Nashville is a uniquely beautiful place, defined by the wide and winding Cumberland River that flows through its downtown and surrounded by forested hills, sites rich in history, community gardens, parks and lakes. These are the things that draw residents, visitors and businesses to Tennessee’s state capital and compel them to stay.

But, like many fast-growing American cities, Nashville needed a green strategy. The area saw its population jump by 10% in just a decade, while only 3% of Davidson County was devoted to parkland. There were simply too few places for people to easily access the outdoors. Rising obesity-related conditions that cost area residents an estimated $255 million annually and a devastating 2010 flood that killed 10 and caused roughly $2 billion in damages underscored the need to better protect floodplains and buffer waterways that feed the mighty Cumberland River.

The “Nashville: Naturally” Plan

Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and the Land Trust for Tennessee chose us to lead a team to develop an open-space plan for Davidson County based on our national expertise in green infrastructure planning. Our goal was to develop the most progressive open-space protection strategy in the Southeast U.S. The result is Nashville: Naturally, the first conservation plan that maps every inch of protected open space in Davidson County — and charts a clear vision for how to protect and connect this green infrastructure.

To create the plan, we led a team that included ACP Visioning and Planning, Hawkins Partners Inc. and Clarion Associates. Together, we inventoried and evaluated the region’s natural areas and engaged the public to develop a vision that entails:

• Improving the Cumberland River system, the source of the county’s drinking water;
• Building up the sustainable local food supply through urban and rural farming;
• Improving public health by making it easier for people to bike, walk and play; and
• Protecting scenic and historic places from being lost to development

The plan’s recommendations range from the simple (put signs on trails so people know they exist) to the ambitious (double the tree canopy downtown in the course of a decade) and call for connecting open space in Davidson County through a network of protected lands at key points along the Cumberland River, including downtown Nashville.

Learn More

• Article: “A Year After Floods, Nashville Looks to Heal ‘Naturally’” (The New York Times)