Mayor Addresses Housing, Apartments In ‘Boro

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Earlier this morning Mayor McFarland addressed affordable housing, construction and looking down the road to fit the needs of the community in a letter to citizens on his Facebook page:

For many years there has been much debate on the amount of apartments that have been rezoned and built in Murfreesboro.

The City Council recently took action to hit the “pause” button on new multi family re-zonings and take a deeper look into several issues.

Like many of you, I have lived in apartments many times in my life and have nothing against multi family developments, but there are several things to consider:

1) How close is too close and how big is too big? We are going to look at distance requirements between complexes. Taking multiple areas and putting 1000 plus units all together has proven to pose problems for service delivery. How big should units be? What is the largest amount of units that we can provide service too? We don’t pick up trash at these units, but each facility that is built uses City infrastructure: water, sewer, roads, schools, police protection, fire protection, parks and recreation, just to name a few.

1A) How much is too much? Currently, there are over 10,000 approved units, not built, throughout the city. I am for letting the market dictate, but at the same time letting the market dictate is how we have ended up with 15+ check cashing places within 1/2 mile of one another in certain areas of our community. We can’t dictate to individual businesses who can and can’t come into the city, but we can look at zonings and uses to make sure we are thoughtful where different uses locate.

2). Consistency in service delivery: We are working on ordinances to put the burden on complex owners for service delivery. For Example: If a complex is having a high amount of police calls. WE have to have polices in place to handle those situations with the owners and put the burden back on the owner to make sure they are providing a safe environment for the residents. This could mean providing FULL time POST certified security, upgraded lighting, upgraded facility improvements, etc. We have to be more concerned about 20 years from now as opposed to right now. Putting things like “unruly gathering” ordinances in place, we are protecting the residents and the City.

3) Updated information: For years we have been told that apartments do not add a proportional amount to the school system. Starter home units for sale are at all time lows. Murfreesboro’s median house price has risen to almost $170,000. It is safe to say that many families live in multi family developments. We need to know what these complexes contribute to our education system in regards to updated numbers.

4). Affordable housing: Affordable housing is vital to any growing city. We have to find better ways to provide quality affordable housing within our City. This goes hand in hand with multi family zonings. Our 2035 plan deals directly with some of these issues and how we help provide these offerings.

To close…..sometimes tough decisions have to be made and most certainly they are not always going to be popular. In this case, I have no doubt, we are doing the right thing in taking a look to make sure what is being approved will make the residents of Murfreesboro proud to live here in 20 years. It is not an easy problem to snap our fingers and have all the answers, but we are all committed in making sure that we are diligent and thoughtful to make this occur.

Sincerely,
Shane

 

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