MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) — Murfreesboro city leaders are inviting residents to learn more about their plans for growth in the Blackman community, located in the fast-growing area west of Interstate 24.
“Over the past, I would say, 15 years, maybe a little bit longer, about 75% of our new residential growth has been west of I-24 and a lot of that has been focused in the Blackman community, as well as the New Salem highway corridor and some along South Church Street,” said City of Murfreesboro Assistant Manager Sam Huddleston. “Now, we believe that more than half of our population is located west of I 24 providing services into that communities is a needed thing.”
Huddleston explained that city leaders work to plan for growth but that takes time… and the veterans park project is a prime example.
“To the naked eye, you may not always see the results of that planning and work that we do on the front end, but we do spend a good bit of our time, and have for the past couple decades, trying to plan for and address growth and growth and development in in the area,” said Huddleston. “I think we have a good handle on a lot of the needs, then it becomes an effort of managing the priorities and financing. And with any growing community, you know, coming up with the dollars to respond to that is one of, one of the big challenges.”
Tuesday’s town hall meeting is at the Blackman United Methodist Church on Manson Pike starting at 6 p.m. The mayor and other senior staff will be there to take questions and update projects relating to parks, roads and public safety.
“The Blackman area has is a really nicely situated close to Murfreesboro, close to 840 and close to the interstate. So it’s a very attractive neighborhood, very attractive community, for folks who want to be close to those city services and as well as close to those transportation facilities,” said Huddleston. “The time it takes from the initiation of a thought of a project, actually getting to the point of building something. And in our case, and in most communities cases, that can take several years of planning and design and and budgeting to get to the point where we can actually start a construction project and and for the Blackman community, the last few weeks at the city council meetings have been very productive for getting Some of those projects off the ground.”
Murfreesboro city council recently approved construction contracts for parks, roads, and public safety improvements, including, veterans park, Old Fort Park, the Blackman-Manson-Burnt Knob intersection improvements, and Real Time Crime Center.
