and infrastructure improvements. This proposal could be adopted by the Planning Commission in June 2024. This is an exciting step to encourage TOD but is only applied to Nashville’s Downtown Core. I hope that we are able to push this forward as a city this spring but we should also think about using it as a framework to establish TOD outside of downtown and use N Motion’s Neighborhood Mobility Hubs as focused locations to encourage smart growth.
Tools like Metro’s grant program, the Barnes Fund, and the Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit are great tools for getting affordable housing built but are only sometimes explicit about including transportation in the developments they are funding. In order to support a quality of life we hope all Nashvillians can have, it is critical for low-income households to have convenient access to transportation services. If developers choose to focus mixed-use housing projects along well-used transit corridors they can justify eliminating expensive unnecessary amenities like parking garages.
In the recent ruling on James Knight; Jason Mayes V. Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee from the US Court Of Appeals in May 2023, two developers felt they weren’t responsible for building sidewalks in front of their projects and sued Metro to be reimbursed for construction of the public infrastructure that they built in order to comply with the sidewalk ordinance. Created in 2017, the sidewalk bill was championed by former council member and incoming vice mayor Angie Henderson, with immense community support. This ruling gives Metro one less tool to provide transit-supportive infrastructure and should be mandatory for any development within a mile of any future neighborhood mobility center. Public-private partners are essential for the creation of new transportation-oriented districts. Nashville needs developers who understand the issues that we are facing as a city. If we can find ways that the government and private sector can harmoniously advance TOD concepts, we can chip away at our growing housing crisis and transportation woes in recent history. Hopefully, developers see that accessibility projects, like sidewalks, are good for the community and good for their bottom lines.
Mobility Hubs recommended by N Motion
Develop a Network of Regional Transit Centers
In combination with the development of new crosstown and through-city routes, MTA and RTA will develop new transit centers throughout the region that will facilitate non-downtown Nashville travel. The transit centers will be designed to act as regional and local “mobility hubs” that provide connections between local services and between local and regional services. The transit centers will be sized and developed based on local conditions and needs and thus will range in size from very large with a wide range of amenities to more modest neighborhood transit centers. All will provide a comfortable location to make connections between transit routes.
- exerp from N Motion
Many newly elected officials have campaigned and were elected to address affordable housing issues. A viable TOD policy is a tool that should be used to create equitable and sustainable Nashville along our pikes. Several of the mobility hubs recommended in Nashville Next should be the locations for the TOD policy to be implemented. The new hubs are ideal locations because many of these sites are already publicly owned property. If we can get our metro departments like MDHA and WeGo to create housing as part of the new mobility hubs we will be well-positioned to build logical affordable housing above the new facilities. It is essentially free land for housing projects.
Design Center Work
Over the years the Civic Design Center has proposed several locations for mobility hubs with housing components. Most notably, the project over the Elizabeth Duff Transit Center at WeGo Central at MLK Blvd and 4th Ave N. The Design Center looked at the original drawings from the facility created by EOA Architecture, which had five floors of housing above the downtown bus hub but was eliminated from the project due to budget constraints. We worked with the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design and Vanderbilt Engineering students to imagine the creation of a highrise wood structure that could allow for at least 350 new occupants. This Civic Design Center has just put out a publication on highrise wood construction and features this project.
SoBro Mobility
Vision from Civic Design Center Publication Reclaiming Public Space Vol. 2 for floorplan layout for Sobro Mobility Hub oriented true north. Red lanes are shown as dedicated transit corridors.
Renderings from Civic Design Center Publication Reclaiming Public Space Vol. 2 examining Lafayette St.
Heat map of underutilized public space along the Lafayette corridor.
Another dynamic opportunity is the future SoBro Mobility Hub that is called for in N Motion and should be prevalent in Connect Downtown (the new NDOT lead downtown-focused transportation study). This location could connect all of south Nashville to Downtown via fast and frequent transit. Situated on the corner of Lafayette and John Lewis Way, there is no better place to incorporate housing than on top of this new facility. Especially since the land is already Metro Government owned and slated for a transit facility if we take the opportunity to build affordable housing the land could offset some of the building cost and could be a great chance for WeGo to coordinate with MDHA on a project that supports affordable housing and transit ridership.
Vision for East Bank Mobility Hub with Housing
We have also worked with the University of Tennessee on envisioning housing over the new East Bank transit facility.
This is also a big move for Transit-Oriented Development for people will will live, work, or play on the East Bank. The more convenient transit is, the less people will need to use private vehicles. Our foundational Guiding Principle, Develop an equitable and desirable transportation infrastructure, specifically focuses on the word “desirable” because that equates to a well-kept, convenient, efficient and preferred transportation system.
-exerp from “East Bank of Tomorrow” blog by Veronica Foster
Vision for East Bank Mobility Hub multimodal facilities and waiting area
Advantages TOD
Transit-oriented development presents important advantages, from improved mobility and reduced congestion to economic growth and enhanced environmental sustainability. By creating vibrant, mixed-use communities centered around efficient public transit, TODs offer a sustainable and socially inclusive model of urban living. Embracing TOD not only promotes healthier and more prosperous cities but also contributes to the global effort to mitigate climate change effectively. Nashville must implement a TOD incentive policy around recommended transit facilities from N Motion.