The Percy Warner trail system is one of the most popular mountain bike trails in the Nashville, TN metro area, and it’s currently being threatened by a road development. A proposed access road to the Cheekwood Estate & Gardens would cut through a corner of the public Percy Warner Park and obliterate the two-mile Hookman Hill trail.
The problem
The historic Cheekwood Estate & Gardens dates back to the 1930s. The Cheek Mansion is now a museum, and the property contains an expansive botanic garden, an arboretum, and an events center. Even though the historic property is owned and run as a private business, Matthew Carver, president of SORBA Mid-TN, says Cheekwood still “has high social value in the community because of all of the programming that they provide. “
Over the years, the Cheekwood Estate has slowly been enveloped by residential housing development. Now, the increasing traffic to the Cheekwood Estate is putting pressure on the residential streets, prompting Cheekwood, in collaboration with the Nashville Planning Commission, to look at alternative ways to allow traffic to access the property from nearby Route 100 without passing through residential neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, the proposal put forth in the Belle Mead Highlands Mobility Study involves cutting a new access road through the corner of a public park and demolishing a mountain bike trail in the process.
The importance of Percy Warner Park and its mountain bike trails
Percy Warner Park was originally deeded to the city in 1926 and, for almost 100 years, has served as a popular escape from the city’s hustle and bustle — an escape that’s all the more necessary due to Nashville’s growth over the last century. SORBA Mid-TN lobbied for years to build trails in the 2,058-acre park, culminating in eight miles of singletrack.
Over the past 12-15 years, those eight miles of singletrack have become some of the most popular mountain bike trails in the Nashville Metro Area. While the trails are heavily used by the general population, Percy Warner, in particular, is a favorite training ground for the NICA youth race teams.
While SORBA Mid-TN manages 14 trail systems totaling 140 miles of singletrack in the greater Nashville area, all of the trail systems are separated from each other. “You have to literally drive to get to each one of our 14 trails. None of them connect. We are a very spread out city,” said Carver. “Every single one of our trails is a travel-to spot.”
This means that while there may be other trails in the region, if this new road development impacts the Percy Warner trails, it will have an outsize negative impact on local residents who don’t have easy access to any other trails.
This is about more than MTB trails — it’s about public lands
Carver emphasized that while mountain bikers are concerned about “our path in the woods,” this issue is about much more than just mountain bike trails — it’s about public lands.
“From my perspective and where I stand, I think the issue is larger than just us losing a two-mile section of trail in the woods,” said Carver. “It really goes down to the philosophy that private entities should not have rights or access to take over public lands. This is essentially a public land issue.”
“Private entities should not have rights or access to take over public lands.”
While Cheekwood might provide a great deal of social value to the community, at the end of the day, it is still a private, for-profit business. While local residents do want to see the traffic issue resolved, many local groups are mobilizing against this proposal to protect a hundred-year-old park. To oppose the road construction, SORBA is joining forces with other parties, such as the Friends of Percy Warner Parks, other advocacy and environmental groups, and the park itself, which does not want to give up its property.
“Once that land is gone, you do not get it back,” said Carver. “Again, going back to the principle of private entities taking over public property, it starts somewhere, right? And sets a precedent.”
Alternate options and next steps
The only alternative that would allow Cheekwood to create a new road to access the estate would involve acquiring private residences and bulldozing several houses to create access to Route 100. In the Belle Mead Highlands Mobility Study presentations, the only route presented on a map as an option was the route through Percy Warner Park.
All the aforementioned groups are working to make their voices heard in every public forum and meeting about the Belle Mead Highlands Mobility Study, but at this time, the Nashville Department of Transportation (NDOT) has the ball in its court. The NDOT must conduct an assessment to determine the feasibility of adding another road in that location off the main artery and carving the access road through Hookman Hill, one of the highest gradients in Percy Warner Park.
It’s possible that the connection through Percy Warner Park will be deemed infeasible, and even if it is feasible, local groups can rally enough opposition to stop the project.
“How I feel at this point — it is 50/50 right now,” said Carver. “It is hard to get a bead on how people are thinking. I think it’s still early in the game here.”
If you’re an area resident who wants to get involved, contact SORBA Mid-TN or the Friends of Percy Warner Parks and consider signing this Change.org petition.
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