April 2022 — Possible Changes To The Original “One” Building In Maryland Farms

With the annual budget approaching, I’m working on a more extensive newsletter to cover more about where our taxes come from and what we can accomplish with them, but in the meantime a zoning request in Maryland Farms came up. Because we will be talking about this at the commission meetings coming up, I wanted to be sure to share what I know and get feedback in a timely fashion.

The business district in Brentwood rightly generates a lot of interest and discussion. Commercial property tax, sales tax, and the hotel/motel tax generate substantial revenues for city services, but we as a commission are also committed to maintaining the residential nature of Brentwood and keeping things carefully in balance.

I believe that sharing my research and receiving feedback is a critical part of making good decisions on behalf of our community, and I want to try to stay ahead of any rumors that might start making the rounds.

As always, your perspective and feedback is important to me, and you can reach me at either  Nelson.Andrews@BrentwoodTN.gov  if it’s not “on fire” and 615-917-1384 (voice or text) if it is.

Sincere thanks to friends who contribute the process of creating this newsletter.

One Eastpark in Maryland Farms

• Built in 1974, the building at One Eastpark is one of the oldest office buildings in Brentwood, and it has been vacant since before COVID. The owners have approached Brentwood to talk about plans to rework this location to make it more viable.
• This site is zoned C1, which allows office space but not retail stores or restaurants. This is notable because the property around this location is zoned C2 commercial, which allows retail, hotel and food service, but not residential such as apartments or condominiums.
• I’ve spent some time asking around to try to find out why there is a patch of C1 in the middle of our C2 district, and as far as I can tell, it is only buildings that predate C2. Because the commission only considers updating zoning at the owner’s request, the zoning here hasn’t been looked at for over 40 years.

• This location is on the east side of Brentwood Blvd near Brentwood Cleaners and Soy Bistro. C2 zoning is indicated with red, and C1 shows in pink.

Concerns I’ve heard about allowing this property to move from C1 to C2 include:

• “If they put a hotel on that property, it could add thousands of gallons to our sewer system, which is a problem.” As I’ve researched this, I’ve learned that the biggest sewer user in this part of town is the YMCA (showers, locker rooms, pools, etc), and they are winding down operations. It sounds like whatever goes on the YMCA property and this property will be a substantial overall decrease in sewer use, even in a worst-case scenario.
• “Other hotels in the area are going to have a hard time with the competition.” While I agree that no business looks for additional competitors, post-COVID hotel business in our area continues to be strong and growing.
• “Changing this to C2 zoning will make traffic and congestion worse.” While I agree that congestion is something we should constantly work to improve, my experience working in Maryland Farms is that stores, hotels and restaurants have a different peak traffic flow than office buildings. I think added variety to this area may help reduce peak congestion.

Comment’s I’ve heard in favor of encouraging the owners to rezone this area from C1 to C2 include:

• Making this area C2 opens the possibility additional restaurants and stores come to the area while still allowing office space if that is the best use.
• If this area changes from single-use office to a mix of office, retail, and hotel, it creates a different peak traffic pattern than strictly office use, which could reduce congestion.
• Reworking this site will require it to be brought up to date in terms of stormwater runoff and other codes that have been improved over the past several decades.
• Reworking this site gives us the opportunity to review and improve the walkability of this site and connect it to adjacent sidewalks and other improvements that have been built over the past 40 years.

It seems like this is an opportunity to update the zoning to make it consistent with the surrounding area and allow the owners the flexibility to put something more interesting and valuable than an office building in this spot.

As always,  I value insight and feedback  from our community. If you have information and perspective you can share with me, please drop me an email (preferred) or give me a call. I can be reached at Nelson.Andrews@BrentwoodTN.gov and 615-917-1384 (voice or text).

Calendar :

Our full City of Brentwood Calendar is available online.

Spring Events include:

• April 13-April 28 —  Early Voting at the Brentwood Library
• April 23 —  Spring Cleanup at Granny White Park
• April 30 —  Spring Cleanup at Safety Center East
• April 30 —  National Drug Take-Back Dat at Police HQ
• May 4 –  Spring Cleanup at Granny White Park
• May 12 –  City Commission Budget Review Work Session
• May 15 –  2 PM open house at Boiling Springs Academy
• May 30 —  City Offices and Library closed for Memorial Day
• June 5 —  kickoff of the Summer Concert Series (5 shows this summer)

Resources:

• Full City of Brentwood Calendar
• Interactive City of Brentwood Maps, including zoning, parks, utility district, land records, and Historic Places
• City of Brentwood Commission Home page, including contact information, meeting schedule, and videos of past meetings
• City of Brentwood Planning Commission Home page, including contact information, meeting schedule, and videos of past meetings
• City of Brentwood Water and Sewer Master Plan and other information
• Full contact information for your Federal, State, County, and local elected officials
• Complete list and links to download Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports for the City of Brentwood back to 2005

I hope this finds you well and that you are having an enjoyable start to Spring! Thank you for your help and support.

Nelson

Nelson Andrews
Vice Mayor
City of Brentwood
“From Brentwood, For Brentwood”
615-917-1384
Nelson.Andrews@BrentwoodTN.gov

As always, your perspective and comments are very important to me, and I want to encourage you to contact me at either Nelson.Andrews@BrentwoodTN.gov if it’s not “on fire” and 615-917-1384 (voice or text) if it is.