MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Hundreds gathered recently on the Middle Tennessee State University campus to discuss the Midstate region’s ongoing growth explosion, the challenges it raises and possible solutions to maintain and even improve the quality of life for current residents and the thousands that relocate here each year.
Held inside the James Union Building Tennessee Ballroom, MTSU hosted its annual Forum on Growth and Regional Challenges featuring a keynote address from the head of Nashville’s airport, a review of data analyzing the growth trends in the area, and a panel of area mayors discussing how those trends pose vexing challenges to local governments and infrastructure amid urban sprawl.
The forum luncheon was again moderated by David Plazas, award-winning columnist from USA TODAY and the Tennessean, and included keynote remarks from Doug Kreulen, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, which is responsible for the Nashville International Airport.
Kreulen was followed by a presentation on regional growth trends by Michael Skipper, executive director of the Greater Nashville Regional Council and lead facilitator/advisor for the Middle Tennessee Mayors Caucus. Skipper also participated in the concluding mayoral forum featuring Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown, Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto and Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder.
‘Companies chase talent’ in Midstate
In welcoming the crowd to campus, MTSU Provost Mark Byrnes touted the work of forum co-host and organizers, Business and Economic Research Center and the Jennings and Rebecca Jones Chair of Excellence in Regional and Urban Planning, both led by Murat Arik as director and chairholder respectively and focusing on the many aspects of growth in the state and region from job growth to workforce development and affordable housing to transportation.
Byrnes emphasized the importance of holding such public conversations about such issues in an ever changing Middle Tennessee region, noting the explosive growth of Murfreesboro during his lifetime.
“The topic of today’s conversation is obviously an important one. The word ‘transformative’ gets thrown around a lot, but the growth that we’ve experienced and continue to experience, clearly being transformative,” Byrnes said.
“I know something about it. For 60 of my 64 years, I’ve lived in Murfreesboro. When my family and I moved here in the early 1960s, Murfreesboro was a sleepy little town of fewer than 20,000 people. Today, I’m not sure we know how many people live in Murfreesboro, I think we’re doing a special census, but it’s north of 170,000. And so just to witness that growth has been phenomenal.”
And that growth is expected to continue. Stephanie Coleman, president of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce representing 10 counties in the region, told the audience that the Midstate’s population is expected to grow by another 300,000 people over the next decade as it continues to attract business and industry, just last year accounting for 33,000 or nearly 58% of the 57,000 new jobs created statewide.
“Companies chase talent, and talent is choosing our communities because of our strong economy, because of our quality of life and our lower cost of living,” she said, noting MTSU’s partnership with the chamber and others in the five-year, $7 million News Skills Ready Nashville initiative “ensuring access to opportunity through education, reskilling, upskilling and career connected learning.”
Alan Thompson, chief marketing officer at civil engineering firm RaganSmith in Nashville and board chair for event partner Cumberland Region Tomorrow, said the nonprofit, celebrating its 25th year, is committed to working on solutions to regional issues.
“That’s our main role, to make sure we’re coming together as a region, that we’re talking about the big topics people are struggling with and working as a team of multiple counties,” he said.
Nashville airport flying high
Kreulen gave a detailed presentation about the Nashville airport, better known as BNA, outlining the rapid increase in passenger traffic as well as a summary of current and future development for the major transportation hub.
Kreulen pointed out the impact of the decision by Southwest Airlines to significantly expand its presence at BNA, an example of the continued growth among the 19 airlines overall that use the airport, he said.
“Our biggest challenge, as everybody continues to grow, is we’re doubling every 10 years,” said Kreulen, noting that BNA has gone from an average of roughly 70,000 passengers daily (up to 100,000 during busy periods), compared to 31,000 a decade ago, and 800 aircraft coming in and out daily.
The airport is preparing for future growth, with plans to be able to handle 40 million passengers a year by 2028 (expected passenger traffic up to 28 million annually by then), and a budget of $4.5 billion for infrastructure improvements to meet these demands.
The infrastructure project, called New Horizon, includes two phases, with the first one including $1.6 billion on airside improvements, and a second phase that will address landside improvements, including working with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to widen and improve roadways surrounding the airport so that BNA can improve traffic flow and expand the access road “loop” that passengers use at the airport for drop-offs, rental cars and parking.
Part of the first phase on New Horizon is Concourse D, which will open in early July 8 and will feature new amenities, five gates, and the extension for Southwest Airlines’ crew base that increases the number of pilots and flight attendants in Tennessee. The concourse will also including the airport’s first outdoor lounge with a martini bar, Kreulen said, adding that the airport will also invest hundreds of millions of dollars to increase its capacity to properly handle baggage as passenger counts increase.
Kreulen said the growth trends indicate the airport should prepare for 70 million passengers a year over the next decade, including the need to build a second terminal on airport property to meet that demand.
“If you don’t do anything now, which it takes about 10 years to build a new terminal, you’re going to regret it somewhere down the road,” he said.
The airport is also considering the need for additional runways to accommodate longer flights to Asia and other international destinations. In addition, BNA is working with the airlines to increase nonstop flights to meet the growing demand from surrounding counties.
Livability requires quality local services
Before the mayor’s panel, Skipper discussed the regional growth forecasts to 2050, highlighting the expected Tennessee population increase from 7 million to over 8 million residents, with 64% of state growth occurring in Middle Tennessee.
He emphasized the challenges of housing affordability, with average home prices now six times the median income, and the need for streamlined land development regulations. Additionally, he noted the significant loss of farmland, increased traffic congestion, and rising traffic fatalities.
Skipper concluded by stressing the importance of regional collaboration to address these issues so that the region’s development doesn’t find itself increasingly sprawled out and overly suburban like Atlanta.
Plazas asked the mayors and Skipper a series of questions about the growth challenges facing their communities and the region as whole.
QUESTION: How do each of you define livability and what does that look like in practice in the communities you work with?
Molder, mayor of Columbia, whose parents are MTSU alumni: “Livability is really impacted by the quality of services that a county or municipality can provide. And the quality of services are impacted by the quality of the people that you hire to conduct those services. … You want those services to be top notch and sophisticated and well done because those services have an impact on the quality of life and the quality of life has an impact on livability as a whole.”
Hutto, Wilson County mayor, an MTSU alumnus: He said it’s a challenge for mayors to balance the quality of services with the amount of tax revenue a municipality is permitted to collect by its residents.
“As citizens they want good things … I can only provide what they allow me to have and most of what we hear today is ‘please don’t tax me, but I want everything you can give me.’ … People go to school, they go to work, but when they get home and spend time with their family is what I think is probably most important.”
Hutto complemented Arik for helping the county develop a business plan that led to the construction of an expo center allowing for the county to host large events, a key aspect in the quality of life.
Brown, mayor of Gallatin: “I think livability is very dynamic and very individual. … You look at what we retains the people, what keeps people wanting to remain in your community. Because I don’t think people really have a sense of our services until they actually experience it, so they’re likely to leave if they don’t consider it a good quality of life after a period of time.”
Skipper noted that it’s important for communities to consider the perspectives of the residents who’ve lived in a community for decades and making sure that they’re needs are considered as well.
Planning, collaboration critical to maintain good livability
QUESTION: As Middle Tennessee continues to grow, what do you see as the biggest barriers to maintaining and improving livability? How are these challenges shaping the way your communities or organizations plan for the future?
Hutto: With Wilson County’s educational system continuing to attract new residents, the county is working with the Greater Nashville Regional Council on a land use plan, and what officials are hearing from residents is they’d like to see “nothing” next to their homes and neighborhoods.
“But we know things are going to grow. … What we try to do is put things in the proper perspective. … Wilson County is still 74% open space right now, which we value the best of both worlds,” he said, referring to the combination of bustling cities like Mt. Juliet, hometown feeling areas like Lebanon, and more rural areas.
Brown: “I think if ask most people in our communities, they would characterize it as affordability and congestion,” she said.
Brown added that the conversations around planning need to pivot to longer-term outlooks that prioritize “smart growth” rather than putting the brakes on an exploding region.
“There’s this ongoing idea that we can just close the doors and stop the growth. And that is how you lose your livability, because you lose the retention of the people who really want to be there, who had generations of families before them,” she said.
Molder: “One is we have to make sure we are collaborating, rather that be locally between cities and counties … and there’s also the saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. … One of the barriers out there is that if we’re not planning for the future, we’re not going to be able to handle the growth.”
Molder referenced Kreulen’s earlier presentation about airport growth and BNA’s extensive plan to handle it, as well as the plans of previous Columbia officials to handle its “exponential growth” in recent years.
“They’re not just looking at the problems of today, they’re looking out to the problems that are five, 10, 15 years down the road. … We have to make sure that we’re planning like our forefathers did, so that 40 years when a 40-year-old mayor is on the stage talking to a group about growth, that mayor can also say that the forefathers prepared them for the moment that they’re in.”
Skipper also noted that another barrier is a loss of patience by citizens to see these long-term plans come to fruition. “I think forums like this remind people of the work that’s happening and showcases some of the wins along the way,” he said.
Transportation, affordability remain thorny challenges
Like last year, the mayors’ panel also addressed the ongoing traffic and transportation issues in region, with policy suggestions ranging from expanded rail access, to a potential real estate transfer tax to bolster transportation infrastructure, to choice lanes on major thoroughfares like Interstate 24 paid through toll revenue, to major investment in rapid transit.
Brown lamented that the state tends to always be “10, 15, maybe 20 years behind what is needed” but finding the funding to address those needs have been elusive.
Skipper suggested the region think very differently about a problem that has existed for decades and continues to frustrate long-time and new residents alike.
“If we think that widening roads is going to eliminate that from our experience, we’re just mistaken because you’re just going to have more people experiencing that with you,” he said.
One possibility is “targeted borrowing” at the state level to get ahead of transportation infrastructure needs for the future rather than constantly playing catch up as the problem worsens.
“If you want to improve your experience, we need more high capacity rapid transit that doesn’t have to sit in congestion,” he said, adding that choice lanes on the interstate is a component of such a strategy.
The panel wrapped up discussing the increasing challenge surrounding affordable housing and making sure young professionals have access to such housing by removing the stigmas and resistance surrounding multifamily housing such as townhomes and apartments.
“I think we really have to ask those questions and vet those leaders who are going to take us to the future,” Brown said.
Event organizer Arik wrapped up the event asking attendees to use a QR code to share their ideas about a preferred topic for next year’s event, which is already scheduled for Friday, March 20, 2026.
“Growth is the buzz word, but with growth you are bound to have many challenges,” Arik said. “We need to need to come together, discuss, coordinate and plan ahead.”
Partner organizations for the forum were the nonprofit Cumberland Region Tomorrow and the Greater Nashville Regional Council. Sponsors include the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, Ascend Federal Credit Union, Wilson Bank and Trust, and the Maury County Chamber and Economic Alliance.
— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)
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