Boma - workshop

Good afternoon, everybody. This is the work session for the Board of Mayor and Alderman for Tuesday, June the 23rd, 2026. We're going to call the roll. Alderman Barnhill? Here. Alderman Blatton is absent. Alderman Caesar? Here. Alderman Peterson? Here. Alderman Berger is absent. Alderman Brown? Present. Alderman Potts? Present. Vice Mayor Baggett? Present. Mayor is here. So first item is for citizen comments on items that are not on the agenda. I have no speaker cards for that, so we'll jump right in with a report from the Williamson, Inc. Economic Development Team. Nathan Zipper, welcome.

Hello, everyone. I know most of you. My name is Nathan Zipper. I serve as the chief economic development officer at Williamson Inc. And I'm grateful for a few minutes of your time this afternoon. Thank you to Walter for inviting me. The genesis of this visit is Walter and I were visiting and I was giving him a little bit of rundown of some of the work that we do and explained that we go to county commission with some regularities. He says, well, have you been to BOMA in a while? And I said, no, we haven't. And I'd like to. He said, well, you should come. So I'm grateful for your time. How do I advance the slides? I just have three slides I'm going to walk you through and then really would like to spend whatever time you would like answering questions or talk about whatever you would like to talk about. And then can I... Great. Okay, so when we think about, so just as a recap, and I think you all know this, Williamson Inc. is the umbrella organization for the county's Chamber of Commerce and Office of Economic Development. I lead the economic development team, which is made up of five folks that are focused on these four buckets of work. So every five years, we go out to community stakeholders and we talk about our strategic plan. The staples or the foundation of our work doesn't really vary, but the work that happens within it does. So for example, when you think about business growth and attraction, what I can tell you is that anymore, we're really more focused on retention and expansion and then attraction. Our corporate citizens, our corporate neighbors are someone else's prospects. Some other communities are coming, communities come here and try to recruit. And so we spend a lot of time looking and visiting with those that are growing at a pretty healthy clip and talking about what can we do to support you, whether it's workforce needs or in some cases we partner with our friends at the state and at TVA to get them some resources to help them build up their work and ultimately create more high paying career opportunities for our community. Nick Binnicker on our team, who I know many of you know, he leads that work. So spends a lot of time, again, working in the community. But then there is that piece of working with the site selection community. Site selector is somebody that's been hired by a company who is maybe looking to either relocate or expand. They're looking for the optimal place to do business. And when that happens, when they reach out, it's Nick's job to tell them the great story about what it means to live, work, and play in Williamson County, and in this case, in Franklin. We do a great deal of work around talent workforce and place development. That workforce development deal, as I mentioned, is huge for our existing companies. That looks a lot of different ways. We are, as you know, dialed in with our K-12 partners to the extent, and some of you may not know this, we have staff meeting every Monday and we have a representative from WCS and FSD in those staff meetings every Monday. And so we're constantly collaborating. A lot of our collaboration happens with the Innovation Center and the EIC, with Jeremy Qualls and his team. But we're always looking for ways, again, to connect employers, in this case, back to K through 12 schools. And what's the path? If a student leaves, when a student graduates high school, where are their opportunities to go right into the workforce. So we have STEAM and STEM days. So we expose them to what it could look like to get right into industry. Or if they go to post-secondary ed, if they go to higher education, what does it look like for them to come back? I can tell you that we actually just made a hire, and this will be public in probably the next week. We just made a new hire for manager of workforce and entrepreneurship, which I'm really excited about. One of the things we're going to look to do is while we have really... We've really locked in our work with K-12. I think there's a lot of great opportunity with our post-secondary partners. So, for example, we're hosting a conference in Knoxville in a couple weeks that is being put on by all of the career center professionals from all of the UT system campuses. And so the thought is that these are the folks that are advising students on where to look for work when they graduate. We want to be out in front and, again, telling them and helping them understand what it could look like to come to Franklin and come to Williamson County and get to work. Innovation and entrepreneurship. So we have managed the Innovation Center, which is on the old O'Moore College of Art and Design site. We have occupied that building. Our lease is up in July, and the Heritage Foundation has decided they need to utilize that space. So the work will continue. We just will no longer have that incubator space in that building. So we're finding other places to do that work. We've got a great partner in Harbor and Union. over at the factory, so we're doing some entrepreneurship work there. We'll continue to do our pitch contests, and all of the rich and rewarding work we're doing for entrepreneurs will happen, and we'll continue to expand on it. It's just not going to happen in that space anymore. And then finally, that regional collaboration piece is vague, but essentially it's when you think about When we talk about things like transportation solutions, attainable housing, education, we mean to be a, and we are, a leader in those conversations. And what we know is what happens in our community impacts not just Franklin and Williamson County, but from one end to the other. I'm sure you've heard me share this stat before. There are 95 counties in the state of Tennessee. At least 10 people in every single one of those counties can connect their paycheck back to a Williamson County-based company. So what happens here matters, again, from one end to the other, and we take that as a tremendous responsibility and honor, and we take that very seriously. So when we're talking about what it means to, again, be out front of those big, hairy goals around transportation, education, and housing, we mean to be a conduit for connection and trying to move those things forward. This is also the bucket where a lot of our voter education work happens. So when we host Meet the Candidates or we talk about our policy talks programming, that happens in that work as well. And then my last slide, I just wanted to share this with you. And again, I'm sure you all know this, but it's just interesting to look at. So this is a breakdown. So basically I went through recently and looked at property tax revenue for all of our municipalities. And so basically what you see here on your left is if you are in the Franklin FSD taxing district, the total property tax revenue generated off of that district is right at, let's call it 116 million. Not surprising, it is heavily supported by commercial. So 65% of that district is made up of commercial tax revenue. Outside of FSD, it's 31%. That skews higher. Again, not surprising, that is our main business district. For the county overall, commercial revenue is right at a third of all the property tax revenues. And so that FSD district is really heavy commercial. And so that's ultimately, at the end of the day, we're in the business of creating great jobs. And we're in the business of helping the companies that are here grow and be successful and continue to contribute in all the ways that they do. And a lot of that happens in Franklin. And we're honored to do the work and in partnership with you all. And so just grateful for the work we get to do together. Those were my three slides. I'm happy to elaborate on anything you'd like me to elaborate on. If you have any questions about any of the work that we're doing, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Alderman Brown. We boast a lot about our big headquarters, but we also have a ton of small business. What do you hear from them? I mean, obviously a great economic environment right now with growth, but trouble with workforce. So what are you hearing the most from them in terms of what they're asking for help with?

Yeah, I mean, the biggest issue that our small business folks are facing, and particularly retail, is simply the cost of of property, of a lease. That Painted Tree deal was really enlightening. So if you followed it, Painted Tree, John Murfreesboro Road closed abruptly. There were folks in there paying $6,000, $7,000 a month in real estate to have their booths. So when we had an opportunity, that's a great example of we moved pretty quickly. We had them in the factory at no cost. They got to display their wares. We also gave them all one-year chamber memberships. So the workforce thing, to get to your question, the workforce challenges come up a bit, but it's really the cost of real estate. That's the biggest challenge that they're facing.

Alden Caesar. Thank you, Mayor. Nathan, thank you for your presentation. Very supportive of the work that you and your colleagues are doing. Staying with the real estate piece, but in a little bit of a different vein. It's great that we're able to attract companies here, but not everybody that works in those companies are executives that make two, three, four, and more $100,000 a year. Sure. Right? And we know the average cost of a house in Franklin is right at $1 million. Yeah. Folks that are making less than $100,000, are businesses, when they're looking at Franklin, are they talking about where the workers in their business can live? Are they talking about other communities within Williamson County? Or help me understand if that's a point of discussion.

So companies move here. in large part because they know they have access to a highly educated workforce. So when a company makes a relocation decision, the expectation, their thought, frankly, is they're not bringing everybody with them. And that's a huge misconception about the work that we do. Because we hear it a lot, right? When you hear, you take In-N-Out as an example. where people hear 275 new jobs, and then the assumption is, well, that's 275 new families moving here, and that is not the case. You look at Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi would tell you that 80% of their workforce have been local hires, and that's the point. That's what we're trying to accomplish. So do senior leaders talk about cost of housing? Yeah. But do they talk about, hey, we're trying to bring hundreds of people with us, and where are they going to live? That's just not it. They are coming here to hire us. They will bring some folks with them. Usually they're C-suite folks who can afford where they want to be. Thank you. Anybody else?

Mr. Stuckey. Let me just make one quick just clarification on that slide that you see in front of you in terms of property tax generation. That is the total property tax revenue generated in those areas. It is not just city or just county. It is the whole bill is my understanding.

Yes, thank you.

Sorry.

So this came from Brad Coleman in the property assessor's office.

We'll take it all.

It's the total to be clear.

For all. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Well, thanks, and we appreciate the great work you're doing. Thank you all. Appreciate Williamson, Inc., and the Economic Development Arm.

And call on us any time. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we have several permits. We have the event permit for the Heritage Foundation Ball, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation at Harlinsdale Farm on September the 12th. Any questions about that one? I see Jamie's here. Alderman Brown?

Yeah.

Is Monique or whomever? I guess the big question is, just a clarification maybe, I saw 11 is our staff recommendation. 11 is our amplification. But I also saw after party goes until, or goes to the barn. So I did talk to the homeowner alliance group that represents that area. They're good with 11 generally outside. If it's going into the barn, generally don't have an issue inside the barn. But if it's stopping at 11 outside, they're pretty good with that. So they're good with staff recommendation. So I'm just trying to understand is the noise

Continuing outside is it going into the barn is the trying to understand sort of what the what the I think we're looking at the amplification Component so the amplification ordinance doesn't really differentiate exactly the location It's can you hear it from a certain distance away? So that will be driven by what happened if they go in the barn if they're sort of rolling the dice if you can hear it beyond then But we're trying to stick to the amplification ordinance itself. Based on that, we did get some concerns from residents last year about it going later and being pretty loud. So we're trying to be responsive to that. But I was going to highlight that for you because that is the applicant asked for midnight. Staff has recommended 11. Lisa may want to clarify further on that. So you kind of have a decision to make. They did want to have it on both agendas so they can get things moving because they have made a shift to Harlinsdale because it fits their theme for the evening better. So Heritage Ball has been a longstanding event, and we're glad to partner with them on it. But this is one component we need some guidance on.

Absolutely. Thank you, Eric. Normally, any event that has taken place at Harlinsdale or outside is usually it's your 10 o'clock, and then sometimes they will go into buildings. But what we have found as staff is sometimes the music gets cranked up on the inside just as much as on the outside. And plus, at the main barn, you have to remember, it is not a conditioned space. You will have the doors open. And so that is one of the things that we have to consider when we're in this location versus, and Bicentennial was a lot that same way, even though you enclosed it. you're still mainly on the outside in like a pavilion-type setting. So there are some challenges. It's a wonderful space. We're excited they're going to be there. But at the same time, we do have to be mindful of our surroundings.

Okay. Vice Mayor? Help me clarify. The 10 o'clock, because this is our noise ordinance is 11. 11 on Saturday.

11 on Saturday. Mm-hmm.

But there is a 10 o'clock.

Normally a lot of, most because of staffing and that type of thing, most of the time 10 o'clock is usually when people are winding it down. Because you allow for another hour or so for cleanup and post.

Because pilgrimage was 10 o'clock for a while, many years. And then I feel like two years ago we allowed it to go to 11. I think it might have been 9 and went to 10.

It went from 9 to 10, not from 10 to 11. I think that's right.

I knew there was an hour. It did go out, but I think it went to 10.

Yeah, we used to close at 9 for pilgrimage, and then we allowed for, because you had some background with them, that we thought 10 o'clock.

And then the other thing is the amplification application, it states that it's tractor supply arena is where the amplification is going to be. But then the diagram... shows it adjacent to the barn.

Yeah, they've moved, thank you, Vice Mayor, excuse me. They moved their space to the event space, normally where you have right outside the main barn, usually facing the historic Hayes home.

So then it would not be in the arena.

It would not be in the arena, be in the event space. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, and then we'll go to the next one, which is the Christmas Parade sponsored by Downtown Franklin Rotary Club on December the 5th. Any questions about that one? And seeing none, we'll go to the Franklin, Consideration of City of Franklin Contract Number 2026-0094 with Franklin Noon Rotary for the Franklin Rodeo Plaza at Jim Warren Park.

before you this evening is we're very proud as you know we've been working on this for a little over a year with the city and the noon Rotary Club staff brings before you this evening a resolution basically a an agreement between the two very excited to that was both parties are within this agreement concerning the projected funding, the installation, ownership, maintenance and long-term care of the statue and associated improvements. We're expecting with we're really hoping both parties were really hoping that this would take place before the anniversary but sometimes that we don't always hit that mark but we do plan to have I believe The noon rotary plans on having such a celebration. It'll be closer to the fall, which we all might agree that that actually might be better. It will allow for us, as we still have the statue itself, should be here by the end of September to October. We are planning more of an October type event. This would also allow for us, because we're so deep into beginning of the summer, allow for us to get landscaping in and finish the touches around that statue that the city would include. And by no means this will be 100%. The reason you're building a plaza is you allow for stories to be told. You allow for it to continue to be part of their legacy story. So we would continue to add things over the years to this area. But what you have before you is an agreement between the two. We're happy to answer any questions you may have, but very excited about this project moving forward.

Vice Mayor? I know you had a meeting last week, and that's good. So I guess I should disclose that I'm a member of the Franklin and Redery and have been working on this. But... How are we on the contract or making sure that all that's squared away? I think you made good progress last week on that.

We did. So it's an update. What we're doing is laying and Jerry Hatcher is here, his team, the streets department's been heavily involved along with parks and other public works as part of this and administration. The concrete for the statue itself for the pedestal is... will be coming in the next month. That will be laid most likely in July and that allows for about 30 days or so to cure. We'll add the extensions of a sidewalk, your pathways into it. You'll have interpretive signage. The Rotary is working on the history. They'll tell on those anywhere from two to four signs as you lead into the plaza. You'll have landscaping. We've got electrical and irrigation that is going in and then you also have flagpoles and That will establish the U.S. flag as well as the state flag or Franklin flag as well as the Rotary flag. So you'll have just the three that will be lighted. So we're making great progress.

That's good. A couple of questions, and this may be for staff since it's a work session. Go back and check on the what. The only thing, you know, part of the reason why we have this contract now is A, it's a big deal, but B, kind of this is a nonprofit, and so capping kind of the additional costs that Rotary is, because they're raising all the money. The one thing I would like to look at is the weather-related damage and the stuff caused by storms, flooding. I think that calls some concern. And if we could insure for that, says the insurance guy. But I do think that this is a private nonprofit and has raised almost $200,000 for it. it's hard to come, you know, tornado comes through, and we can't insure for it because we're donating it to the city. And so I don't know if y'all have talked through that or if that's been addressed.

We have. Thank you. So that was one of the questions. Is the donation coming completely to the city and the city takes full ownership? If we did not and it was more of a loan, then that's handled differently and we would request that the Rotary take on the ownership of insurance. If it's a donation completely to us, then everything within that plaza, it would become an asset. Within our property.

Okay. So there may be some modifications to the contract once that is all hammered out. Yes. Okay.

All right.

Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Item five is amendment two to the city of Franklin contract number 2023-0033 with axon Enterprise for additional Axon Fleet 3 equipment, body cameras, and additional five licenses for a cost of $114,877.32. Your budget adds some patrol officers. This just helps us equip them.

Everybody good?

And as we think about considering the third and final reading of the budget potentially later tonight, when we do add heads, do we not also add incremental equipment?

We do. It's part of the cost. Just the way this contract is written, we needed to amend it to add more licenses. We may look in the future to make it a little more flexible so it doesn't have to keep coming back to you every time we add personnel.

So this 114 is included in the budget? It's all rolled This is amending the contract with the supplier.

Yeah, we've got salary, benefits, equipping, training, all of that is rolled into when we add positions. Sounds good. Thank you, Mayor.

Everybody else good? Okay, we'll keep rolling. Item 6 is Resolution 2026-27, Resolution to Adopt the 2026 Transit Master Plan.

Sir, wait a minute. I want it back.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody. Great to see you again. Tonight, bringing forward to you a resolution for your consideration at the next BOMA meeting. So that'll be July 14th, I believe. Thursday, we will be taking this to the Planning Commission with the hopeful adoption by them. And with that, I can answer any questions or turn it over to Joel to present.

Good evening, everybody. Joel Ray with Benesh, Director of Transit Services. I'm going to run you through some slides. Those of you who were here last month when you had your joint meeting with the Planning Commission saw some of the same information. This is a more condensed version for the sake of time tonight. I'll take you through just a recap of what was done to develop the Transit Master Plan and then show you the remaining timeline we have to wrap up the project. As many of you recall, the purpose of the study was to create this vision for Franklin Transit, set goals and structures in place to help evolve the system over the next decade. And that's the purpose of this Transit Master Plan. specifically geared to address mobility needs. We know that there are needs based on our interaction with the public, both locally and regionally, and address ongoing growth challenges. And this community continues to grow. I don't foresee that stopping in the near future, so we want to make sure that transit is able to help support that growth. And then finally, we want to make sure that we're preparing a plan that will help guide the implementation of these improvements over time in a data-driven fashion and also being fiscally responsible. So to recap the activities, as I discussed, we had several stages throughout the project. The engagement, the analysis, we set direction, working with stakeholders, setting mission and goals for the study and for transit for the community, and then developed the plan itself, which brought all of the needs and potential solutions together into a 10-year plan. And all of these elements resulted in technical memoranda that had been placed on the project website, which was a virtual meeting room that I showed you last time. It looks like that picture in the top right corner. And all of the information has been there throughout the project as it was developed to make sure that the public had ample opportunity to review what we were doing. So the outreach, as I told you before, we had significant outreach in two stages. The first stage, September, October of last year, during our investigative phase, we went out to the public and to key stakeholders to talk about what the needs are. What are your mobility issues? What would you like to see done with transit? How can it improve? And then we used that information along with the analysis to put together a program of potential improvements, took that back out to the public just this past April and May to see what they thought. Did we hit the mark? Are these things going to truly help you? And what we found was pretty much 100% response said, we really like the recommendations and we like how you phased it. There were a couple of elements, specifically some of the regional connections and a shuttle to the airport that they wanted to see today and not in the latter part of the 10-year timeframe. So let's talk about the recommendations. There were five key categories that included the recommendations. I'll just touch on each one. I want you to understand that there were over 50 total recommendations in the final plan. This is just giving you a sense of some of the more near-term improvements for the sake of time. So for example, one of the key categories was outreach and communication improvements. So talking to staff about having a structured outreach strategy so that we just don't go out to the public every five years whenever you're renewing a plan. Let's make this an ongoing process so that you can continue to listen to riders and the general public about how you're doing. Also, we wanted to improve planning and policy for the agency. So coming up with performance standards that they can... judge their service by, and also completing an ADA transition plan to make sure that all of their bus stops are accessible by people of all abilities, and conducting a comprehensive operational analysis for the fixed route service specifically. Capital and technology, one of the things we found out is they've got some technology Not all of it is working the way it should. We want to do an assessment of that and make sure that we have the best technology available to ensure that they have the data to make wise decisions about the future of the service and what improvements they're going to do down the road. So that is another element of these recommendations. The fourth area or category was performance monitoring. Once you have new technologies that are producing a lot of data that you can trust, turning those into metrics so that you can judge the performance of your routes and all of your new services to see how they're performing is important. But not just internally, also having externally facing dashboards so the public can see how you're doing. and taking that information and putting it on maps and message boards that stop so people see when the next bus is coming, that kind of thing. And then finally, service improvements. And this is the key part and probably the most costly part of the plan, and that is, well, what new services can we implement? What new routes can come online in the future years? One of the things we've suggested is a Cool Springs microtransit pilot, and we'll talk about that in the funding section. That's something that's already got funding for. And microtransit, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, if you're aware of the transportation network companies like Uber Lyft, that you use a mobile phone or some other device to... with an app to call for a ride. And in that case, it's demand-based, but you don't share the ride. The only difference with microtransit is while you're riding that vehicle, there may be other people in the bus with you to take advantage of where that vehicle is going. So that's the microtransit concept. And then we've got some other improvements that we've proposed to the existing fixed route services. So to just take you through kind of a time lapse of what this might look like over time, this is your current fixed route service. We are not showing the TOD coverage, but it basically covers the entire city boundary. So you've got your red route and your blue route. If we were to implement all of the service changes that have been recommended in the Transit Master Plan, in year one you would see that Cool Springs Microtransit zone come online. By year three, you would start seeing changes to the existing red and the blue routes. You would also see that lunch shuttle that currently operates between downtown and the factory, and that would become a permanent downtown shuttle operating daily. By year four, you would see, based again on the data and the performance, if Cool Springs works, then we think a Central Franklin microtransit zone would also be supportive and add that to the mix. And then finally, you can add citywide microtransit, which would then take the place of Todd or could be co-branded with Todd. And then you see the new routes there operating along 96 and also on the Columbia Pike and Lewisburg Pikes. And then by year nine, we would add in WeGo's regional bus plan. We've been working with them on our plan to make sure they understood what the city of Franklin wanted to accommodate, and they've been telling us about their plans. So you see a lot of new regional services, and about that time is when we would show a shuttle to the airport as well from Franklin. And that's the one element I mentioned that folks really wanted to see today and not necessarily by year nine. The plan has an implementation component. We want to make sure staff understands not only what they need to do but how to do it. So there's a process included in the implementation plan where the early steps that they take to initiate the recommendations will do a lot of planning and feasibility analysis to make sure that they create a firm foundation for things like the technology assessment. and then they can use what they find out during that initiation phase to actually implement. And so, for example, if the technology assessment goes as we expect, then we're going to see a lot of improvements to scheduling and dispatch, to passenger counting on board the vehicles, launch of mobile fare payments so people could use their phones, an app to actually pay for their fares rather than having to put cash in, or even having tap capabilities so people could use debit and credit cards to pay for their fares. and of course the microtransit zone in Cool Springs. And then we would expect monitoring to occur to see how these improvements that are made are functioning. Again, data-driven performance will determine whether the later year improvements get implemented as they've been programmed because we're projecting out 10 years what's going to be needed changes between now and then can occur that this analysis might show, hey, you know what, that's a great idea, but we need to do this instead because of this new development or these new growth areas. So that's all included in the plan. And then the last thing we did was put in a complimentary financial plan just using planning level estimates of costs for the 10 years for all of the plan improvements. And then we compared that with existing revenue streams to show what could be funded that's been proposed as well as what would be requiring additional resources in the future. And I know this table's a little bit small, but what we see is primarily most of the capital and the planning elements that have been recommended are really funded. It's really the operations and those later year projects improvements, things occurring in 2030, 2032, 2034, those are the elements that are going to require new resources. So we have time to not only identify the resources but to make sure that those implemented or recommendations once implemented are still going to do what we expect them to do today because of all of the analysis that's able to be done with all of the other improvements that would be implemented in the interim. The timeline, as Max mentioned, we're going to be wrapping up in August with the final FTA board meeting presentation. We'll be back in front of this group on the 14th. And we're going to the planning commission this Thursday. And with that, Max and I can take any questions you may have.

Alderman Potts. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

So I was looking at slide 14, which is, I think the... Let me zoom out just a little bit from it. Yeah, I think that's when everything is built out.

I was trying to zoom in enough where... That's the one right before everything is built out with the regional, but this one might be easier to see what's local.

Okay. So with that one there, it looks like that purple line carries and does like that little trough on the left-hand side of downtown. Is that hitting Jim Warren Park?

Do we know? I believe that detour does and then it goes out to West Haven and then does turn around.

And that's really kind of the center of my question is the connectivity to the park. So I can see Jim Warren there and it looks like 96 is covered by the blue line and by the green line. I think that's correct. Yes. Just above the word Ewingville looks like maybe the Maybe where the L's and the E's are there in Ewingville. And then are there other parks? Is Bicentennial Park covered?

Do we know? No. I don't know if it's direct. Obviously, it's going to be within walking distance, but not a quarter mile walking distance that we like. It'll be farther. But the other thing to keep in mind is those zones. Everyone can still get there using the microtransit. And maybe this would be good to explain how the two work together and what we're seeing more and more. And you can thank COVID for this because the work from home phenomenon is not going away anytime soon. And what we're finding is a lot of transit agencies have lost routes where the routes have no longer become viable because of the people who use the route before working from home. So what transit agencies are doing is converting those areas that no longer are the demand doesn't support the fixed route, and having a big bus constantly operating on the same road over and over every day for hours, 14 to 16 hours a day, so they replace it with microtransit so the people only call using their app when they need that trip, and then they can use the service to either get around within their zone, and that would be a certain price point, and that's how you control demand. Say, for example, Cool Springs, if you wanted to go from point A to point B in Cool Springs, that might be a $3 trip. But if you're going to go from point A to a bus stop, that might be a $1 trip. And then you use the bus, the fixed route, to get to another part of the city. and then you can get to your final destination using microtransit in that particular zone or by walking. So when you ask the question about Bicentennial Park, there's a good chance that they're going to be able to get there using one of the two services and maybe not necessarily fixed route by itself. Yeah, and that's what I was looking at is... Go ahead.

Yeah, I was actually zeroing in on Pearl Park once it comes online.

I think you know where I'm... I figured you were going that direction. With Bicentennial, it currently is served by the red route. Harlingsdale also covered with the blue route currently or, you know, within close proximity. To the Pearl, it would not be. I do want to underline and stress that these are conceptual routes, so they will likely not end up looking exactly like this, but they will be similar to this based on how the data shows the demand is there. So as Joel was describing with microtransit, if there are enough origins and destinations down to Pearl Park, there might be the expectation that a fixed route would work. If there's not enough to get out that way, then it wouldn't be. I think that's really the beauty of how this works is you can use the microtransit to help define where you might find success with a fixed route.

I just want to make sure we're supporting the park system as large as the Pearl is going to be to make sure it's at the top of the list.

Thank you. Vice Mayor? I was on this. I'm on the Transit Authority, and so this is great. I think we now have a plan and framework to make some decisions on how and in which we expand transit because it is important. Downtown circulator, I think, would be what maybe was looked at, and that we're including the – factory to downtown and I think depending on like you said like we look at a parking study and how this merit the parking study marries with this and where people are going to be and if those if we identify bicentennial new parking lot as a hub of trips to and from and we can adjust that shuttle maybe to take a left or take a right and go down into that parking lot. So I love that we have a framework to work from now. It's going to cost more money as well. That's another thing. And the transit authority, we have a city subsidy that we do. It's very affordable for what we get out of transit authority. But to go to the next level, we needed a plan so we know what dollars to go for at the federal level, state level, and so this is a great roadmap. So thank you for all the work. This has been fantastic, and I think it gives us what we need to make some decisions.

I appreciate those comments and appreciate you being on the Transit Authority. Joel, great presentation. We're glad you had a little more time to breathe tonight versus the last time we had you. I did want to maybe put a little add-on, and not particularly about the transportation plan, but a little bigger picture. If you recall, we did the urban growth boundary with all the cities and came up with an urban growth boundary for every city in the county and That particular group has continued to meet on a quarterly basis. We had a meeting today and the subject was transportation. We had TDOT there and apparently the county has been able to obtain a grant to look at all of the transportation plans for all of the cities in the county. So they're going to compile all that data. They're going to form a group to look at a group of metrics that they need to look at to evaluate those and then long-term try to come up with what we think are the most important transportation projects moving forward in the county, more of a global look at the county. Stantec is the consultant on that. They're good. I work with them, too. We didn't get to pick, but, I mean, they seem very capable. The other thing is... Every meeting we have with the Regional Transit Authority, I ask the question, where's our park and ride? And I understand that we're very, very near getting that contract signed by Highwoods to have that at the Marriott Cool Springs area. So if it hasn't been signed by the next meeting, I'll ask the question again. So I think there's a lot going on with transportation. and some of it's gonna require some more financial assistance from our standpoint to make it work better. But I think these are all great starts and hopefully we're laying the groundwork to not have total gridlock in 20, 40, 45 in that timeframe. Anybody else? All right, let's keep moving on. Thank you so much. Thank you, Joel. Amendment 3 to the City of Franklin Contract Number 2020-0286 with Westlaw subscription to add co-counsel at a cost of $90,864. Any questions for that? I like you. Everybody support it? And how about item 8 is resolution 2026-13, acknowledging a concept plan for the former DePriest property, enclosure of a portion of Strahl Street, and future unification of the property as park space. And I do have two speaker cards on that, so we'll go with Lisa first.

Lots of anticipation. Well, in the meantime, as the master plan comes forth, I brought this to you. The Battle of Franklin Trust and the City of Franklin shared a cost in developing the master plan as to further Carter Hill Park within the area of the Columbia Pike area. With the future of the visitor center, Do it for me. Thank you. Coming on board and then as we develop the part, but we thought it would be a great opportunity to engage the community. Went through quite a few meetings to share this concept plan and talk to residents, talk to other agencies that will be utilizing this space in some form or fashion. And so I'm here to answer questions, but I know that there are residents and others that are here to speak tonight, Mayor, so I'm happy to do whatever you'd like.

Any questions for Lisa?

Go ahead. Sure.

Okay, first I've got Mary Rucker and then I've got Beverly Eberhardt. So please come forward. We'll give you two minutes.

Good evening. Thank you for inviting us. We are glad to be here. You want to close And I'm here to say no, because it's a community, and we have several streets that's running across Straw Street. And Straw Street take us around to Granbury, which you all changed the name. It was Granbury, but now it's Granbury. I think if you close it, us coming in, in and out, we are doing fine coming out. on Columbia Avenue. But Columbia Avenue traffic would have to, we have to wait till they pass for us to come out. But coming in, we can get in just fine. Okay, and then come May, Carter House had visitors to come in. You all are using part of our parking spots. Our visiting homes is what you're using. And then you want to use our bathrooms, which is not a public place. It's for the residents that live at Reddick Senior Apartments, a residence. But the thing about it is, you didn't close Claiborne Street when you put your park there. And I can understand why you want to close Straw Street. and not let, you know, stop us from coming through and using our street, which has been there over 100 years or longer. And we have residents, new residents, that after they tow down their old Riddick and put in new subdivisions, apartments and things, I think that we need to have our place to come and go as we always should. And so if you're planning on, what I want to know is, are you planning on closing Straw Street, period? That's the answer I want to know. And have you all considered that?

Well, I think I'll let Ms. Clayton speak a little bit more to the plan so there's understanding.

And then I'll have the... And I'll tell you what's going on in our area. We need it mostly because we have ambulance service coming in when someone's sick, fire department coming in, nursing home is up on... Straw Street, which is Mulberry now, a nursing home instead of Claiborne and Hughes. So all of that, it means a lot to us and to the people that lives in that community. We are our community and we appreciate it very much if you all let us keep it open like it is. I know we can come down, we can come out of our driveway over into Granbury And so can you all, since you've got your park going there. You all have an opening there on Granbury also, because when you come under that light to Granbury, you all have the first parking lot. We have the second parking lot. And I feel, you know, we can use both sides, but I just prefer that you leave Straw Street open.

If maybe Ms. Clayton could maybe give a teeny bit more detail to... what that slide is showing us. You may sit down now.

Thank you. I thought she said it very eloquently. I met with many and they were very gracious to invite me into the Reddick Center. We had over I guess maybe about 25 or so people there. to allow me to, over about an hour, we went through all the scenarios for the park. And one of the things is to make sure is to hear from those residents who use Straw Street. And I believe I had shared with you before and I went back to them to kind of make sure they understood that this meeting would take place. so that you could hear their concerns, is they do use it. A lot of times they understand the traffic of coming into, they mentioned maybe it being a right-hand turn in only. They talked about understanding how with the park traffic going back and forth, but when they moved into the Reddick Center, they understood that... There wasn't a thought that this could expand the park system at that time. We do know that from when the Reddick Center was built and you do have, even while being there, I've held two meetings, one in the Reddick Center and one on the outside of the park. The location there is people do come in, but they also use their parking lot as a cut-through. And we do believe, I addressed that that night, is one of the things that we need to do as a city is maybe work with the Housing Authority. We as a city are working with our PD department to make sure that there is some signage. Right now, there's not any signage. You do have people parking. We don't want this to be a public park. parking spots for this. If people are visiting the visitor center, we want them to use their parking lot. We also know the library is there. So there's going to have to be some education. If we do close this, that it isn't just everybody's happy and it goes by. I think there would have to be some I think we need to do some type of education as well as take steps to make sure that we educate those, but we also do some physical things in this area so that it prevents these if you decide to close this park.

So maybe we'll let Ms. Everhart come and speak. Two minutes, please.

Thank you all for listening.

Yes, ma'am.

And I hope that you all will make the right decision for us. Because we need that area. And then on top of that, you have something to say?

Yeah, I'm going to let Ms. Eberhardt go ahead.

We have the trolley that comes through our area there.

Give your name, please, Ms. Eberhardt.

I'm Beverly Eberhardt.

Okay, and come up closer to the microphone.

But anyhow, we have the trolley that comes through, and I'm not complaining about the trolley, but they pick us up at the door, and they bring us back to the door. And we have people that are in wheelchairs and walkers. So we really need that to be able to somehow be still utilized. And we have a lot of people that park in our parking lot that shouldn't park in our parking lot. And then some of the concerns from some of the residents, if they open the park, is that they're going to want to come into our building and use our facilities. We don't want that. They don't want that either. And they don't want all the people coming over to our area. So basically... That's just what it's like.

We don't. Because... Like she said, some of us in wheelchairs, some of us walking, we walk in canes or whatever. Okay, we have different people that comes in. We have caregivers that's coming in also to help with these people and where we are at Reddick Senior. And we just prefer that our Straw Street stay like it is and give us a consideration of coming and going.

Yes, ma'am.

And that's all we're asking for. Thank you. To be fair with us, and we'll be fair with you all.

Thank you. I'm going to see if the board has any comments. You may sit down now, please.

Okay. Thank you so much. And thank you all for inviting us. Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to recognize Alderman Peterson after all, Ms. Clayton.

Mayor, I did ask Eric Jacobson, the executive director of the Battle of Franklin Trust. He's here this evening. Because part of this plan is to make sure that the interpretation of the park, the work that's gone into making this expansion take place. And so if... during whether it's question now or at that time, whatever the appropriate time is, I'd love for him to speak to this as well. Sure.

We'd love to have him come up and speak to it. And while he's getting ready to come up, I'll let Alderman Peterson speak.

Well, whenever you... I think we ought not to close Stroud Street because it is a convenient way to get in and out there. And as we were saying, we talked about Reddick right there also. And so... It seems to me that it would not be a good idea to close Straw Street because there's so much that you can get to, you know, get in and out going there. But it just looks to me as if it would cause more problems than it would help anything.

Go ahead, Alderman Barnhill.

There were several comments made about somebody using the restrooms and facilities and parking in their parking lot. And I'm not sure that I see the correlation between Straw Street being closed or Straw Street being open. And what if we need to do, if that's an issue, that's an issue whether Straw Street is closed or whether it's done. So we need to resolve that Issue there and I drove through there a couple days ago and looked at the Basically, it's not a street but basically from Granbury to straw or straw to Granbury you're running through It is a street

I don't know if it's a street. No. You can drive through it all the way.

Well, you can drive through it. That doesn't make it a street. You're just driving through that parking lot. And, you know, we need to look at that because you've got, you know, I've said we have two issues here. Cleveland needs to be realigned to go to Granbury. That's one. And then whether or not we close or keep Straw Street open. And those are the two issues that I've looked at. If there's something here that's hindering the Reddick Rick's senior residents from coming enjoying a quality of life that they deserve, then we need to work on that. I mean, that's not if that's a police department issue, if that's the housing authority issue, if that's whatever that is, we need to resolve that far more outside and beyond the discussion of Stroll Street.

We agree. We agree. And I mentioned that even during my time and even had conversations with others, depending on how the master plan continues to go through. As I have shared with this group before and Eric will share, is part of this master plan is to put some things, items in a master plan that we can point back to, especially the Claiborne and Granbury part of this. is to take a look at how you do realign. Now, that would be more on the engineering side of things, but at least placing this in a master plan to at least look at that as an opportunity for realignment. The planning department and parks, we all met with the State Historical Commission to walk this area two weeks ago. As far as talking about the statue that's there on Claiborne, The statue was put in when the Pizza Hut actually came down under the guidance of former Mayor Tom Miller at that time. And we didn't actually have a commission at that time. It was just a committee made up of Civil War and all the different – now we have a commission that oversees. It was about commemorating that event for that time. That was a man-made type statue made. They also understand because it's been in so long, you were recognizing that there was something in your town that you were experienced and you wanted to denote it. They do not have a problem, at least verbally. They do not have a problem, and this is also with the Civil Wars Commission, if we were to move. As long as you kept it and denote it as that this was part of your history is when that's part of your story as Franklin versus Civil War, per se. So that question was answered. It doesn't answer... They really don't have an answer to whether... Granbury moves, Claiborne moves, that's really about engineering in a state of Tennessee issue. But as far as Straw Street, one of the reasons the recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Department to the board is to take a look at Right now, you do have to cross roadways. Vehicular traffic is all around this. This is a very unusual type park. We saw opportunities through our community to reclaim battlefield. This just closes one of those areas so that you actually can flow through that park system and not have to cross another segment. And so that was the reason the master plan was brought forth in this manner. So those are a few more. And then, if you don't mind. Again, Eric's been working tirelessly on the Carter House addition, and we're excited to, we partner with them in many aspects, and so this was just another one of those, Eric.

I don't... Go ahead and give your name and everything.

Eric Jacobson. We know who you are, but for the record. CEO of the Battle of Franklin Trust. I was sitting there thinking about... I'm not a salesman of any sort whatsoever, but as I was listening to some of the comments, which I... are from the heart. I hear that. I think it might be worth adding that one of the things that I have experienced in this area, especially having managed at Carter House now for over 15 years, is how much quieter this area is through reclamation and the various businesses that once existed on both sides of Columbia Pike. And If you are on Strahl Street or Claiborne Street on any five or six days of the week, there are people tearing up and down those streets fairly regularly. And somebody with a pay grade much higher than me can probably show how Claiborne can be realigned and connected to Granbury so we have a light system where people can effectively cross Columbia Avenue. And I actually think, with all due respect, the neighborhood that is west of the Pike and south of modern Strahl Street would actually be quieter and safer with that segment of Strahl removed because then traffic cannot get to Columbia Pike and there's... There is a problem whether you want to take a left or a right onto Columbia with Strahl Street as it exists. So those were just some thoughts that came to my mind tonight. I think everyone is aware of how the removal of that just makes the park more whole. I'm not a... people parking where they shouldn't be is a problem that we experience as well. So to Alderman Barnhill's point, I think that's a problem whether the street is open or not. And that has to be addressed, I think, on its own merits. That's really what I can add. I certainly don't need to talk about history. I think this is about functionality. And if we could get the other streets realigned and this one removed, I think the neighborhood ends up being quieter and frankly safer than it is today because there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of traffic stopping on Columbia Avenue to let traffic in and out off of Strahl Street, which a light would help control. So I think, anybody have questions or?

Does that help at all? This is just general comment, not necessarily for you, Mr. Jacobson, but firstly, thank you to the residents for coming in and sharing your thoughts. That is vital to us operating a successful city is hearing from the people we represent. And as somebody that represents the whole city as an at-large alderman, I think about this in three kind of distinct but interrelated elements. First is are we going to close Straw Street, which has its merits both for and also restricts maybe some connectivity within that community. So that would perhaps be against. The second piece, and this is the one that concerns me for this area in general, is we've reclaimed a great deal of property and made it battlefield reclaimed forever. But we haven't done a great job of supplying a way for people to get to these parks to enjoy them. And as a matter of fact, I don't even know if Claiborne allows street parking. It might, right? If I'm gonna go to one of these two beautiful parks, much better than a Pizza Hut or a Domino's, where do I park if I'm visiting from out of town? I would hope maybe they park at Carter House, walk through Carter House, and then the question becomes, how do they get across the street without playing leapfrog or Frogger? I'm aging myself in that comment, but parking is a central discussion, I think, for this park system here, and to suggest that the library is going to be a suitable parking lot is maybe a bit short-sighted. And I don't know if the library would be okay with them being the parking lot for folks to stay and walk. And so, as a matter of fact, I was at the parking lot just this past Friday morning for the Juneteenth breakfast and I was grateful that I found a parking spot. And so I worry about that being our park's parking place. And then the final piece is if we were to align Granbury and Claiborne on a planning map, that seems prudent. And I think I've had personal comments about the staggered light and its effectiveness in other areas in the community. In this instance, while in an academic sense, aligning Claiborne and Granbury might make sense for flow, I think it actually provides some safety because it's not aligned, because you can't go straight through Granbury on to Claiborne and not have to slow down to make the two turns. That's not maybe a complete thought or a finished thought from my perspective, but I do think that little bit of a zigzag in this dense kind of historic community makes a little bit of sense to manage and control traffic. And so those are the three big things I think of. But I also think of the way the traffic will flow. It's going to go the course of least resistance, kind of like water. And if I live on Strahl Street or want to get to the Strahl Street Park and we remove Strahl Street, I'm probably going to turn right on Granbury if I'm coming south out of town. And then I'm probably, if I'm honest, I'm not going up to Reddick. I'm probably taking a right and driving through the Reddick Senior Housing parking lot as long as Straw Street maintains connectivity to the back piece. So I worry as we think about the impact of this, it becomes to kind of cascade in a lot of different directions. And I know, I believe it was Alderman Brown last time we talked about this. Perhaps it was Alderman Baggett. I don't want to steal your thunder here. Is there a reason to maintain connectivity from the Reddick side back to Strahl Street? And is there a way that we could deter folks from using Reddick Senior Parking as a thoroughfare? Because it's not, and I drove by it recently, there are speed bumps there. There are speed bumps there, but I don't want to – so I raised those three or four items that I think we need to be a little bit more – it's not just closing the road, I guess is my point. And maybe I should have started with that and could have saved everybody a few minutes. But I think the reason it's more than just closing the road are for those reasons I just illustrated and maybe even some others.

Vice Mayor. Thank you. And again, thank you to the residents, to the speaking – I've been thinking a lot about this because what you have is a parking lot that's acting as a road right now. So in some ways we're kind of working, and that's the Red Egg Senior Housing parking lot. So in some ways you kind of have the problem now no matter what happens with straw. People are doing it now. Would they do it more or less in the future? I think that's debatable. I think there's some pretty good reasons why they may not. There's some reasons why they might do it more. I think, again, as Alderman Barnhill said, there's some of these things that I think are Franklin Housing Authority specific that we can work with to fix, and I'm happy to engage with them on that, specifically but possibly controlled access to that. working as an internal solution for Reddick to figure that part out. Because, again, it's a problem now. Whatever happens to the straw, sounds like we've got some problems to fix with the people going through the parking lot, right? But the other thing is related to parking, and I don't want to take the eye off the ball here, is that when you've been to many battlefields as a tourist, there's no expectation like we have with the shopping centers and restaurants office buildings, that there is parking in proximity to the blades of grass in which you want to go see. In fact, the main reason you would go to a battlefield typically is to trounce around it. So there is some element, I'm not saying there's not, we do need, I think it should come when Granbury and Claiborne are connected and there should be parking down there for sure on the street whenever that's designed. But I don't know that that's some sort of obstacle at this point in time that is going to cause any problems. for sure with relation to Straw Street. But I do, I'm with you. I think we need to have, when the redesign happens, there needs to be considered parking. I'm looking at engineering now. So let's look at Claiborne for sure. It's going to take up some of the battlefield pieces. But we want that on the southernmost portions of the battlefield. We don't want that in the middle of the battlefield. We don't want to obstruct the view that has been preserved. So like on the south side of Claiborne. Anyway, we're kind of on a, we're voting on whether or not to proceed with this master plan. which the note says does not prescribe specifically at this point closing straw. Is that right? That was what the note said. So could you please clarify with that? The staff report said that this is just continuing to move forward, or is this...

So the resolution would have it to where whatever items you would want. If you want straw, even we're not saying that we're because of you're building a park.

Right.

And so there are going to be elements such as Granbury, the Claiborne, Straw Street removal. You have fencing. You've got to develop this park. So over time, if the If the resolution had it to where you would close Straw Street, then you also, as the board, or we'll go back to the city administration, that there could be a time period to where we phase this park, as we will with budget. We will phase this park in. But I think from a standpoint, if you're going to close Straw Street, then we would want to go ahead and remove that. Almost rip the Band-Aid off. and work with engineering of what's the best way to close it at that near the roadway where Reddick Center is, and then how do you create the park itself so you don't have thoroughfare?

I think the last comment I'll make is of the resident comments that were made, and I appreciate those, and there's a lot of work to do inside the city and outside. A lot of these, again, are not things we're in control of. But I think that a lot of the concerns like transit continue to come. Yes, it's going to continue to come. Again, there's all the on-site things like facilities and parking and all that stuff. I think that can be solved. It needs to be solved anyway. The parking item, I think, is a pretty easy solvable thing from a staff and enforcement of the area and working with Franklin Housing Authority. It really comes down to are the people that are coming down Strahl, driving down Strahl from Natchez area, and then they're coming to Columbia to go right or left. That's really, at the end of the day, those people would be going down to Granbury. And I think a lot of the things that y'all brought up, I think we can address in a lot of different ways. And I think we need to do that. I don't know if we need a next step if we did vote on this and how we're going to do that because you don't want, if you're a resident, you don't want to hear all this talk like we can solve them but then it not happen. And so I do think we could come up with some kind of assurances to the residents that, yes, those things like transit and working with Franklin Housing Authority, like, Here's how city staff is going to work to accomplish some of those concerns. And then I think we might have a path forward. Alderman Potts.

Thank you, sir. So, first, thanks for the residents that came out and spoke, and even those that didn't take the podium, thank you for being here tonight as well. And Lisa and Eric, thank you guys for giving us this vision of what this park is going to be. And I think what Alderman Baggett mentioned just a minute ago is that parks Regarding parking a lot of people recognize when you're gonna park somewhere You are here for an experience and you are there to walk that area and that's why the paths have already been You know listed right there on that rendering as well I want to make sure that we are as Alderman Varnhill said we need to work with the proper groups here, but protecting the access and privacy and for Reddick in general. And I think that there are some solutions. You've heard a couple of them here. And my notes right here is I'm looking at adding the private drives at Reddick, at the Reddick Senior Residence driveway in Cranberry Street, and adding the Reddick Senior Residence driveway in Strahl Street. So there are private driveway signs. So you're not getting people coming in and parking. What Alderman Barnhill made reference to is there's a bigger issue if people are parking and using your bathroom. That's a That's a facility management piece of it. The other piece regarding facility management here is if you're going to have a sign for a residence only, I think that is a good solution right there. And you're not going to see your local historic focused individuals or your visitors wanting to park there. They're going to be redirected with good signage. Maybe within the REDIC there's an opportunity for another option, which is parking lot permit stickers. And that way you know everybody that's supposed to be parking there. And somebody who's visiting gets the guest parking pass. Please don't interrupt while he's speaking, ma'am. So you get that paper piece. And it's only good for a certain amount of days while you're visiting or the day that you're visiting. So from the management side of it, I think you've got those options. I actually see the bigger vision, I think, of closing this section of Strahl and making the connection of the park so that we are preserving this space. Now, with that being said, I also think that there's an opportunity down the north part of where Strahl is, what is on the top of our map right there of the Reddick Senior Residence is potentially making that into a private drive area. And I don't know what we need to do, Eric, as far as that side of it. But if we're going to close straw, I'm opening to making that portion of it private. I don't think – even if you don't do that, those that are coming from the streets that are – that are just west of there, which are Reddick, Carter, Strahl, and others, they're not going to come down and hit that dead end. Muscle memory is going to happen. They're going to realize, oh, wait, I can't do that. I've got to either turn on Reddick or I've got to go ahead and turn on one of the other side streets to go down Granbury. So I think that that solution is going to come over time, and we're going to be able to connect these parks. I don't know how the parking solution is going to be solved. I'm not going to go there because that's not what we're voting on tonight. But I do hear what the residents are saying. But I think that there are solutions, and I think there are solutions with closing that section of straw.

And I might point out in the staff analysis here, the idea is conceptual only and will require additional analysis, public input, and formal approvals before any action is taken. Absolutely, sir. So can we move on to the number? Sure, please. I'm sorry I didn't see you raise your hand. Okay.

Well, in looking at this, at the picture there, I see, you know, it shows Carter House, and then it has kind of over to the left of that, I guess it would be the west of that, it says the Future Carter House Visitor Center. So how are you going to get to that?

There's a trail system that would connect it, correct?

Oh, and I know there's some parking there, you know, behind that, too. Right.

You'll access it off of Folks, and there'll be the parking lot that's already in existence is just being realigned but made slightly bigger. So that's how you'd access the visitor center. And through there flows most of the traffic that ends up on the battlefield park.

Yeah, you're probably right. But as I say, I really feel that Straw Street should not be blocked out, I mean, or closed out right there because there are a lot of people who live in that area, and it just seems to me that it's not someplace that ought to be just blocked off.

Mayor, could I have one last thing before we move on? I also just thought of this, and Lisa's heard me, I've called several times. One of the unintended consequences of the reclamation south of Strahl is we are seeing people now park on Strahl Street, and that is creating its own set of problems and of course they're parking on the section that is being discussed tonight. They don't park so much on Claiborne and we're running people off almost every day to get them off of Strahl Street and to redirect them. And so that's just something else to consider. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, just real quick, because this item is on your voting session as well. And part of why we put this on the work session is we wanted to have a discussion because there was some uncertainty around what you were comfortable with. I feel like there's still a lot of uncertainty. So you may want to consider deferring that tonight because I'm not sure what we get from a vote tonight. If it's all we're still working on it, we're going to get back to you on a series of things. I think there's a general concept of closing Straw Street. If you're not comfortable with that or you want us to refine some other elements further, I think either a deferral or even a withdrawal of this item and then come back with a little more developed proposal. plan or elements that address some of this might be appropriate so you don't need to decide that or discuss that right now but at 7 o'clock and part of why we put this on here is we had an instinct that there might be some more questions we need to answer before you're comfortable voting so Just know staff sort of expected that there might be some need for that, and that's okay if you want us to pull that back and do some additional work or defer it or however you think that works. And Lisa and I can huddle a little bit between meetings and talk a little more about that and maybe give you a little more feedback on that as you get ready to vote at 7.

Item 9 is follow-up on Armstead Infrastructure Development District, lien ratios, and affordable housing component.

This is a pretty straightforward item for you. We presented on this two different times and had pretty good discussion at previous work sessions. Between last meeting and now, we've had the opportunity to work with the development team, the applicant in this process, and they've made a couple very specific and very helpful adjustments. They've made a specific commitment to attainable housing. with 12 deed-restricted workforce housing units as part of the development. So there's a specific commitment there that allows us, in our view, in our review, to kind of check that box related to a commitment to attainable housing that is one of your four kind of policy pillars in the IDD policy itself. Of course, we had said they had More than met. The exceptional design component of that as well. And then we had had a question around the value to lien ratio component. And as originally submitted is that two to one, your policy as for three to one. And we've been working through, talking through a path that really gets us to three to one over time and how that can be structured. So that appears to be met as well. So with those in consideration, staff, would recommend approval of the IDD application that's before you for Armistead in light of the policy you adopted a month or so ago. So that kind of summarizes where we already didn't plan to go through a bunch more but wanted to have an opportunity if there's any discussion or clarification you needed at this point. Again, it is on your voting session as a resolution to approve the district. So... Anything you want to add, Emily?

Well, Eric covered everything I was going to say, except for just a reminder that if you do want to add in what's being proposed regarding the 12 deed-restricted units, that actually needs to be a condition that you make along with your vote to update the petition to be amended to commit 12 units as deed-restricted and targeting households earning up to 120% of the AMI. But that's it.

I don't know who had their hand up first because I was making myself a note. Alderman Brown, I'm just going to recognize you first, then I'll go to Alderman Potts. And I do have one public speaker. Oh, do we want to do that real quick? Yeah, let's do that. Sure. Susan Short, two minutes.

All right, Susan.

Good evening, Mayor and Aldermen. My name is Susan Short, and I'm a NICU nurse at Williamson Medical and a member of the Short family. Our family has owned and cared for this land for generations. When we began discussing its future, the question was never simply how to maximize its value. The question was how to honor the legacy of those who came before us while creating something meaningful for future generations. The farm has always been an important part of our family's story, and preserving the farming tradition was a priority from the very beginning. We wanted to create a place where agriculture remained a part of daily life, where people could learn where their food came from, and where future generations could continue to experience this land in a way that reflects its history. At the same time, we wanted Armistead to be a place for people in many different stages of life. Young families, empty nesters, retirees, and others and others should all have an opportunity to be part of the community. That's one of the reasons housing diversity has always been important to us and why we were willing to make an additional commitment to provide deed-restricted housing opportunities within the project. We're not professional developers. We are a local family trying to be good stewards of a property that has been entrusted to us for nearly 140 years. We've been fortunate to work with local partners who share our vision and our values. I want to thank the board and the city staff. for their time and effort you have invested in working through this process with us. We appreciate your willingness to help us find a path forward that allows us to preserve our family's legacy, continue farming and create a community that we hope will be a source of pride for Franklin for generations to come. Thank you.

I'm so glad we did that. I didn't realize you'd walked in, so I'm so glad you're here. You know, in all seriousness, that's been my driving force on this thing with the Short Farm for a long time, is I just feel like they just have done this process the right way from the very beginning. Multiple day charrette, involvement of so many people, and really trying to leave a legacy on this farm. I really hope we're bringing this to closure for you soon. You have endured a very, very long process as a family, and I appreciate that. You know, I think if the IDD had been in place before we reviewed the Armistead development, I don't know where the discussion would have been. Maybe we would have asked for more workforce housing in the beginning. Maybe that would have changed the mix of density. But we also probably would have lost the very thing that the Short family was trying to gain, which is this really great working farm, this legacy, this thing that the Charette and the constituents in our area, the residents really wanted out of this development. And that's why I go back to all the time, we did four pillars on purpose. Four pillars to be able to say, At times, we're going to blow one of them out of the water, and maybe we get some components of the others. This one is something that we don't have in our community. It's exceptional. It's a placemaking. This thing is going to drive economic development in our community because people are going to want to come and visit this place, not just live there. I think that's fantastic. I will add this condition. I appreciate you in good faith adding that to it. I think it's going to add sustainable infrastructure that no one else is doing. I think it checks a lot of the boxes, but more than anything, it's going to be a great place. And I think if we had reviewed it that way back when, I think we would have... We would have been excited to see it that way. I think we're just kind of looking backwards at it now. There may be other projects that come in for IDD that we look at that don't look like Armistead that we absolutely want more workforce housing for. I do think IDD is a driving force to workforce housing for sure. But we've got a development here that came in with exceptional design. And I think you have to give up some things in order to be able to get that. You can't have it all. You leave money on the table when they're doing what they're doing. And so thank you, Short Family. Thank you for doing what you're doing for our community. And I'm excited to see this thing come to closure for you and for our community. So thank you. All reports. Thanks, sir.

I actually have a question of the applicant, if you can come to the podium. Please. Thank you, sir. Thanks for being here tonight. Thank you, Alderman. And thank you for being here for multiple meetings. Yes, you bet. And the team. And being first through the gate. So my question, since I'm the Alderman that serves on the Housing Commission, If you could just take just a couple of minutes and tell us a little bit more about these 12 units that are going to be deed restricted. You can tell us a little bit for the public who may not have reviewed the details about square footage, where they kind of fall within the scope of the project, anything else that you'd like to share.

Sure.

And also for those that aren't here, as far as our deed restriction, total number of years, et cetera. Sure.

I think the details of the total number of years and the mechanism by which we do this is going to be worked out in the development agreement. I don't have that, but we're willing to do it. Honestly, the only sale that matters to us is the first one, of course. We're we're happy to um you know to do whatever works there um so these uh these lots are positioned right next to right i mean you know one one block off of where our pool and uh um and community center is in phase one um and there are two sections of them um they are we classify them as tiny home lots um and but that may be a little bit of a misnomer because they're not these little 400-square-foot units. You can have an 800- to 900-square-foot footprint for them, and so with two stories, you can get a two-, three-bedroom house that would be good for individuals and families. And so, I mean, I think they're positioned right amongst all the other homes, which is sort of a hallmark of what we do as new urbanists and traditional neighborhood designers. This is the idea is that you want a mix of housing and you want everybody to collide and be amongst one another. That's a core tenet of what we're trying to do. I did... We were asked on Friday to provide sort of a little diagram, and I do have that, and I think we sent it to Emily, I think, today, but obviously not enough to get in the staff report, not early enough to get in the staff report, but I'm happy to share that with the crew or with the board today.

And just also to follow up on that, these deed-restricted homes, they'd also have the same materials, the same quality of building, the same everything that your development's known for.

Absolutely. They have to abide by our pattern book and architectural design standards, and they are absolutely the only difference. Well, and there are going to be homes or lots of this size that are not deed restricted, too. And so they're just one among, some among many. Okay, good. Thank you.

All right, Peterson.

You know, this is now a part of the IDD bill. district that we're looking at and everything, and I still have a lot of problems with that. I just, you know, I looked back at some, like the city of Bristol, Tennessee, that uses the IDD, and they were, in addition to the people who eventually buy a particular I'm just saying a house, but it could be some other things too. Anybody that buys a home there, then not only are they paying the regular tax that the city and county charge, but they're also paying extra money. for anybody that buys one of the homes out there. And I'm really concerned about how much more. I'm looking at the city of Bristol, Tennessee that uses this, and they're showing that they have to pay, instead of $4,000 for the regular assessment, they're having to pay an extra $1,000 every year. And so I want to hear something about this.

So that's actually completely optional for the buyer. They can wrap that up into their mortgage and pay it off at closing and never have to pay anything else on any property tax.

So how much would they have to pay?

Well, for instance, if we have a $100,000 lot and there's an IDD that ends up around 3 to 1, so about $30,000, that's amortized over 30 years at whatever the interest rate ends up being, 5.5%, something like that, pretty similar to what a mortgage would be. So they can either, if they qualify for it, you know, pay it off at that time. And that would be the same as if they took out a 30-year mortgage on a, you know, for that amount of money. So it is completely optional and it's fully disclosed, you know, at the onset. And that's been an important part of the process as well as the policy that you guys put forward.

So in addition to the regular price of the home, you have this other assessment.

That's right. However, in theory, the price of the home would be reduced because the market rate would come down by the amount that it costs to deliver that house because that IDD is there. So if a builder bought our house and it had an IDD associated with it, they could choose at their point to, when they buy it, to pay it off. or they could allow the buyer to pay it off. It really is about somewhere between, depending on where interest rates are at the time when this is all closed, somewhere between 5.5% and 6.5% amortized, which is about the same as a mortgage. So it is optional, but they may not qualify for that extra $10,000 or $20,000 that it would be, and so they could put that on their property taxes and pay it off then as well. Okay. Oh, yeah, please. Yes.

That's right.

The first closing, which is generally happening at the sale to a builder, so probably about 50% to 75% of our lots will be sold to builders who will then build and then sell. So when we sell to a builder, it is incumbent upon us to pay off most of what has been bonded for that particular lot. So if it's a $150,000 lot and we sell it for $150,000, if there was $30,000 or $75,000 in there, at that closing we are mandated to pay down at least up to three to one. So then all of a sudden that's up to the buyer or the builder or the eventual home buyer to whether they want to leave that IDD on the property tax bill or wrap it up into their mortgage.

All of them in Barnhill.

There's a lot more to say.

This item is on your 7 o'clock meeting for a vote. This is on here to clarify what has changed in the last two weeks in terms of the application and this specific component around attainable housing and those elements. So if that helps.

I guess my question is, and has been, What happens to development if the IDD does not pass?

You mean would we be able to continue?

Would you be able to continue as you've presented under the plan that you've got now with the X number of houses you've got? with the farm concept, because we've been talking about Armistead being here longer than we've been talking about IDDs. So that plan and that concept has been here, and we've been looking at it, so I know, I don't know how many years now, but it is something. that has been around longer and it and because we do we've given a lot of development potential to a lot of things here and i'm just curious i still i still i guess there is there's there's advantages i can't see that there's a tremendous advantage to having the idd Now, maybe somebody can. I think we've gotten some things out of it, possibly, that we did not ask for. But had we known about it, we probably could have asked for. So, you know, tell me if this does not... You're asking for the IDD portion of the development tonight. Correct. And I've asked, and... have not gotten, well, gotten answers, but haven't gotten an answer necessarily that convinces me or tells me why an IDD is important in Franklin, Tennessee.

Well, I mean, I think the original impetus for the IDD in general was to be able to fund infrastructure early for development so development didn't happen out in front of the required infrastructure. And that is very much the case with Armistead. We have sort of built our phasing plan around I mean, basically two-thirds of our infrastructure costs come in phase one, and that would not be something that the existing capital stack would be able to fund without the IDD at this point. So we would have to reconfigure our development approach pretty significantly without the IDD. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but I think it would hurt both the pace of the development and the short family financially. But I mean, you know, to say that it wouldn't happen because without the IDD, I wouldn't say that. But it would mean a significant change in strategy and capital.

Alden Caesar. So three weeks ago, I was not super excited about this qualifying for an IDD. And I thought the board spent a lot of time talking about how cool this development was, which it was cool before the IDD was here. And it's still cool today. And I appreciate doing something different. This is clearly exceptional. But on its own, I don't think that qualifies for the IDD. However, I think the developer went away, heard what some of us on the board were objecting to, and I think my colleague, Mr. Barnhill, does a good job of asking the question, what if does it die? And I'm not hearing that it dies. I'm just hearing that maybe it doesn't do some of the things that you've brought back to the table, and I want to acknowledge that. We've talked a lot of time about finding a place for people to live in our community that aren't making the top end of the income structure. And I appreciate that you could, without this IDD, probably turn those tiny home lots into something that's way more lucrative, potentially. But you didn't. You heard our ask for some contribution to the workforce and you've made accommodations to do so, probably at some expense to you and the project. In addition to that, I was not a super fan of two to one on the valuation because while technically we don't encumber that risk, I don't think it sets a good precedent to say let's push it right up to the line and let the fair market do it. I think the fair market will take over. But I am much more grateful with a three to one valuation. And the piece that should be highlighted in here is that the developer has agreed to use reasonable efforts to pay off that portion of the bonds prior to selling any finished lots to home buyers or home builders. So in exchange for that additional IDD, you're going to take on some additional cost as the developer. And if that's not agreeable to you, I would encourage you to stay till seven, because I'm going to ask for that to be a part of this, and we'll see how the board feels on that. as well as some of the other market standard safeguards that come along with that. And while my colleague Alderman Peterson asks about the cost being turned over to the individual, there's a lot of costs that are baked into the price of a property. If they put in trees in front of my house or a median in front of my house, that comes to me in some way. It's all math equation. And so for those reasons, I feel like this is something that maybe started five or six years ago, perhaps, as an interesting concept. And that has not changed in my mind. I would have loved to have seen us have IDD before, but I think maybe having IDD before would have changed what you brought to us. And I think because IDD came midstream, not only did you get kicked around a little bit in the process, but I think we've gotten to a place where we have a better development because it happened midstream. And I want to be very clear to any other developer who's watching or sitting at home, IBD is not a rubber stamp. And I think you've endured a little bit of some of the molding that it should take in order to qualify. Now, I would love for that number to be 20 rather than 12 homes. But I don't think that is going to happen. I don't think that will pass the board. But for those reasons, Mayor, I think we've shown that this process of back and forth can shape better developments for our community. And for those reasons, I'm looking forward to the meeting later this evening.

Okay, can we move on? Okay, we'll go to item 10, which is a follow-up discussion of city hall redevelopment block park funding options.

We had a discussion last meeting on this topic and we wanted to come back to you with a little more specifics and get a response from you in terms of some guidance. Really helpful feedback last time, but we wanted to fold it into maybe a little more direct approach in terms of how we might move forward with providing some opportunities for folks to to participate in a way in supporting the City Hall Park. So Lisa's here, Gary's here to talk through kind of what that looks like and get additional feedback, but it does help us chart the course of how we might move forward and work with our partners at Friends of Franklin Parks and give people a chance to connect to their new park that's coming as part of the City Hall project. So Lisa, take it away.

Thank you, Eric. And so the city of Franklin and friends of Franklin parks currently have a program where we administer a donation type bench program within our park system. We also do picnic tables. But we also see that that would not change for this park. We would extend that to the gliders, the swings, whatever the amenities might be in. is that Friends of Franklin Park has agreed to lead the effort to fund and purchase the custom-built fountain. This would be very unique in the fact that they would also then turn around to our community and give the opportunity, no matter a business, an individual, a donor, the opportunity to give toward this fountain. And from there, they would also, they've graciously agreed that at their community event, which is the event coming up in August that we all look forward to every year, of course, at the park at Harlinsdale Farm, with Raise the Roof, the year of the horse for them. that they would invite the community to engage in this and make it very much a prominent effort during that evening of that fundraising effort. In that, that donors would then be or businesses or individuals would be recognized digitally on the city's website if they choose to. It would also be recognized on the Friends of Franklin Parks website. And it would be a small bronze plaque would be placed on the exterior of the fountain that would be a gift to the community from the people of Franklin. and it would have Friends of Franklin Parks and the date in which it took place. And so we're excited to have this public-private partnership. We're excited to extend this to our community. And I'll turn it over to Gary Vogrin, who is with Friends of Franklin Park, who's the existing president.

Appreciate you, Lisa, Alderman, Mayor. Great to see you again. Yeah, Board President, Friends of Franklin Parks, landscape architect, city planner, and park designer of City Park Hall, Franklin Park. As she said, we just want to be brought to the table. You've asked us to help where we can. We want to step up, and this is our 15th year of Friends of Franklin Parks. We'd like to... Establish 150,000 for this fountain which is all in is 180,000 we want to as Lisa said Engage the community. We're all about parks and recreation preservation of open space Connectivity this is something just unique a special gem of the park that we want to be a part of and have a community community part of this involvement and as she said at our raise the roofs August 22nd, I know we'd all love to have to be there and most of you are and We're going to promote this activity and involvement, as we always have done, of being collaborators with the City of Franklin. This is just one small piece that we always are honored to be part of with the City of Franklin. And I'm just one small part of this board, but we're just trying to help, and we are appreciative of this offer. So I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Yes, I love continuing the bench as it is. It's not altered for this plan, and I love the idea of how you're resolving for the fountain. Great.

Vice Mayor. I was bringing this back after the last meeting because I think we were all a little bit... There's a little, at least, maybe I was the other one, actually. I was confused. And that's quite possible and probably probable. But I love the idea of the fountain. I'm still hesitant on, I mean, the benches. I know this is the City Hall Park, and I just, the bench program and starting, I don't know, what is it going to call? This is a City Hall Park. It's going to be monumental. Are we selling names on city hall parks in perpetuity for 500 bucks?

For the donation part, like the fountain, our existing program is in honor or in donation of someone. So there is specific characters. We have it already established in our other historic parks. So it would follow those same guidelines. So we normally do not have businesses that look at – usually it's, again, in honor and memory of someone.

And I guess what I'm saying is a bench around Pinkerton's one-mile trail is one thing. A bench in our city – again, that goes back to that. So I'm good with the fountain. Fountain, like a green light, I think it's awesome. The benches and placking on all the other things, I think that's where I'm not sure of how that is. I think that's where I may have the hesitation. So that's all I'll say on that. And very good people might disagree with me. But, you know, it's going to be a monumental part for the city. It could be a nice place of honor for a variety of ways for us to honor folks or sell that or whatever it is. I think I just have more question marks, and I'll leave it at that. But all good with the fountain.

I think our thinking was we do it in every other park, and we also do it in downtown. So it felt a little weird to not do it in this one oasis when we're doing it everywhere around it. So that was where we came down on it. I understand there is sensitivity about we don't want to over-brand this brand-new park, but... We look for your direction on that. But that was our thinking.

Yes, sir. And I will say this, Vice Mayor. Each park has a designated number of benches. So we know how many we have at Pinkerton Park. We know at Eastern Flank, Carter Hill would be another one. We don't add because you decide as a resident or a donor that, hey, this is important to me, add another one into it. It has to be open. And it has to be designated in those spaces. But if y'all choose not to, then that might be the one area that will be fine.

Anybody else?

Alderman Caesar. I agree. I think we've come to a very good resolution with the fountain. I'm excited to see what that looks like as it grows. Maybe we should have eight benches.

Obviously.

I don't know. The mayor says nine. I don't know. Well, the fountain.

We're glad that you're volunteering already on that seizure.

It's on the record already.

Any other comments? If not, we're going to adjourn. Thanks, Gary.

Thank you.