NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Hundreds of people are pushing back on a proposal to eliminate free parking in a busy part of Nashville, with Metro leaders deciding they need more time to talk about adding paid parking along Music Row.
The Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure wants to start charging people to park along some side streets in the Music Row area. The proposal would add paid meters for approximately 209 parking spaces that are currently free street parking off Music Square East and West.
NDOT said the neighborhood has included paid spots for years, but it just started adding more meters along the main roads over the past couple of years under the new parking program. The proposal, first presented to the Traffic and Parking Commission in September, would start charging people on smaller side streets where most people park now to avoid paying on the main roads that have meters.
Almost 1,000 musicians who work in the Music Row area signed a petition over the weekend saying they were shocked and appalled the city wants to take away some of the last free parking in the area. The petition was delivered to the commission at its meeting on Monday afternoon.
Dave Pomeroy, president of the Nashville Musicians Association, said the proposal would be destructive to the music industry. He was part of the crowd that showed up at both the September and October meetings opposing the NDOT plan that he learned about from a friend.
During the public comment period on Monday, he presented the petition that was started over the weekend and signed by musicians who come from across Nashville to work in the historic area.
The Nashville Musicians Association building on Music Circle North would lose its free street parking under the NDOT proposal. Pomeroy said this doesn’t work in an area where people can spend unpredictable amounts of time working.
“The music business is very unpredictable,” Pomeroy said. “You may have to be somewhere for five minutes, it could be five hours, it could be 10 hours. To have to worry if your car is going to get towed or not, it goes against everything that created Music City — which is respect for musicians and the creative process. The understanding that this is not 9-to-5 and this is not coffee shops and this is not restaurants.”
“There are a couple of other businesses around, but this is a unique business area that needs to be respected by not making people have to nickel and dime parking,” Pomeroy continued. “It’s really going to be destructive.”
Pomeroy said some other businesses along the paid streets have already seen as much as a 75% decrease in people showing up for their music workshops after the meters were added.
He’s concerned people will not be able to stop in their building to quickly grab a check and it could hurt the creative soul that makes Music Row an amazing landmark.
The areas proposed for paid parking include:
The paid parking would be in place from 6 a.m. to midnight on all metered Music Row roads. NDOT said there is no way to create exemptions for residents or business owners.
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All Music Row paid parking would become an “economy zone” under this NDOT proposal, which is the cheapest rate structure at $1 per hour up to 10 hours.
The area currently uses a tiered rate structure that increases the longer someone is parked there up to $35 for the 10-hour limit.
NDOT parking manager Emi Matyas described the new lower rates as “extremely convenient and reasonable as far as the financial side,” during his initial presentation in September.
Two people showed up at the October meeting to speak in support of the NDOT plan. They talked about the need for more parking turnover to open up spaces for residents in the area that’s adding more homes and apartments.
The supporters also stressed the importance of ensuring everyone has access to street parking, instead of allowing some people who work in the area to line the same roads every day.
After hearing from both sides, commission members decided they still needed more time and information before voting.
The proposal has been deferred once again, this time to the November meeting where NDOT is set to present more data about why the proposal is needed and what work has been done to engage with the community.
Pomeroy said the delay is better than the commission approving the proposal, but he’s going to keep pushing back at the meeting next month.
He’s been working with several other groups in the neighborhood on the impacted streets to fight the proposal, but they’re open to a conversation to find a compromise that works for Metro and Music Row.
“We’re all about transparency, communication and respect. And we are just going to keep pushing for that,” Pomeroy said.
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Nashville musicians push back against plan to eliminate free parking on Music Row – WSMV
