{"id":23504,"date":"2025-07-29T22:43:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T22:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/?p=23504"},"modified":"2025-07-30T13:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T13:15:08","slug":"santa-fe-realtors-promote-diverse-housing-options-in-housing-strapped-region-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2-3-2-4-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-2-3-2-2-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/homepage\/success-story\/mtar-sg0825","title":{"rendered":"Middle Tennessee Association of REALTORS\u00ae Uses Smart Growth Grant to Host Community Roundtable on Housing and Zoning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Although Rutherford County, in central Tennessee, is the fastest growing county in the state, much of the public and many people charged with creating its Comprehensive Plan didn\u2019t have a firm grasp on key matters of zoning.\u00a0 To address this knowledge gap, the Middle Tennessee Association of REALTORS\u00ae <\/sup>hosted an informative roundtable last September, the day before it presented NAR\u2019s Planning & Zoning class<\/a> for its members.\u00a0 The event brought elected officials and the public together to explore local growth challenges and opportunities; a Smart Growth Grant from the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party helped make it possible.<\/p>\n

AE Ashley Sugar explains that the goal of the Housing & Zoning Roundtable was to get elected officials at various levels to engage in dialogue with REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> and other local stakeholders on the subject of increasing the county\u2019s housing options; it was also an attempt to diffuse some prickly political tension that had been getting in the way of constructive communication.\u00a0 The event was, she reports, a tremendous success: \u201cOver seventy people attended, and the panel included a state legislator, a mayor, three county commissioners, one city council member who is also a REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup>, and two homebuilders.\u201d\u00a0 Just getting the officials in the room was a triumph, she says, as political relations within the community had been so strained.\u00a0 \u201cBut they loved it, and clearly appreciated the high-profile public platform with an influential group like the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> \u2013 especially those who were running for re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felita Smotherman, the association\u2019s 2024 President, presided over the program, posing questions the panelists had received in advance about the housing shortage, zoning and planning, and infrastructure.\u00a0 From \u201cHow do impact fees affect development?\u201d to \u201cWhat do you think of alternative wastewater systems?\u201d to \u201cAdaptive reuse is becoming more popular; are there places in our community that could benefit from this practice?\u201d to \u201cWhat steps can we take today to ensure we have the proper infrastructure for the future as our region grows and expands?\u201d \u2013 the questions and the answers were thought-provoking and revelatory.\u00a0 \u201cThe dialogue was robust and productive, and I think the relaxed roundtable format really helped,\u201d notes Sugar.<\/p>\n

The following day, more than fifty people attended the \u2018Planning & Zoning: Advocating for Your Community\u2019s Future\u2019 course, developed by NAR and taught by a REALTOR member with a background in new home construction.\u00a0 \u201cMore than ever, as we move to greater housing growth and development, this content is so important,\u201d says Sugar, \u201cespecially as communities encounter entrenched NIMBYism and seek to increase investment in infrastructure.\u00a0 Rutherford County is still in the process of finalizing its Comprehensive Plan, but a lot of folks didn\u2019t understand the nitty gritty of zoning issues, and some of these can be contentious.\u00a0 The course provided so many Rutherford County residents and real estate professionals with a baseline understanding of growth issues and knowledge of the terminology that gets thrown around.\u00a0 In a single day, it brought everyone onto the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the roundtable was nearly a year ago, Sugar and her colleagues still discuss it as a model.\u00a0 \u201cFolks are still reflecting on how successful it was in bringing people together at a fraught time over contested issues.\u00a0 And while we can\u2019t offer the Planning & Zoning course every year, we are looking into replicating the roundtable event in two more of the larger counties we represent.\u00a0 It was that effective!\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about how the Middle Tennessee Association of REALTORS\u00ae <\/sup>is smoothing the path for needed housing development in its region, contact AE Ashley Sugar, at ashley@mtar.org or 209.996.0936.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Middle Tennessee Association of REALTORS\u00ae expanded the power of NAR\u2019s Planning & Zoning course by engaging elected officials and community members in a roundtable event the day before. The informative dialogue about growth, infrastructure, and zoning issues helped to facilitate communication and get stakeholders on the same page as the county\u2019s Comprehensive Plan took shape.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[1863,344,353,588],"class_list":["post-23504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-middle-tennessee","tag-smart-growth","tag-smart-growth-action-grant","tag-tennessee"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23504"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23516,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions\/23516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}