After finishing a south-east construction plan for Veterans Parkway, Murfreesboro planning looks to start at the North-east side sometime in the future. The Murfreesboro 2035 construction plan for Veterans Parkway may only be a line on a piece of paper at the moment, but that line is cutting through the only farm in the mid-state area.
Batey Farms has been in business for 200 years now.They have multiple business outlets which they sell meat and have a berry garden.The construction plan could call for a five lane intersection which would cut through the middle of the farm. This could possibly cut back on a lot of the produce and business for the farm.
Owner of the farm, John L. Batey says, “Its just like everything else, we gotta adapt to changes. We might not like changes but in your lifetime you`ll go through several.”While he wants to keep the farm a family tradition he understand that with time, changes will come like they always do.
Farm Director, Brandon Whitt says that the plan does cause problems for the future of the business. “We are trying to move into new avenues to expand our business, do some different things, and so we continually have to look at how this potential of a road can impact us down the road”. The farm is soon to be producing wheat for local breweries but worries how they can begin to expand if in a couple years they may be forced to downgrade.
I had the chance to talk to City Planning and they said this construction project is not something they plan to move on anytime soon. They also noted that it is not their intention to take away local businesses from the community. City Planning director, Chris Griffith says “They will go out and appraise their property and they`ll look at not only the value of their land they are taking but they`ll also look and see what kind of negative impacts were going to make on the house. We try to avoid that because obviously we try not to damage businesses to that degree.”
If the 200 year old farm is forced to move, Brandon says the long standing tradition won`t be able to start from scratch.
“Understanding that our feet and our hands have worked in this soil for 200 years, we don`t have the passion to go do that somewhere eles. So it`s not just as simple to pack it up and move somewhere else. Your heart and soul is here “
There is no set date to discuss planning yet.
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