Steady Flow of Citizens at Thursday's "Bottoms" Meeting

Nov 10, 2016 at 09:03 pm by bryan


As was evidenced in the steady flow of citizens at Thursday night's Historic Bottoms public meeting, the interest in the concept of renewing and expanding the downtown district is catching fire.

Creekwalk Along NW Broad

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It was thought that the opening of the Town Creek and greenway walk along NW Broad Street would be the first phase. Making NW Broad Street more pedestrian friendly as well as attractive would be included from the new Bridge Over Broad all the way to Mercury Boulevard.

Expand Business District

In essence, this would expand the downtown business district from the new Judicial Center that's being constructed along Lytle Street and continuing south to include the wetlands, Cannonsburgh and Bridge Avenue around West Main Street. The Bridge and Main Street section would be an Arts District.

The Historic Bottoms planners indicated, "The downtown bneeds to include more area and to include opportunities for more restaurants, retail, and residential. Consider an Art & Entertainment District as part of the historic downtown district. This would continue to keep the Historic Rutherford County Courthouse as the formal civic space in the heart of the city."

Other areas of interest include including public art, developing an arts district, greater mixture of higher density buildings that share business and residential.

In addition, officials would evaluate opportunities while also looking at public thoughts on current services in the area for the homeless population. One major area of concern deals with a pedestrian crossing on NW Broad Street. The area must provide user friendly opportunities for both pedestrians and bikers, while allowing motorized traffic to flow smoothly through the area.

The area would include venes for live music, more restaurants and specialty shops along with plans for a boutique hotel.

Adjust Existing Road Network

Planner propose that connections at Church and Lytle be enhanced as gateways to downtown. It is proposed that Old Salem be extended to create a new intersection between Vine Street and Church Street. Officials are also looking at extending a one-way approach from State Route 96 (Franklin Rd./Old Fort Parkway) that would make a direct connection from that point, along West Main Street to the Historic Murfreesboro square. In addition, help traffic flow by developing three strong signalized crossing (Vine Street, Old Salem and Church St.).

To get a better feel for the project, listen to the interview below.

Interview

NewsRadio WGNS spoke with City Councilman Eddie Smotherman about public response . . .

(Time: 6-minutes, 27-seconds)

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