The Plan of Nashville

Another book worth owning for the land use professional:

The Plan of Nashville -- from the front flap:


The Plan of Nashville is a community-based vision of how the urban core of Nashville should look and work in the 21st century. The purpose is to help the central city hold its place in civic life.Since Nashville assumed a metropolitan form of government—merging city and county—there have been almost a hundred plans that dealt with some aspect of the center city. This plan is different.

The Plan was conceived and orchestrated by the Nashville Civic Design Center, which is committed to the practice of urban design. This three-dimensional discipline integrates streets and buildings, land use and transportation—a new approach for Nashville.

Rather than taking a top down approach, the design center organized the process of listening to the community. Over 400 citizens attended a series of workshops in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods to express their opinions and draw their dreams. The center’s staff translated the results into a series of maps and illustrations, with explanatory text—that articulate a three-dimensional vision for the city that will serve as a litmus test for current and future development.

The vision for Nashville includes:
*broad tree-lined boulevards that replace sections of the urban interstates, grand avenues into the city rather than high speed highways through it.
*the Cumberland River as a key focus, its banks treated as a prime place for recreation and residence.
*a balanced transportation system that integrates pedestrian and bike opportunities, as well as mass transit, into an infrastructure long dominated by cars.

Other elements of the Plan feature:
*a brief history focusing on the forces that sculpted the form that Nashville has taken.
*urban design guidelines and policy recommendations as tools to shape future development.
*an explanation of the process that produced the Plan.