New 650-acre Antioch park to be named Mill Ridge

Mike Reicher | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Mill Ridge Park in Antioch dedicated under development Southeast Nashville gets 650 acre park named Mill Ridge Park

Nashville city officials dedicated a 650-acre public park under development in Antioch on Thursday, the culmination of a years-long planning process.

Metro Nashville Parks Department leaders and Antioch-area boosters said Mill Ridge Park, a name they publicly revealed during Thursday's event, will fill a void for park space in rapidly-growing southeast Nashville.

"Mill Ridge Park establishes a grand-scale park that will be forever preserved for the recreation and enjoyment of the citizens of Southeast Nashville,” Mayor David Briley said in a written statement. "We will make this one of the premiere green spaces in the city.”

Today, the land near Cane Ridge High School is primarily open space. Most of the property is east of Interstate 24 and southwest of the school.

The park will feature a "destination playground" with water features, picnic pavilions, a fitness loop, a special event lawn and outdoor performance space, trails, restrooms, native grasslands, parking and other amenities.

Students from the nearby Knowledge Academy charter school have already been using the future park space for field projects, although the land isn't publicly accessible yet. For one project, they tagged crayfish in a stream and learned about conservation.

With the park, they'll have more outdoor options. Teacher Jay Renfro said that after the nearby Waffle House shooting in April, while the shooter was still at large, most students stayed in their homes.

"I've noticed that the students don't have a safe community gathering place," said Renfro. "A lot of them don't get to go outside much."

City officials are finishing the design of the park's first phase east of Old Hickory Boulevard, and expect construction to begin next year. The initial phase includes festival grounds, the playground, wetlands and a greenway through the Moore Farm Grasslands. Officials are targeting completion of the first phase in 2020.

Construction for phase one is expected to cost $17 million, drawn from both public and private sources. The Metro Council and Briley will address construction funding in the next capital spending plan. Already the Joe C. Davis Foundation has contributed $4.3 million for land acquisition and other costs, and Metro has contributed more than $12 million for land acquisition and development planning.

"We wanted something that could have generational impact," said Angela Goddard, the executive director of the Joe C. Davis Foundation. "We saw the healthy benefits of having outdoor space."

In July, Metro closed a deal to buy a roughly 50-acre parcel in the park's boundaries, Metro officials said.

At Thursday's ceremony, organizers also announced the formation of Friends of Mill Ridge Park, a community group made of local business people, civic leaders and residents. The group plans to raise funds, create community events and support the park.

They gathered on a broad swath of grassland ringed by trees. It eventually will be a "community lawn" that can hold events with 3,000 people, officials said.

"Southeast Nashville has been very underserved from a parks perspective," said Ben Freeland, a local car dealership owner who chairs the board of Friends of Mill Ridge Park. "We think this is going to be a huge driver for quality of life."

Briley, earlier Thursday morning, presented the park's name to a group of local business leaders. City leaders and nonprofit groups are making a fundraising push to help with park construction.

"Spaces like this are dependent on a community for success," said Councilwoman Jacobia Dowell, who represents the Antioch and Cane Ridge areas. "We need to have these spaces wherever we go in our county."

In 2015, then-Mayor Karl Dean announced the initial plans for the park, previously known as the Southeast Davidson Regional Park. Metro officials embarked on an extensive outreach to residents, gathering opinions on what amenities would be most useful.

"We've worked hard to keep the community engaged in the process," Assistant Parks Director Tim Netsch said on Wednesday. "It really felt like we heard from a great cross-section. We heard it needs to be a place where everyone feels welcome."

Responding to specific requests from the community, designers are incorporating ornamental planting beds and community food-preparation areas with amenities such as grills, Netsch said. Also, residents suggested the name "Mill Ridge," because Cane Ridge and Mill Creek Valley converge within the park.

Officials highlighted the Antioch-area's economic and ethnic diversity, and said the park will serve the county's largest concentration of immigrants. The area is 48 percent white and 37 percent African American, according to the Parks Department master plan, while Nashville as a whole is 55 percent white.

On Wednesday the national advocacy group Trust For Public Land released a report that showed only 37 percent of Nashville residents live within a 10-minute walk from a park, while the median was 70 percent of residents across the 100 largest cities. The nonprofit advocates that "every person — regardless of their income, race or zip code" should be able to access a park within a 10-minute walk from their home.

More: Despite 'green' image, Nashville trails Austin, Atlanta, Orlando for its parks system

Reach Mike Reicher at 615-259-8228 and on Twitter @mreicher.