The City Paper
By Joey Garrison
Metro officials are eyeing the city’s third major open space acquisition in just nine months, with plans to buy southeast Davidson County’s Nashboro Golf Club and convert its 144 acres to parkland.
The Metro Parks and Recreation Board is set to vote Jan. 10 on the parks staff’s recommended purchase of the 18-hole privately owned Nashboro Golf Club, which opened in 1975 but closed in November. Its acquisition would fall under Metro’s Open Space Plan, which guided Metro’s recent purchases of Cornelia Fort Airpark in East Nashville and the Ravenwood Country Club in Hermitage.
Nashboro Golf Club, which the real estate group Southeast Venture owns, is appraised at more than $900,000, according to Metro Parks Director Tommy Lynch. Under the proposed deal, Metro would by the land for $595,000. He said the company has agreed to sell.
Lynch said the city’s open space plan, which seeks to preserve land that could otherwise be developed, identifies southeast Davidson County and Antioch as areas in need of open space preservation.
“From the standpoint of meeting the open space plan and from the point of meeting the parks and greenways master plan, it falls in line with what we should be doing to add space in that part of town for parkland,” Lynch said.
A planning process would help decide the future of the purchased Nashboro Golf Club land, Lynch said. Broadly, he said the land would be used as public open space, retrofitted with trails and walking areas.
“On down the line, we’ll have to assess maybe adding amenities, picnic shelters and things like that,” he said. “But, what we’re thinking about is a 144-acre park.”
Metro’s Open Space Plan began with a balance of $5 million. The Metro Council, which would need to authorize the Nashboro golf course purchase, approved the $2.8 million purchase of the Ravenwood County Club earlier this month. The plan is to adjoin its 181 acres to nearby Stones River Greenway.
In April, Metro finalized the $1.2 million purchase of East Nashville’s Cornelia Fort Airpark to add its 135 acres to Shelby Park’s Shelby Bottoms Greenway.
“We had $5 million to spend on the open space plan,” Lynch said. “This makes it three very good acquisitions: one adjacent to Shelby Bottoms, one adjacent to the Stones River Greenway and one where we don’t have anything.”
