Nashville’s Charlotte Park neighborhood was primarily built in the 1960s to house employees of the enormous Ford Glass Plant, which opened in the area in 1958. Many also know the neighborhood for Rock Harbor Marina and Blue Moon Waterfront Grille. The past decade has seen a lot of change in this neighborhood while the rest of Nashville has also grown at an accelerated pace. With the surge of interest in The Nations, it’s only natural that the adjacent Charlotte Park neighborhood also became popular.
There has been one major thing holding back the neighborhood appeal of Charlotte Park … and as of today, that obstacle has been removed. With Nashville’s exploding growth, the rock quarry owned by Rogers Group, located on the backside of the neighborhood along the river, has been busier than ever. It’s estimated that 2,200 dump trucks a day have been driving down Charlotte’s Park’s main artery, Robertson Avenue, from the quarry to Interstate 40, which is a direct feeder to anywhere in the Nashville area where bedrock is needed. All of these trucks have led to countless complaints of dust and noise. And, as our StyleBlueprint office is located in the neighborhood on Robertson Ave., I can firsthand attest that walking the sidewalks of Robertson has also felt dangerous with so many trucks.
A plan has been in place to reroute these trucks to the industrial side of the property, near John C. Tune airport and off of Cockrill Bend. This required a new bridge to be built along with a new road. Rogers Group stepped up to fund this project, creating both a private road and a bridge for dump trucks from the quarry. The Rogers Bridge opened today. Beginning tomorrow, the dump trucks will be encouraged to start using the new road.
President and CEO of Rogers Group, Darin Matson, stated, “This is a perfect example of when industry, government officials, and the community sit down and talk to each other and respect each other to come up with solutions. We can almost always come up with a solution acceptable to everyone, and this is a prime example.” He added, “The community should see a reduction in truck traffic immediately … it’s in our best interest, also, to get the trucks over here to use this bridge and road.”
Mary Carolyn Roberts, the District 20 Council Member, spearheaded this charge (her email about this project is included at the end of this article). She states that three more things are needed to add to this dramatic change in the neighborhood. However, none of them could happen without the bridge and road first being opened up, “Three things that still need to happen: 1) a traffic calming measure at the corner of Basswood and Robertson so that access to the quarry can only happen on this new road; 2) signage added directing truck traffic and 3) traffic calming measures put into place throughout the neighborhood, but especially on Roberston.”
While many neighborhoods in Nashville are changing quickly, this officially makes Charlotte Park far more desirable today than it was yesterday. Residents are also closely watching the Breeze Block development by Vintage South, which includes the old Proctor Granite building. This multi-purpose development includes space for retail, food, office space, and townhomes. Add to this Tee-Line, which opened last year and offers curling, bowling, and a new restaurant to the neighborhood. More housing is also being added to the neighborhood, so eliminating thousands of dump trucks is sure to add fuel to the fire of change that this neighborhood is now experiencing.
So, if you don’t know where Charlotte Park is, expect to hear far more about this neighborhood in the future — because today, it became West Nashville’s most interesting neighborhood. Let’s hope it continues to develop into a walkable community that takes advantage of the current park, the sidewalks already in place, and the enviable location with access to the river, interstate, and many of Nashville’s favorite food destinations.
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Council Member Mary Carolyn Roberts’ email about the bridge:
In 2011, I was knocking on doors, and a woman asked me to come inside because she said, “you can’t stand outside in the daytime when the trucks are in full force because it’s impossible to hear.”
That moment was a huge paradigm shift for me. I realized that I had to do whatever I could to help the people who were living on that road because the amount of dust, noise, and inconvenience was hardly tolerable … so I set out to get the trucks off that road.
As many know, I did not get elected in 2011, but I did get elected in 2015, and I immediately began working on the problem. I put it in the Capital Improvements Budget and was told that it was too big of an ask, so I started asking the businesses at the end of the road if they would help.
The Rogers group stepped up and said they would build the bridge, and that’s when the real planning began. The Rogers Group and the community have been working together to get this done for over five years, and the day is finally here! We are rerouting all of the industrial trucks off of Robertson Avenue and returning it to the peaceful neighborhood it was always intended to be.
I hope you can join us on August 9, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. at 7199 Cockrill Bend to officially open the bridge. I’ll be there, along with Mayor John Cooper, Director Alarcon, and executives from The Rogers Group, for a long-awaited ribbon cutting.
This is a big step forward for our neighborhood, and I hope you’ll be able to join us to celebrate our success!
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UPDATED: This article was updated to add an “and” between “dust” and “noise” which is a change from the first publication.
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