Joey Garrison

jgarrison@tennessean.com

A dozen Metro Council members have said no thanks to an offer from Mayor Megan Barry to bring more city services into their neighborhoods in exchange for a higher property tax rate.

Their decisions have significantly cut the size of a preliminary proposal unveiled in August by Metro planners to increase Davidson County’s Urban Services District by 63,379 acres via expansion into multiple suburban neighborhoods.

Yanked from the proposal is the entire portion of Bellevue that would have been added, all of the affected Old Hickory and Hermitage areas, and large parts of Donelson and South Nashville that had been identified for USD expansion.

In all, only 13,604 acres remain in an updated expansion plan — just one-fifth of the acreage originally identified.

The mayor’s office — which had billed the initial draft as simply a way to let council members decide whether USD expansion was right for them — gave the 20 members whose districts would be affected until Monday to say whether they want to pass or include their districts or opt on. The plan is to follow the will of each council member.

Joining the USD would bring areas that are currently classified in the General Services District new city services such as trash pick-up, curbside recycling, street lights and the ability to open liquor stores. But the USD also comes with a higher property tax rate of $4.516 per $100 of assessed value, compared to $3.924 per $100 of assessed value in the GSD.

Councilman Larry Hagar, who represents parts of Old Hickory and Hermitage, opted his district out of the expansion. He said only one couple at a community meeting of around 120 attendees that he hosted last month said they supported the change.

He said that his constituents prefer paying private companies for trash and recycling pick-up, and he noted that residents in homeowners associations already pay fees for street lights and roads.

“USD versus GSD, when you put the pencil to it and you figure out the economics of it, it didn’t benefit them that much,” he said.

“Right now, my people just don’t want it. I’m going to do what they want.”

Although 12 council members chose to pass on the expansion, five council members decided to opt in the entire portions of targeted properties in their districts in the expansion — however, some of these council members had very few targeted areas.

Another three council members chose to remove large chunks of their districts that had been identified for the USD but keep some small portions. For example, Councilwoman Holly Huezo of the Percy Priest Lake area left only properties on one cul-de-sac of her district.

Metro planners intend to draft a new USD expansion proposal based on the responses of council members that will be considered by the planning commission on Oct 13.

The council would then take up the proposal, which can still be tweaked further even after it goes through the planning commission.

Barry has said that she explored USD expansion options to be responsive to requests from some council members.

“We appreciate all of the council members, Metro employees, and community members who met over the last month to discuss the benefits of inclusion in the Urban Services District,” Barry said in a statement. “Now, we have a more refined list of those areas whose residents have expressed interest in joining the USD. We look forward to more public input and discussion at the planning commission and the Metro Council.”

Under the proposal, someone owning a home valued at $300,000 in one of the general service areas would pay another $444 per year in property taxes if they were to join the USD. But Metro planners say that residents in general service areas already pay an average of $324 annually in private trash collection, meaning the net increase under this scenario would only be $120 per year.

The creation of two different property tax rates goes back to the consolidation of Metro government in 1963. The USD included the former city of Nashville, while people in previously unincorporated parts of the old county government were assessed the lower GSD tax rate.

During Metro’s inception, the USD rate was meant to also cover extra police and fire protection in the more urban parts of Nashville as well as water, sanitary and sewer coverage in addition to other services. But Metro planners have noted that the GSD has over time grown to receive police, fire and other services yet its residents still pay the lower taxes.

Metro Planning Director Doug Sloan has said residents in the USD have effectively subsidized services in the GSD and that expanding the USD is a way to “fix an inequity.”

Councilwoman Nancy VanReece, who represents parts of Madison, Inglewood and Maplewood, is among those who have opted their entire districts into expansion. The Inglewood portion of her district is already in the USD. She said she had been discussing the idea with her constituents for more than one year, adding that around 80 percent of her Madison constituents were in favor of joining.

“It wasn’t necessarily a new conversation,” she said. “It’s clear to me that it’s the right direction to go.

“It has everything to do with to making sure that all of Madison is part of the Nashville story,” she said. “I’m finding overwhelmingly that it’s not about trash (services), it’s about making sure that street lights are put in the right places, and it’s about public safety and participating in the countywide government in the appropriate way.”

But other council members have said they were caught off guard by the administration in August when they saw their districts included in the proposed USD expansion.

"There was no way to discuss it or figure out what we wanted to do because they threw it on us without us knowing it," said Councilman Steve Glover of Hermitage, who opted his district out. "And then they threw the deadline on us without us knowing it. So, if I have to make a decision, I'm going to have to say no."

VanReece is joined by only Council members Bill Pridemore, also of Madison, Anthony Davis of East Nashville Inglewood, Jeff Syracuse of Donelson and Brenda Haywood of Whites Creek as the only council members who have opted in the entire portions of their districts targeted in the USD expansion. The latter three council members, though, had only small slivers of acreage identified in the initial proposal.

Proposed Urban Services District expansion

Council members who passed:

District 1: Nick Leonardo, Bordeaux/Joelton

District 4: Robert Swope, South Davidson County

District 10: Doug Pardue, Goodlettsville area

District 11: Larry Hager, Old Hickory and Hermitage

District 12: Steve Glover, Hermitage

District 22: Sheri Weiner, Bellevue

District 23: Mina Johnson, Belle Meade area

District 29: Karen Johnson, Southeast Nashville/Antioch

District 32: Jacobia Dowell, Southeast Nashville/Antioch

District 33: Sam Coleman, Southeast Nashville/Antioch

District 34: Angie Henderson, Forest Hills area

District 35: Dave Rosenberg, Bellevue

Council members who opted in part of their district, but eliminated substantial acreage:

District 13: Holly Huezo, Percy Priest Lake are (A few properties at end of Percy Priest Drive).

District 14: Kevin Rhoten (A portion on McCrory Creek Road and one other area).

District 31: Fabian Bedne

Council members who opted in to the USD expansion

District 3: Brenda Haywood, Whites Creek

District 7: Anthony Davis, Inglewood/East Nashville

District 8: Nancy VanReece, Madison, Inglewood, Maplewood

District 9: Bill Pridemore, parts of Madison

District 15: Jeff Syracuse, Donelson

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.