By KELLI HEWETT TAYLOR
Staff Writer

Cities see possibilities for cafes, dry cleaners

With Music City Star commuter rail-line construction set to begin in about five weeks, some local governments are zeroing in on details to personalize their local rail stations and maximize economic opportunities.

Six stations are set for the 32-mile commuter-rail line between downtown Nashville and Lebanon. Each is set to cost roughly $1 million-$1.5 million.

Scheduled to begin operation in late 2005, the nearly $40 million rail service will include Nashville stops at the downtown riverfront, Donelson and Hermitage; a Mt. Juliet stop; and the Martha community and Lebanon stops, both overseen by Lebanon.

”We want the towns to embrace the system and the stations, (and) make it something that adds value to their community,” said Allyson Shumate, rail projects coordinator for this first line, known as the East Corridor.

Officials in Nashville, Mt. Juliet and Lebanon are studying a mix of uses, many relying on private business investment, that could be incorporated into their station sites. Those uses include cafes, newsstands and personal services, such as dry-cleaning and video stores, that the cities would help make available.

”The commuter-rail station being in the core is a unique opportunity,” said Linda Elam, vice mayor of Mt. Juliet and head of a Planning Commission steering committee to explore linking the rail stop with new town center development at Mt. Juliet Road and Division Street. ”We need to plan for the growth that’s coming, not just react to it.”

Mt. Juliet’s population is projected to double to around 36,000 within 10 years, Elam said.

Outside Tennessee, other cities’ commuter-rail services, or the smaller version known as light rail, have experienced growth in residential development around the stations, experts say. Others have seen a spurt in retail and other business that relates to commuter convenience, including day-care centers, newsstands, dry cleaners and takeout food. Examples include San Diego and St. Louis.

The situation was different in late 2003, when The Tennessean visited the Connecticut commuter-rail line from New Haven to New London — an established system linking cities similar in size to Nashville and Lebanon.

Service to one small town on the line had been all but eliminated. A new, multimillion-dollar downtown station was next to several parking lots for riders and didn’t include even a newsstand. Parking lots and public housing surrounded the other established downtown New Haven station. Experts said Yale University commuters were in too much of a hurry to catch connecting buses to work to linger and shop.

Connecticut officials admitted the development was not effectively planned or designed with economic development in mind.

Middle Tennessee leaders see many more options by planning ahead.

Some Mt. Juliet leaders want to incorporate their rail station into a plan for the city’s first town center, or downtown area. They are considering combining it with property that now houses an old elementary school, as well as some privately owned property nearby.

”I am sure this is going to be a hard, hard sell,” said Mark Hinesley, president of the Mt. Juliet-West Wilson County Chamber of Commerce. ”As gas goes up and we have to pay more costs of environmental impact, it is going to be more attractive.”

Lebanon has similar ideas for its downtown station.

City leaders are hoping to strike a deal to use the area’s old woolen mill along the east side of North Greenwood Street. They think a rail station and more private businesses could boost the site, which includes meeting space and a pub. Plans are still developing for the Martha station, Baines said.

”We like the potential of the private-public partnership at the mill site,” said Jeff Baines, Lebanon’s commissioner of public works and a member of the community-rail organizers known as the East Corridor Oversight Committee. ”People could shop there, it would work great for dry cleaners, things like that.”

Baines said the city wasn’t expecting a major retail boost from such a plan, though.

”If we get an economic benefit, I think it’s almost an extra bonus.”

Nashville has given a lot of attention to its riverfront station. The original plans for a simple outdoor platform and canopy were scrapped, and the city is now looking at an enclosed station, possibly with shops and cafes.

Details are expected to be re-leased by the first of the year, said Diane Thorne, special assistant to Mayor Bill Purcell and a rail committee member.

Nashville also will oversee development of the Donelson and Hermitage stations.