SAVE CHEEKWOOD: Say NO to the Radical Effort to Shut Down Nashville’s Beloved Historic Landmark

For 66 years, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens has been a sanctuary of art, culture, and nature for families, students, and visitors across Tennessee and the world.

Now, a group of neighbors, led by Jackson Moore, is trying to strip this public treasure away from our community. A formal legal appeal has been filed with the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals demanding that the city issue a Stop Work Order to halt ALL further public use of Cheekwood's property.  This group has chosen to rely on blatant misrepresentations about Cheekwood to pit the community against it. This includes claiming the institution is expanding parking capacity when it is in fact reducing it; and alleging Cheekwood opposes the creation of a shared-use Highway 100 access drive to help alleviate local congestion, when, in fact, it supports the project.

If this group succeeds, Cheekwood as we know it will be forced to close its gates. This means an end to free school field trips for thousands of children, the cancellation of beloved traditions like Holiday LIGHTS and Cheekwood in Bloom, and stopping a city-mandated on-site parking facility designed to end Cheekwood’s reliance on Metro Parks land for overflow parking.

We, the undersigned citizens, members, and supporters of Cheekwood, call upon the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals and our city leaders to soundly reject this self-serving, radical overreach. Cheekwood belongs to all of Nashville, not an exclusive few.

Protect our history, protect our culture, and SAVE CHEEKWOOD.

Setting the Record Straight: What the Opposition Claims (Fiction) vs. The Actual Reality (Fact)

• FICTION: "We are not trying to shut Cheekwood down."
• FACT: The opposition's legal filing explicitly asks the city to halt all public operations and events at Cheekwood. It is an existential attack on the institution.
• FICTION: "Cheekwood is acting illegally and violating city rules."
• FACT: The parking facility is explicitly required by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Metro Nashville. Cheekwood is following the law.
• FICTION: "Cheekwood is building a massive garage to expand crowds."
• FACT: The new project actually reduces Cheekwood's overall visitor parking spaces from 810 down to 750 and eliminates our reliance on Metro Parks land for parking.
• FICTION: “Cheekwood has not engaged with its neighborhood.”
• FACT: Cheekwood has always and continues to engage with the individuals and communities surrounding it in order to be a good neighbor. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Neighbors receiving regular communications with updates on programming, construction and other developments.
  • A full-time staff member at Cheekwood who is dedicated to serving as a neighborhood liaison
  • When the Metro-mandated parking facility was first being planned, Cheekwood relocated it from its original site at additional expense, in order to better accommodate neighbors.

• FICTION: "Traffic to Cheekwood is causing gridlocks in the neighborhood.”
• FACT: Traffic has increased in our neighborhood for numerous reasons, including the fact that Nashville is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Warner Parks attracts 1.5 million visitors alone. Cheekwood has proactively reduced its visitor attendance by 15% over the past 5 years (435,000 in 2021 to 370,000 in 2025) and has addressed local traffic concerns by implementing timed ticketing for entry, rideshare discount programs, remote parking & shuttle services for peak event weekends, parking fees for non-members, and additional bike racks.
• FICTION: “Cheekwood opposes a Highway 100 access road.”
• FACT: Cheekwood supports a shared-use Highway 100 access road, as voted for study by the Metro Planning Commission.  The Nashville Department of Transportation (NDOT) is the sole agency in determining where roads go, and constructing them, per Metro Charter Section 8.402.