Robertson's Growth Paced to Nashville's

Towns challenged to keep up in providing infrastructure

by Leon Alligood
Staff writer for The Tennessean

March 24, 2001

The town of White House celebrates its 30th birthday this month.

If Mayor Billy Hobbs plans to serve birthday cake, he should start baking. As the 2000 census data indicate, it will take a very large cake to feed the town's 7,220 residents, which represents a 141.7% growth increase over the town's 1990 census data.

The town straddles the border of Sumner and Robertson counties, and it is unclear at this point how much of that population is in each county.

But like many others in Robertson County, where the population grew to 54,433, a 31.2% increase in the past decade, Hobbs wasn't surprised that White House and surrounding towns had been "discovered."

We realized years ago that because of our location on I-65, 24 miles north of Nashville, that we had to do some important planning. Growth is not bad, but it can be disastrous if it's not controlled. We think we've done a pretty good job of staying ahead," Hobbs said.

"That's the real challenge, trying to stay ahead of the game," added Paul Nutting, city manager for the city of Springfield.

The hardest problem, Nutting acknowledged, is making sure the costs of new development are recouped.

To that end the state legislature recently amended the city's charter so the city council can levy impact fees and capacity fees on new growth.

"If we're going to continue to have the growth, and we will, then we're going to need some way to get the money to help fund all the infrastructure that's needed," he said.

County Executive Roy Apple said he plans no policy changes as a result of the 2000 census data.

"Some new growth pays for itself and some doesn't. We just hope we continue to see a mix of growth-- residential, commercial and industrial-- so we can keep a balance," he said.

Greenbrier Mayor Ronnie Osborne, whose town grew by 71.9%, said his town's future depends on enlarging its commercial base.

"We need more retail to improve our (sales tax) income. We have too many people living here, but doing their working and their shopping outside of Greenbrier. We'd like for them to shop in town," said Osborne, who took office last September.

"But we're not struggling. I think we've got a good handle on it at the moment, even though I admit there's been a lack of planning in the past."

Osborne noted the signs of growth are prevalent not only in the increased traffic and new subdivisions but in municipal projects. We're building a new municipal safety building now and a new animal control building, plus we've increased the capacity of our sewer lines by 75%," he said.

Only Coopertown, the county's youngest incorporated town, disputed the census data. The town, incorporated in 1996, has 3,027 residents, according to the 2000 numbers.

"I really expected the numbers to be higher," said Elsa Spiller, city recorder.

In 1999, Spiller said the city counted 3,115 in a special census. "Since then we've had 100 homes built, so we should have grown even more," she maintained.
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