Speaker: Councilmember Freddie O’Connell
For the past six years, Metro Councilperson Freddie O’Connell has represented Nashville’s downtown, an area that has undergone tremendous change in the past two decades and continues to change by the day. The downtown district includes several new high-rise buildings and has become a place where people can live, work, and play. Until the 1990’s, creation of residential space in the area was prohibited, but now 14,000 people call downtown Nashville their home. Before the pandemic, 78,000 people worked downtown, and many are beginning to return. With all of these changes, balancing growth and preservation is a challenge.
Councilperson O’Connell noted that Downtown is “complicated.” He described several special zones and districts that overlay the central footprint to guide building height, historic preservation decisions, and energy use. Businesses within the Central Business Improvement District pay a property surcharge for extra services to keep the area clean and safe, while other areas do not. In 2010, the Specialized Land Use Policy for Downtown, known as the “Downtown
Code” was adopted, and it continues to guide decisions about changes in the central city.