What We Heard on Nolensville Road — and the Three Committees That Came Out of It

Last May, NewsChannel 5 came to our first REIMAGINE Nolensville Road meeting at Glencliff High School. Over 120 neighbors turned out on a weeknight to say what they wanted from the road they live on.

What they said was consistent: traffic, safety, sidewalks that start and stop, bike lanes, flooding, parking. "It's kind of the heart," Barbara Clinton told the reporter. "It's what pulls us all together."

We kept going. June 24 and August 27, both at Coleman Park Community Center.

At the August meeting the group did something different. Instead of taking another round of comments, it turned the list into three committees, with names attached to each one:

• Improving Safety

• Environment, Beautification & Sustainability

• Business Support & Involvement

  
  

Each committee meets before September 20, and the full group reconvenes in early October.

The reason for the change is simple. A meeting produces a list. A committee produces work — a specific intersection, a specific vacant lot, a specific block of businesses, and somebody who has agreed to keep track of it. Three meetings in, we know what the corridor needs. What we need now is people who will stay with one piece of it.

There's room on all three. You don't need a background in planning, and you don't need to have come to the earlier meetings. You need to care about a stretch of road you already drive, walk, or shop on every week.