The Plan of
Nashville
Avenues to a Great City
Ideas into Reality
It
is important to understand what urban planning
is--and isn’t--when considering avenues to the realization of
the Plan of Nashville. In 1914, New York City’s
Committee on the City Plan gave this explanation
“City planning does not mean the invention of new schemes of public expenditure. It means getting the most out of the expenditures that are bound to be made and the saving of future expense in replanning and reconstruction. With or without a comprehensive city plan, the City will probably spend hundreds of millions of dollars on public improvements during the next thirty years. In addition, during this same period property owners will spend some billions of dollars in the improvement of their holdings. To lay down the lines of city development so that these expenditures when made will in the greatest possible measure contribute to the solid and permanent upbuilding of a great and ever greater city--strong commercially, industrially, and in the comfort and health of its people--furnishes the opportunity and inspiration for city planning.”
With the Plan of Nashville, we have a similar intersection
of inspiration and opportunity.
The Plan “lays down lines of city development” that are to
be used as the litmus test for Nashville’s
urban future, the measure
by which proposals for
individual initiatives
are evaluated.
The publication of the
Plan is, therefore, not
an end point, but
a point of departure.
The Plan must now be
tested against the realities
of Nashville.
Those realities include
some government
policies that run counter
to basic principles of
urban design,
tight government budgets,
and vested interests
that would prefer “business as usual”--the development patterns
we’ve practiced
for the last 50 years.
The converse reality is the citizens who came together to make this vision.
Transforming ideas into facts will depend on the collective will of this
same public, as well as political representatives and government officials,
neighborhood and corporate leaders, developers and educators, architects
and planners--and the degree to which they can and will cooperate.
This will only happen
with strong education and action programs that establish broad awareness
of the Plan and position the vision in the forefront of
Nashville development.
Education is the first step. The Nashville Civic Design Center will develop
a program that includes:
- A speakers’ bureau to present the Plan to civic groups, professional and neighborhood organizations, politicians, Metro Council members, government officials, senior citizen and parents’ groups, etc.;
-The publication of articles about the Plan in local, state and national media;- The incorporation of the Plan into the continuing education program at the Nashville Civic Design Center;
- The development of a simplified version of the Plan that can be used in Nashville’s public and private schools.
The intention
of the Plan
is to
steer development
and redevelopment,
as they occur,
into channels
of good urban
design.
One
of the crucial tasks
in implementation,
therefore,
is the modification
of
existing
public policies that
would
obstruct the Plan
and
the establishment of new ones
that would
further
Plan goals.
Such policies
exist
at two levels:
the
daily operational
methods
and
design standards
of
government
agencies
and
quasi-government
agencies
such
as the public
utilities,
and
the planning
documents
and
building codes
that
guide growth
and
establish
construction
standards.
Metro
policies
are
spelled out in
the
General Plan,
the
Major Thoroughfare
Plan,
and the Community
(Subarea)
Plans,
as
well as the
Capital
Improvements
Budget,
which
establishes
funding
priorities.
The
Metro Board
of Education
defines
its
construction standards
and
building
program
in
Educational
Specifications,
Specification
Guidelines and Metro
Nashville
Public
Schools:
Facilities
Master
Plan.
The
Tennessee
Department
of
Transportation
is
also
formulating
its
Long
Range
Transportation Plan that
will
have
a major impact
on
patterns
of
growth
and
development.
The
modification
of
these
documents
and
policies
to
accommodate
the
principles
and
goals
of the Plan
is,
therefore,
a top
priority.
Other
implementation
strategies
include
specific
initiatives
recommended
in
the Plan:
design
guidelines
for selected
areas,
master
plans
for downtown
parking
and
civic
space,
traffic
calming
of streets
that
need
it,
the integration
of
affordable
housing
into
new residential
development,
and the
incorporation
of public
art
in
individual
civic
and private
development
projects.
Politicking
the
Plan
The Plan of Chicago is a model of the effective
comprehensive plan,
serving as a reference point for development for several
generations. The
Chicago
Plan’s success was in part because of its “persuasive
diagnosis” of
the
city’s
problems
and
its “convincing
proposals” for
solving
them,
according
to
Alexander
Garvin
in
The
American
City.
Once
the
Plan
was
published
in
1909,
the
City
Council
established
a
328-member
City
Plan
Commission,
published
and
distributed
165,000
copies
of
a
93-page
booklet
summarizing
the
Plan,
and
in
1911
formally
adopted
the
Plan
as
city
policy.
Within
a
decade
of
the
Plan’s
publication,
the
city
had
spent
$327
million
in
public
improvements
and
acquired
14,254
acres
of
forest
preserve.
More
important,
the
City
Plan
Commission
proved
to
be
not
a
money-spender
but
a
money-maker, “generating
increased
property
values
and
city
revenues
in
the
areas
immediately
adjacent
to
these
improvements.”
The
most
important
reason
that
so
much
of
the
Plan
of
Chicago was
implemented,
however, was effective politicking by its supporters,” Garvin
writes. “In
the
ten
years
after
the
plan’s
publication,
slide
shows
illustrating
it
were
presented
to
more
than
175,000
citizens.
During
1912
alone,
the
Plan
Commission
placed
articles
that
appeared
in
575
magazines,
periodicals
and
trade
publications.” Champions
of
the
Plan “even
persuaded
the
Board
of
Education
to
produce
70,000
copies
of
a
simplified
version
of
the
Plan
that
became
the
eighth-grade
civics
textbook
in
the
city’s
public
schools.”
The
Plan
of
Nashville
could
become
a
similar
action
agenda,
or--like
so
many
previous
Nashville
plans--be
filed
away
as
a
dust
catcher
on
a
shelf,
ultimately
devolving
into
a
mere
historical
curiosity.
The
fate
of
the
Plan
will
depend
on
the
willingness
of
the
public
to
embrace
it,
and
on
the
Metro
government
bureaucracy’s
readiness
to respond. Our work has just begun.
