The Subdistrict Formerly Known as East Bend

During last week’s Planning Commission meeting, the Planning Department submitted a proposal to amend Nashville's Major and Collector Street Plan (MCSP) to establish a planned street network for the Wasioto Bend area (formerly known as the East Bend). The proposal establishes a planned street network that will guide how the area located in the crook of the Cumberland River across from Downtown can be redeveloped in the future.

“Imagine East Bank envisions Wasioto Bend as a vibrant, mixed-use, walkable neighborhood,” Donald Anthony of the Metro Planning Department said of the MCSP.  “It is a forward-looking framework for our transportation network, along with our community plans. It helps project where and how we want to grow and how we need to provide transportation options in those growth areas.”

You may recall that the East Bank Subdistrict is now within the Downtown Code. Due to that rezoning, the MCSP had to be updated to reflect a planned street network. The Planning Department was also required to take recommendations from the Vision Zero Advisory Committee and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission.

Though the MCSP does not condemn or take private property, it is a long-range planning document that not only adopts new street lines but could require the addition of new streets if redevelopment occurs. Those who spoke against parts of the plan cited safety concerns and impacts on private property that could hinder redevelopment and keep industrial uses in place longer.

“Our principal concerns are that at Vision Zero, we look at the fatalities that happen in Davidson County,” said Peter Robinson of the Vision Zero Advisory Committee. “We do not recommend drawing and inviting in the level of traffic that an arterial boulevard would do in a neighborhood of this size.”

“The way the [MCSP] is now proposing is to strike the new road straight down the middle of that triangle and split it in half,” said Sean Henry, who spoke on behalf of landowners on Shelby Avenue. “The net effect of that is it's going to make that property extremely difficult to redevelop, to market and likely to keep that property industrial and an industrial use for quite a long time, which nobody's really wanting.”

Jim Murphy, the attorney for O'Neal Steel, echoed Henry, calling the proposal inconsistent with the East Bank Vision Plan’s goal of creating mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods.

The Planning Commission voted to approve the staff recommendation for the Wasioto Bend Major and Collector Street Plan amendment, with the added direction that further study be conducted to make the vehicular travel lanes as narrow as possible.