Concept Plan Revealed Amid Interference

Somebody needs to throw the flag on the former Charlotte Avenue Church of Christ congregation for pass interference.

Last night's DCDP meeting was a lot like the first. Full of eager neighbors with an attentive ear, yet muddled with a huffy church congregation that continues to spew its negativity into a process that is unrelated to their issue. The wonderfully tolerant MPC staff presented the concept plan that showed the corridor broken into specific land use districts. Each district had a set of primary goals that the MPC suggested should be met. Each attendant was given a comment sheet to evaluate each district and offer their comments. In case you missed the meeting, MPC should have this information available for download within the next few days.

The meeting concluded with a quick Q&A session that was riddled with a slew of questions plainly contrived by those representing the congregation. One person was audacious enough to ask the MPC, "Who made the city the savior of West Nashville?" My response to that is, Why does W. Nashville need saving and even if it did, why would you not want it to be saved? This defeatist attitude needs to go.

The meeting was adjourned 30 minutes early to allow for an emergency meeting on the Rite Aid issue. Councilman Holleman addressed the crowd and brought everyone up to date on how this all started and where we are now. Mark McDonald of NOM (Rite Aid developer) was present and lectured diplomatically on the reasons why the plan for the Rite Aid is sited the way it is. He tried his best to answer questions from a lot of concerned neighbors as best he could and attempted to be about as unbiased as someone could possibly be that's waiting on a $5 million dollar check.

Ultimately, the consensus amongst the neighbors was to allow the congregation to move on, if in fact no other developer comes forward to offer a plan that preserves the church. If this is the case, then the community must set its sights on that of Rite Aid and vigorously demand that they compromise their plan to adhere to the established urban fabric along Charlotte Avenue. More to come on how you can help with this effort.