A new Hillwood/Bellevue H.S. vs a new soccer stadium (Smyrna: homes, neighborhoods)

[Antioch]

Originally Posted by Tomandjerry45

If Bellevue gets a new high school then I guess Hermitage/Old Hickory have an argument as to why they shouldn't have a school. The closest high school is on McGavock Pike close to Opry Mills in Donelson for both those areas. I think you could easily make the argument that Hermitage/Lakewood/Old Hickory area has far more children attending public school than Bellevue.

The thing is if the Hermitage/Old Hickory area had it’s own high school again it would leave Mcgavock nearly empty. The Mcgavock zone doesn’t cover as much of Nashville that has school age children as it once did when DuPont was opened. When DuPont was open the Mcgavock zone stretched all the way over to the fairground area in south Nashville, parts of North Nashville, and the Priest Lake area of Antioch. Donelson and south Nashville by Lafayette, the current zone do not have enough school age children to fill Mcgavock alone. Antioch is the area in need of more elementary and middle schools, currently and a 3rd high school in the near future with the rapid and projected growth of the area.

[Antioch]

Originally Posted by nashvols

I think building a new school in Bellevue is a waste of money. Why not renovate the current Hillwood campus?

And I wonder what’s going to happen to the Hillwood campus? Too large of a site to leave empty. Rezoning in order to fill both Hillwood and a new Bellevue would either leave schools to the north empty, like White’s Creek which is severely under populated serving only about 500 students, same for Pearl Cohn, or it would make for longer drives for overcrowded school zones to the south and southeast such as Overton, Cane Ridge, Glencliff and Antioch.

[GWoodle]

Originally Posted by Antioch

And I wonder what’s going to happen to the Hillwood campus? Too large of a site to leave empty. Rezoning in order to fill both Hillwood and a new Bellevue would either leave schools to the north empty, like White’s Creek which is severely under populated serving only about 500 students, same for Pearl Cohn, or it would make for longer drives for overcrowded school zones to the south and southeast such as Overton, Cane Ridge, Glencliff and Antioch.

May be a good question to ask the current mayor & council. AFAIK the old Hillwood campus was supposed to be sold to a developer to get lots of cash. Not sure about the property at Charlotte & Davidson near Wal Mart where it appears new apartments is going in there? Just like another 2 properties closer to the West Nashville center shopping. There may be other property in West Meade the school board owns that could also be sold.

I think in the long range state plan Charlotte from White Bridge out to Old Hickory could be a 4-5 lane highway?

The strange part about the new Bellevue high school is the bus lines will have to be extended past I-40 to the "other side" of the interstate.

[septimus]

There are no kids living within walking distance of the current Hillwood High. The kids in that neighborhood are all in magnets or private. There is a need for a school in Bellevue because that's where the kids are.

The interesting question is what will happen to the property. The neighbors seem to want park land, I wouldn't be surprised if it was sold to the highest bidder. That's a highly desirable location.

[WakeMed]

Originally Posted by septimus

There are no kids living within walking distance of the current Hillwood High. The kids in that neighborhood are all in magnets or private. There is a need for a school in Bellevue because that's where the kids are.

The interesting question is what will happen to the property. The neighbors seem to want park land, I wouldn't be surprised if it was sold to the highest bidder. That's a highly desirable location.

I would bet on McMansions with just enough green space to placate those insisting on a place to walk, bike.

The catch-22 is you can't sell it until the new school is open...but the money from that property could go a long way toward building the new school.

[jjbradleynyc]

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashvill..._news_headline

Hmm. Wondering if the deal can be reached by March end? If not, the team has the option to pull out of Nashville.

Would be a sad thing to have happen, after all the work put in.

[WakeMed]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashvill..._news_headline

Hmm. Wondering if the deal can be reached by March end? If not, the team has the option to pull out of Nashville.

Would be a sad thing to have happen, after all the work put in.

That would only leave middle TN with NFL football, NHL hockey, pro baseball, defending national champs of college baseball, six NCAA division one basketball schools, two NCAA FBS (D-1) football programs and one FCS (1aa), etc.

I love sports but if there is no soccer, the sun will still rise in the east and set in the west... and there will still be lots of sports to go watch.

What would be more sad would be if Metro doesn't hire around 100 more police officers and 70 firefighters and EMTs. And didn't build more schools. And hire more teachers.

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by WakeMed

What would be more sad would be if Metro doesn't hire around 100 more police officers and 70 firefighters and EMTs. And didn't build more schools. And hire more teachers.

Once again ... it's not an either/or situation.

[septimus]

I love soccer but honestly this is why we need the state to allow for regional authorities. Why should Metro bear the burden of the new stadium costs when the residents of surrounding counties will benefit as well? It drives me crazy to see all my Wilco friends sharing on FB "don't delay the stadium" petition yet they aren't the ones paying for it.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by septimus

I love soccer but honestly this is why we need the state to allow for regional authorities. Why should Metro bear the burden of the new stadium costs when the residents of surrounding counties will benefit as well? It drives me crazy to see all my Wilco friends sharing on FB "don't delay the stadium" petition yet they aren't the ones paying for it.

After the latest negotiations, there really isn't any taxpayer burden for the soccer stadium.

The city is taking out bonds to pay for the stadium initially, but the team will be making the payments. Ingram's group will also cover cost overruns as well as extra infrastructure around the site. There was originally a provision where if the team didn't have enough ticket sales over a certain amount of time, then Metro would be exposed to that. That was taken out as well.

This was never going to be a completely city-funded project. But kudos to Cooper for really turning it into a privately funded venture (yes, there is the matter of the land deal, but that land will now generate more tax dollars than it would have previously). Take the W and start construction.



The frustrating thing now is that Cooper is still holding things up, because he's negotiating with NASCAR and a track operator behind the scenes. While I would like to see a renovation of the Fairgrounds Speedway, the talks have to be public. The soccer stadium talks were public. Whether or not someone likes the outcome, they had the opportunity to debate it, go to meetings, contact their councilmember, etc. Now Cooper has hijacked the process, and wants to implement his own vision, seemingly without debate....and we're waiting on the details all while there is a very real timeline he is ignoring for the soccer stadium to start construction.





Now I don't disagree with your sentiment that we should have regional authorities for different things that impact the wider community. I just don't see that working for sports, because counties and municipalities aren't going to want to chip in to something that isn't going in their backyard. Stadiums by nature are money sinks. They don't generate revenue, per se. They create a wider economic impact that is collected through things like sales and hotel taxes....and sometimes property taxes if they spur development.

This is a case where having larger area counties might help.