The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at 6:30 PM in the
Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse.
This will again be a meeting that is more boring than usual. There is nothing on the agenda likely to generate passion or debate. To watch the Council meeting, you can go to the courthouse and watch the
meeting in person, or you can watch the broadcast live at Metro Nashville Network's Government TV on Nashville's Comcast Channel 3 and AT&T's U-verse 99 and it is streamed live at the Metro Nashville Network's livestream site. You can catch the meeting the next day (or the day after the next) on the Metro YouTube channel.
If can stand the suspense and just wait, I will post the video on
this blog the day after or the day after that and provide commentary.
If you are going to watch the Council meeting, you need a copy of the Council agenda
and the Council staff analysis or you really will not know what is
going on. You can get the agenda and analysis at the highlighted links.
Bills on Public hearing:
This is the Council meeting at which the Council hears from the public on rezoning bills. Rezoning hearings bore me and I don't even try to form an opinion on the merits every rezoning bill before the Council. People who don't care one way or the other do not show up and with rare exceptions the only people who speak in favor of rezoning bills are those who will benefit from the rezoning such as the property owner or the developer. Opponents always make the same argument which boils down to one of these: 1) the change will result in stressing the infrastructure such as too much traffic on the roadway or overcrowd the schools, 2) will cause flooding, and 3) will change for the worse the character of the community.
I don't see any of the rezoning bills that I expect to be particularly controversial. There are three that will that impose some sort of overlay on a neighborhood and sometimes these can be controversial but usually the council member has tweaked the overlay boundaries or overlay restriction to have placated opponents before it gets to public hearing. An overlay keeps the basic zoning in place but adds an additional layer of restrictions that address what development in the neighborhood should look like. This is an attempt to keep new development from being out of character with what is already in the neighborhood. Below are the only bills on public hearing of interest.
BILL NO. BL2017-704 would ban rope lighting on a property that adjoins an arterial and collector street everywhere in Davidson County except in the core of downtown Nashville. Why? I am not buying the argument that this lighting is a hazard to motorist. I guess this means unless you live on a side street you can't use this popular form of lighting for Christmas decorations. Is Opryland going to have end their Christmas light extravaganza?
BILL NO. BL2017-798 is a rezoning bill in Councilman Syracuse's district. It changes the zoning on a piece of property from RS20 to SP zoning to to permit an accessory hair salon. It is disapproved by the Planning Commission and that is the only reason I am pointing out this bill. It can pass Second reading by a simply majority but will require 27 votes to be approved on Third Reading. This is similar to a disapproved bill in Councilman Scott Davis's district last meeting that rezoned a property from R6 to SP to permit a recording studio. In my view, low impact commercial such as recording studios and hair salons and a few other uses should be permitted in residential neighborhoods. Since there are not permitted, the only way to allow these uses is to rezone the parcel with that accessory use as a permitted activity.
Resolutions: None of them appear controversial or of much interest. Most are accepting grants or authorizing the application for grants.
Bills on Second Reading:
BILL NO. BL2017-687 establishes a process and procedure for naming public buildings, structures and spaces of the Metropolitan Government. I like this. I think usually you should have to be dead before you get something named after you. This was deferred from May 2nd and again deferred July 6th at the request of the sponsor to this meeting.
BILL NO. BL2017-829 would require the Department of Public Works to replace, at no cost to the homeowner, government-supplied waste containers that are stolen, lost, or damaged beyond repair. Currently if someone steels or runs over your waste container at the back of your house on the alley, or if someone steels it, the homeowner has to pay to replace it. I do not think that is fair. I support this bill.
Bills on Third Reading: All of them are zoning bills. The only one of interest is BILL NO. BL2017-719 which is only important because it is a bill disapproved by the Planning Commission. It changes from R6 to SP zoning on property located at 2407 Brasher Avenue to allow a recording studio. It will take 27 votes to pass.
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