ARE NOLENSVILLE GROWTH CONCERNS VALID? "Not in My Backyard" or Just Selfish?

Today's Sunday paper has a collection of the
very best citizen letters about Williamson
County growth. As a citizen of Nolensville
you need to read every one of these letters!
CLICK HERE for all 11 pages of good ideas!

We are going to highlight some of the best
statements. But please do read all of the 11
pages of incredible insights by our citizens.

#1 Letter by Greg Duke of Franklin: "Who
pays for the impovements of the infrastruc-
ture? The existing citizens? Or should new
arrivals pay an impact fee to help offset the
costs? Where is our Planning Commission?
Do we not have a master plan for the over-
all development of our city, or is it based
upon the size of the developments approved
by our government? Who determines the size
of our city? Our government or the citizens?"

#2 Letter by Naif Salloum of Franklin: "The
growth...can be considered out of hand as
long as the school system is behind on schools
and traffic is backed up all over. I do not know
where it is written that all property is to have
a building on it or a road on it or a mall on it.
But my guess is it is written in a book that
developers and real estate sellers read." And
take an oath to fulfill no matter what!

#3. Letter by Chris Pamplin of Franklin: "If
more and more say "not in my backyard,"
then send the developers to someone else's
backyard who will gladly accept their money."

#4. Letter by Maggie Faill of Franklin:
"Before the city or county approves build-
ing more houses, they need to first consider
how many classrooms will be needed and
then require the developers to donate land
and/or money to help meet those needs."

#5. Letter by Buddy Peden of Frankln: "Not
in my backyard? Come on! Our real-estate-
elected leaders can't get enough development.
Many of them have never seen a development
they didn't like. If you can't build on it as is,
rezone it or annex it." Better yet put a PUD on
it...like they do in Nolensville.

#6. Letter by Lillian Stewart of Franklin:
"Citizens now realize that where one land-
use plan ends and another begins ( the so-
called urban growth boundry surrounding
each of the county's six municipalities) is
currently a no-man's land for predictable
and compatible development. Requests
for rezonings (quite simply, amendments
to the current land-use plan) are not entitle-
ments and should rarely if ever be granted."

#7. Letter by Allen Reeves of Franklin:
"With the explosvie growth of Nolensville,
Cool Springs, Spring Hill and Thompson's
Station, this whole county needs to take
a good look at itself in terms of consolid-
ating a lot of this overlapping and inefficient
duplicative management of services and
infrastructure."

#8. Letter by Fount Smothers of Thompson's
Station: "Why do people continue to move
here? There is no real payoff or financial
incentive to the development industry here
to bother with effective planning for organic
communities because people will flock to any-
thing like Franklin (Nolensville),that even
vaguely resembles their exurban ideal, even
if it falls woefully short of the thoughtful
planning necessary to actually achieve that
ideal. There is no real payoff or political
incentive to county or municipal goverments
to bother with requiring effective planning
for organic communities because the people
negatively affected by the abdication of such
planning don't tend to show up as homebuyers
until after the non-planned, non-community s
subdivisions and commercial developments
are built and then it's too late."

Use these 8 citizen letters as a resource to ask
each of our candidates running for office ques-
tions about the explosive Nolensville growth?

Keep those comments coming in and we'll keep
writing about issues and things happening here.