Community gets involved for positive change
7:11 PM, May. 10, 2012
Written by Derrick Dalton
Tennesean
“We moved here six years ago, and we knew that this was the up and coming place. It’s like what East Nashville was 10 years ago.”
An Antioch resident made that comment at one of the Planning Department’s public meetings earlier this month, describing how she had come here from California and deliberately settled in an area that had great potential for growth and positive change.
And she’s not alone in feeling that way about Antioch. When I talk to other parents during school activities there, or to other fathers at the barbershop while our sons are getting their weekly haircuts, it’s obvious that many of us believe Antioch can still be an economically viable community. There are some challenges, no question. Major retail businesses have been leaving the area, and there’s widespread concern about crime and safety, even though Metro Police Department statistics for the 37013 ZIP code show overall major crime is down nearly 15 percent in the first four months of this year compared to 2011.
Antioch residents have been sharing their thoughts about those and other issues at a series of Planning Department public meetings as our planners work to update the Antioch/Priest Lake Community Plan, which guides growth and development in an area bounded roughly by Interstates 40 and 24, Harding Place and the county line.
Listening to the community is always the first step; then, planners draft an update, get more public comments, and finally take it to the Planning Commission for approval. That process will continue through this summer and into the fall; the next public meeting is May 17 from 6-8 p.m. at Lakeshore Christian Church, 5434 Bell Forge Lane E.
We encourage everyone with an interest in Antioch’s future to join us and be heard. Online surveys and other opportunities for feedback are linked on the Planning Department’s webpage at www.nashville.gov/mpc.
So far, residents and business owners tell us that they’re optimistic about a better future for Antioch, one that includes less crowded streets, better housing, more sidewalks, more local jobs (95.5 percent of working-age residents are employed, compared to 92 percent countywide, but many of them hold jobs outside Antioch), places for young people to gather and — probably the one we have heard most — a return of strong and varied retail options to Antioch’s economic scene.
Improvements are already under way, including a Metro library and community center at Hickory Hollow Mall, along with a branch campus of Nashville State Community College.
Antioch is actually in better shape than most of us realize, and the updated Community Plan, based on the thoughts and needs of the people who actually live, work, do business, and go to school there, will provide guidance for an even stronger future.
