NEWS
A Few Questions With Councilmember John Rutherford, District 31
J
ohn Rutherford is a veteran and a staunch advocate for Nashville’s veterans who would like the lead on that front. He also believes in targeting high-density development around thoroughfares and ensuring large development benefits all of Nashville. The Contributor talked with Rutherford as part of a series called A Few Questions With where we interview council members about their district’s most pressing issues. What stands out to you when describing District 31? District 31 is a mix of suburban and rural neighborhoods and farmland. There are farms that have been in the same family for generations and then there are new neighborhoods with people new to the area, many from other parts of the country and from other parts of the world. What are some of the main concerns you hear from your constituents? There are two concerns that rise above all others right now — development and safety. We’ve grown tremendously, and the recent census reflects that. In the redistricting process, the southeast is picking up a whole new Metro Council district. My own district is currently about 5,000 people too heavy, so it had to shrink in the redistricting process. The growth we have experienced is putting a strain on everything from schools to roads to utilities. When I ran for Metro Council, I ran on what I called controlled strategic development. What I mean by that is that we focus the growth in key areas and put the highest density along major thoroughfares. That hasn’t necessarily been occurring previously. We’re faced with a lot of new development and new development requests, which of course for Metro Council that’s a rezoning request. It’s reached the point where I’m significantly limiting the zoning changes in those areas that are not on major thoroughfares. The community demands that we maintain the rural integrity of those areas off the major thoroughfares, and I’m determined to do that as best I can. Growth has also put a strain on emergency services. There is a great need for a new fire station in our area based on response time. If you live anywhere south of Culbertson Road, you’re paying higher insurance premium that’s due in part of the response time from emergency services. So, safety is a big issue as a part of that. I’m hoping in this new budget season to get the engineering study done for a new fire station. The Metro Council Planning and Zoning Committee had and has some
BY JUDITH TACKETT
METRO COUNCIL COMMITTEES: Planning and Zoning (vice chair) Human Services Rules, Confirmation and Public Elections
big items before it, including the redevelopment of the former Old Hickory Mall and the East Bank redevelopment. What would you like to see happen in these areas? Both of these developments come with a lot of promise. My primary concern with projects of this scale is about whether or not they really are going to have a beneficial impact on all of Nashville. One of the key issues I want to see is affordable housing attached to both. We passed a resolution in Metro Council for the Mall purchase, but there is much planning still to be done in terms of what’s going to happen in the areas that are not leased by Vanderbilt. There is still a lot of square footage left in terms of what Metro is going to do with it. I would like to see a proposal for some type of affordable housing somewhere in the conversation. And then at the East Bank, connectivity is an important issue there, especially with the East Nashville neighborhoods. It will take leadership from both the Metro Council and the Mayor’s Office to ensure both projects will be beneficial to all Nashvillians. You are a veteran, are serving on the Metro Council’s Veterans Caucus, and we have served together on the Vice
Mayor’s Special Committee on Veterans. What do you hope will Nashville do to serve veterans? As a veteran this issue is very near and dear to me. I’m a founding member of the Metro Council’s Veterans Caucus. This is actually the first term the Metro Council had a Veterans Caucus in its history. I think that’s a sign in and of itself that Nashville has not done enough for our local veteran community historically. I want to see Metro follow through with what the Vice Mayor’s Special Committee on Veterans recommended. We need to do what many of our peer cities have done. We should elevate and expand the Davidson County Veteran Services Office to its own department, taking it out of HR where it’s kind of lost in the shuffle sometimes. I sponsored the Metro budget two years ago that expanded the office from two staff to three, but it’s still not enough. They’re overwhelmed and have to pick their battles in terms of what they can do to be effective for our local veterans. They focus mainly on at-risk veterans helping connect them to federal benefits available to them and other services such as housing, employment, health care and mental health and drug and alcohol treatment if necessary. With a new department, as the report
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recommends, we should also create a Veteran Services Commission represented by members of the veteran community and veteran advocates to help guide serving our veterans. What would you like to see prioritized as it comes to addressing homelessness in Nashville? I often hear that the answer to homelessness is housing. I believe that answer is really far too simple because if you snap your finger and suddenly would be able to house every unhoused person there would still be no answer to what led them to homelessness to begin with. Obviously affordable housing is an important part but equally important are the services such as employment, health care, mental health, and drug treatment. According to Operation Stand Down, [a high proportion]* of Nashville’s homeless population are veterans. A strong commitment to our veterans at the local level will go a long way to ending veteran homelessness. And if we can end veteran homelessness, we’ll put a significant dent into our overall homelessness issue. *based on national data, about 11 percent of the literal homeless population are veterans.
