Nashville wants to hear from residents on revamped fairgrounds with MLS stadium

Over the next three years, the Fairgrounds Nashville is poised for a major transformation with the planned addition of a Major League Soccer stadium, a 10-acre private mixed-use development and a park that is already under construction.

Now, city officials are beginning the complicated — and potentially politically charged and controversial — process of figuring out how to develop a site with so many pieces.

With a stated goal of maintaining and improving existing uses at the long-disputed site — flea markets, auto racing and an annual state fair — the city is leading a series of community meetings and workshops over the coming days to help steer designs, the layout and other considerations of the revamped fairgrounds campus.

"This is really an opportunity for essentially the groups to come together to hear what the community has to say about quality-of-life issues and this site development as we make improvements," said Laura Womack, executive director of the fairgrounds.

► Nashville MLS owner: Scrapping fairgrounds stadium plan would cost city team

Community workshops kick off Thursday

Womack said the process will be aimed at "figuring out how this all works together and how we can be a very cohesive campus once all the improvements happen." It will also look to identify future uses of a private mixed-use development to be led by Nashville's MLS ownership group headed by John Ingram.

The fairgrounds has teamed with the Nashville Civic Design Center, which will facilitate the series of public meetings. It begins Thursday with a pair of "community visioning workshops" where neighbors and fairgrounds supporters can weigh in on what they want to see.

"It's not a blank-slate vision process. It's 'Here all of the components of the site that have to be there,'" said Gary Gaston, CEO of the Nashville Civic Design Center, adding that the design will need to identify access points and how to connect the site as a whole.

"I just think it's such an amazing opportunity for this site that has historically had so many different things happening," he said.

Recommendations for the site are to be unveiled May 29 at 6 p.m after other sessions next week where the public can watch planners work on the designs. There's also a May 25 workshop planned specifically for flea market vendors.

The community engagement process comes after the Metro Council voted in November to approve $225 million in revenue bonds for the $275 million stadium project, helping Nashville land a new MLS expansion franchise a month later.

► Soccer in Music City: Nashville lands MLS franchise

The new fairgrounds stadium is tentatively set to open in 2021 — but council votes to tear down aging fairgrounds buildings, finalize a lease agreement and re-zone the property for the mixed-use development still need to happen. Only then would bonds be issued for the stadium.

Representatives from the Metro planning and parks departments, Nashville Sports Authority, and the Nashville-based architecture firm Gobbell Hays Partners Inc. — which is leading designs of the stadium — will also take part.

Gobbell Hays recently replaced Commonwealth Development Group, led by Larry Atema, to lead design work related to the stadium.

"I am encouraged by the collaborative process underway to gain input and create a thoughtful and multi-use design for the fairgrounds site that will best serve the city," said Mayor David Briley, who has committed to seeing through the MLS stadium project, originally secured by former Mayor Megan Barry.

► More: Nashville council defeats proposal to rescind Major League Soccer stadium deal

'Consensus' sought for long-debated property

A new $6 million fairgrounds park and recreational soccer fields, funded by separate budgets, is scheduled to open this fall. On Monday, $1.6 million in upgrades for the speedway got underway. Both are part of $15 million in city funding that were earmarked for fairgrounds upgrades.

Although some in Nashville continue to debate the $275 million stadium and whether the fairgrounds is the best location for it, the meetings aren't designed as a forum for that discussion. Instead, the meetings assume the stadium will be built.

"There's no sugar-coating the fact that there's a lot of different opinions and there's lot of different inputs that we're going to hear from a lot of different entities that have a tie to the fairgrounds," Womack said.

Nevertheless, she said the goal is for "consensus" given what was approved in the fall.

The stadium is preliminary targeted to go on the fairgrounds' highest elevation west of the speedway. Initial renderings showed rebuilt expo facility and other fairgrounds facilities flanking the stadium to its north.

But now, at the request of the fair board, project leaders are exploring putting the future expo center and other fairgrounds facilities downhill north of the auto-racing speedway, where a parking had originally been planned.

"We've been taking a look at that, and it looks really promising from a number of standpoints," Womack said. "Operationally, it looks advantageous."

Fairgrounds meetings

Community visioning workshops — May 17, first session from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; second session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Objective: Collaborate with neighbors, stakeholders.

Open design studio — May 18 from 10 a.m. to noon; May 21 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Objective: Public to watch and provide input on planners working on fairgrounds designs.

Flea Market vendors-only workshop — May 25, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Workshop public presentation — May 29, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Objective: Discuss "project outcomes" and recommendations.

* The location of the community visioning workshops, open design studio and final presentation is the Creative Arts Building at the fairgrounds. The location of the vendors-only workshop is Fall-Hamilton Elementary School.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.