Church Street Park – across from the Main Library downtown – needs to be redesigned so everyone can use and enjoy it.

Right now, the park is in danger of being replaced by a 65-story condo tower with no parking if a swap proposal between Metro and a private developer, produced without public input, is successful.

The city wants to swap Church Street Park for a lesser valued lot located between six lanes of traffic, across from the jail and Public Square Park, to enable a private developer to build what would be the tallest building in Nashville, directly across from the Main Library.

This would drastically alter this block of historic Church Street where women famously marched for the right to vote up Anne Dallas Dudley Boulevard and civil rights leaders staged sit-ins at the lunch counter of Harvey’s department store.

Several civic partners have offered new design solutions that should be considered.

The Nashville Civic Design Center did a three-part series on what the park could be with the appropriate redesign:  https://www.civicdesigncenter.org/news/2018/12/05/dreaming-big-for-public-space.3375039.

When we lose park land, we lose it for good.

And we’re in danger of losing this space without public input. 

Imagine a park everyone could enjoy directly across from the jewel of our library system.

We are dedicated to an open and transparent process to redesign and update Church Street Park so it stays a park and becomes a space everyone can use.