At a recent Breakfast with the Mayors coordinated by Franklin Tomorrow, new Brentwood Mayor Nelson Andrews and new Spring Hill Mayor Matt Fitterer discussed major issues they will be addressing in their communities, especially transportation infrastructure. It is a topic that was also discussed by County Mayor Rogers Anderson and Franklin Mayor Ken Moore at the same event.
Rogers Anderson began the presentation by noting that over the last several years, the county and the various municipalities have been working together to deal with transportation issues. One thing they have done is to create a road plan for the next five years based on the recently completed county-wide urban growth boundary plan. These land use and road development plans will allow the cities and county to build infrastructure proactively. They have also taken a hard look at the interstate system serving the county.
“We have asked TDOT to make a concentrated effort to look at our roads,” Anderson noted, “and reconsider how they distribute [real estate] transfer taxes that we send to Nashville. We are asking them to send [50%] of that back to us so we can spend it on our roads.”
Out of the urban growth boundary planning process came a county-wide Growth Management Round Table with representatives from all of the cities, the county, and other stakeholders. Once a quarter, they get together to discuss different issues. The only issues they have discussed so far in 2025 are related to transportation created by rapid growth. Issues they plan to address as a team.
“All of us are working hard to understand what growth means,” added Anderson.
Growth Brings New Transportation Challenges
According to the Transit Alliance, “Williamson County, Tennessee faces transportation challenges due to rapid population and employment growth, leading to increased traffic congestion on both county and regional roads, with the county working to address these issues through traffic studies and strategy development.”
Moore stated that Franklin is currently working on some of their regional issues through McEwen Drive Phase IV, and eventually Phase V.
“McEwen Phase IV will take two and a half to three years,” explained Moore, “but the good news is that we have $30 million of grant money that is going to help pay for the $40 million plus project.”
Nelson Andrews has been on the Brentwood City Commission since 2019, recently being elected Mayor by his peers on the Commission. A graduate of Brentwood High School, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Vanderbilt’s Owen School. He is currently the President of Andrews Transportation Group located in Brentwood.
“For a long time, I used to introduce myself as a car dealer with a side gig as a city commissioner, but what I have found is that I feel I am mayor with a side gig as a car guy,” joked Anderson. “I think Brentwood has a very important role to play in the larger community, as well as our city itself.”
With the election, the Brentwood Board of Commissioners now has a lot of city planning experience, as three commission members have served as planning commissioners in the past. Anderson feels that their experience with city planning will be important with what lies before them.
He is also happy to have a new City Manager from Springfield, Missouri, Jason Gage. Taking on his new role in April 2025, Gage brings with him a strong background in economic development, comprehensive planning, and capital improvement.
Brentwood’s Plans to Handle Increased Traffic
“Transit is a huge issue in the community, and it is not the county or any one city,” said Andrews. “It is all of us working together…The north/south corridor along I-65 is a huge deal. We have been in quite a few meetings about what we can do about north/south transit. As Mayor Moore said, the east/west transit is also a big deal. He showed a picture of the Phase IV of McEwen, but…Phase V of McEwen is a project that is a joint venture between Brentwood and Franklin to build out from where Phase IV ends around Wilson Pike all the way to [the] city limits on the east side of Brentwood. This is a funded project.”
This project will help ease east/west traffic flow, as will another project on Old Smyrna Road. The plan is to create a modern road in place of the current one, while keeping the picturesque beauty that exists in the area. Part of the most historic part of the old road will also become a greenway.
“They have some beautiful old growth trees and some rock walls,” Andrews commented, “it’s also about three and a half feet wide and crumbling…It’s just objectively dangerous, and it is getting a lot more traffic…Our plan is about how to balance preserving Old Salem Road, as well as making sure it is a functional…road for our community.”
An additional road that Brentwood is working on is Ragsdale Road as an additional means of keeping people moving through the city, but off the I-65 to lessen the amount of traffic using it.
“The solution is not just making the north/south corridors bigger, it’s a matter of figuring out how to keep people from needing to use those roads at all,” added Andrews. “Making it more functional.”
Spring Hill Also Working on Traffic Flow
Recently elected as the new Mayor of Spring Hill, Matt Fitterer commented on the widening of Buckner Lane. The middle third will be completed in 2025, and the last third will be completed by December 2026.
He also explained the public-private partnership involved in the Crossing Boulevard-Kedron Road changes. A developer is putting in a 200-acre mixed-use project there, which will create a couple of key connection points that the city has been struggling to put together for over a decade. The project is going to be constructed and funded by the developer.
An Alderman for ten years before becoming the mayor, Fitterer expects great things from Spring Hill’s new City Administrator Carter Napier, who will be arriving soon from Caspar, Wyoming.
“He has a lot of experience accomplishing the things we need to accomplish here in Spring Hill,” stated Fitterer.
State Funding Model Change Not Working
As Mayor Moore said at a previous Breakfast with the Mayors earlier this year, which also focused extensively on traffic and transportation, “The Transportation Modernization Act [of 2023] took what was 900 road projects and narrowed it down to 90 projects,” Moore said. “The current funding model is not adequate.”
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