![The shaded portion of the aerial map shows the 258.8-acre portion of land adjacent to Northwest Broad Street the Murfreesboro Planning Commission approved for annexation and rezoning. This land is to be used for the Legacy Sports and Entertainment Park.](https://mainstreetmediatn.demo.our-hometown.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2022-02-07/c34c212d5e78036319961d7fe0980bbb-251x300.png)
The shaded portion of the aerial map shows the 258.8-acre portion of land adjacent to Northwest Broad Street the Murfreesboro Planning Commission approved for annexation and rezoning. This land is to be used for the Legacy Sports and Entertainment Park.
The Murfreesboro Planning Commission voted 6-0 last Wednesday to approve the annexation and zoning requests for the new Legacy Sports and Entertainment Park.
The commission voted on two separate motions to approve the annexation and commercial zoning request to return before the city council for final approval.
At the commission’s public hearing, only three residents from the neighboring Riverbend and Oakleigh subdivisions spoke about possible increased traffic, noise and light that could be byproducts of the 258.8-acre development that runs along Northwest Broad Street.
Nancy Miller, who said she is a longtime Murfreesboro resident and Riverbend homeowner, said the four-lane roadway can hardly handle the daily rush hour traffic.
“I’ve been here long enough to know that it presents a danger to our property values,” she said. “I was also here when 840 was built, and I know that we have the probability of possible structural issues when blasting and so forth take place.”
Project Planner Marina Rush said the annexation alone would not be a cause for additional traffic as the site plan has not yet been presented. Legacy would also be required to abide by the city’s existing noise and light ordinances.
SEC Engineer Matt Taylor said an effort is being made to keep the arena oriented away from the surrounding residential areas and toward Northwest Broad.
“The things along the river that are going to be closer to the residents are the quieter facilities, such as the fields themselves,” said Taylor. “So, we are not trying to throw concerts back there, you know, pump out loud music back there.”
The river and trees at the property line would also serve as noise buffers, he said.
Riverbend resident Doug Hutchins said he is concerned about possible flooding that could occur for homeowners living along the Stones River. He said “several acres” of the Hord property have flooded.
Dr. Steven Thomas, who said he lives on the Oakleigh property, said his family didn’t purchase their home with the intention that it would be living 200 yards from an event-based facility that could become a “nuisance” rather than an economic advantage.
“I don’t really see how it is a huge benefit to the city. It’ll add some minimum wage jobs that are there. It’ll draw in travel baseball teams, which will congest our roads and restaurants and all that sort of thing at night,” he said.
LEDs, which can be found at many of the city’s athletic fields, will be used to direct light onto the field and away from neighbors, according to Rush. She said no complaints have arisen from residents on light spillage with the usage of these field lights.
To address flooding concerns, Taylor said that neighbors have the advantage of not being downstream to the development.
“Their water is actually going to flow onto us, not the other way around, so I think there’s something to be said for that,” said Taylor, who said he recently visited the subdivision to walk through areas of concern with homeowners.
He said the development must also meet the city’s stormwater ordinance, which would prevent the development from causing more flooding than it currently experiences. Water will likely be collected in stormwater detentions and slowly released over time.
“Essentially, if there’s only three buckets of water being dumped on your property today, we can only dump three buckets of water in the future,” he said.
Attorney Bricke Murfree, who helped guide the Hord family through the property sale, said he recently purchased a home in one of the subdivisions knowing that the development is coming. He said he is optimistic at what it’ll bring to the community with the regulations the city plans to uphold.
Planning Direct Greg McKnight announced a schedule change for the upcoming combined meeting between the commission and city council to discuss the Future Land Use Map. The workshop will be scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 16, followed by a regular planning commission day meeting.
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