ORIGINAL POST: Today is another one of those days I am so proud to live in East Nashville. Our neighborhood has a long history of civic activism, and I was really energized by the overflow crowd at the East Park Community Center for a meeting with MDHA on the riverfront redevelopment plan. To judge by crowd reactions, I believe most left feeling the way I did, ready for action!

The background
In 2007, the Metro Council approved funding for the initial two parts of a plan to redevelop areas of the east and west riverbanks, roughly between the Korean Memorial/Gateway and Woodland Street bridges on the east and corresponding locations on the west [downtown] side of the river. Improvements in the plan were slated in several phases, to facilitate long-term funding and take advantage of the length of time it takes to get the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers when you do anything related to a river channel managed by the Corps, as the Cumberland is.

There are around 20 projects total in the plan, but significant items include:

• Transforming the parking around LP Field into an urban forest, with grass parking and permeable pavement
• Improved and expanded large and small watercraft access on both banks of the river
• Full greenway connections on both riverbanks to existing and planned greenways
• Re-creation of small wetlands areas on both banks that would improve water runoff and the health of the Cumberland
• Improved river event access on the west bank
• River overlook on the west bank
• Amphitheater on the east bank
• Water adventure park on the east bank

The basic order of the original plan, as designed by a team of development experts, calls for the first phase to include the water adventure park [After reviewing the plan today, it makes me think of Chattanooga's aquarium/waterfront park areas, but on steroids.] and a test site for the urban forest. Next phases handle the east and west bank wetlands and greenway development — all of which will involve significant permitting from the Corps — and then the plan wraps up with the complete urban forest.

In accordance with this plan, Metro’s consultants had already completed the schematic for the water park, making it ready to move into the final planning stages and begin development quickly. The council had already allocated money for that phase of development, back in 2007 when the plan was OKed.

And yet to date, nothing has happened.

Today
At today’s public meeting, a couple hundred Nashvillians heard the initial plan sketched out, and then heard a proposed revision to the plan from the Metro Development and Housing Authority, the agency charged with managing such civic projects. The revised plan currently includes all projects in the old plan, but it re-orders them.

New order

• All east bank projects except the water park and urban forest
• All west bank projects
• Water park and urban forest

At first blush, it just sounded like a reshuffling. The reasons given — the state of the economy and the impetus to continue burying power lines on the riverbanks — didn’t quite make any sense to me, especially since the money’s already in place to get started.

The real story
And then we learned from District 6 Council Member Mike Jameson the most important point: There’s no money allocated yet for phase 3. So we’ll likely never see the water park or urban forest if the plan is re-prioritized.

I’m actually skeptical we’ll see any of the project if the new priorities hold, because — and this is just a gut feeling on my part — since permitting for all parts of the plan except the water park and forest require full-blown Corps permits, we won’t have anything happening for at least a year [absolute best case] and more likely, 3-5 years.

I hope you don’t think I’m coming across as one of those East Nashville whiners. I have lived in this neighborhood for almost 14 years, and I’ve seen a decent number of broken promises about development. But this situation just dumbfounds me. The water park isn’t about East Nashville. It’s about creating an amazing civic resource out of a brownfield — the kind of resource that will bring tourists to Nashville, tie in perfectly with the new downtown convention center, and give all Nashvillians a great destination to both enjoy and be proud of. Take a look at the plan on this PDF. Just awesome!

I’m really struggling to understand how you oppose the water park. And the urban forest — the Titans are willing to give it a try, and it would both be more attractive, and dramatically better for the environment than the vast asphalt parking lots on the east bank today.

I got the sense from Ed Owens, the MDHA representative, that MDHA views its role as to implement what the administration directs it to do. So I am anxious to hear directly from Mayor Karl Dean the rationale behind this plan. From what I know now, the revised plan will serve only to kill the riverfront development. I can’t figure out whom that’s going to benefit, but I know it’s not me.

Stay tuned. As I learn more about what’s happening and what we can do, I’ll let you know.

AND: The Tennessean’s report on the meeting.