Fairview manager: City must ‘embrace residential growth’ to sustain services
Chris GaddWhen Scott Collins arrived to lead the City of Fairview nearly three years ago, he saw a city divided. Not just separated by Highway 100 and its estimated 15,000-vehicle daily traffic, but also about attracting more homes and residents.
“Fairview is very divided when it comes to residential growth,” said Collins, who has served as city manager since August 2016. “There is a component of the community that’s pro growth and understands you need it. There’s a component of the community that doesn’t want any growth and doesn’t want to be affected by growth.”
Outsiders and even Fairview’s 9,000 citizens may see a highly-trafficked “cut-through community” — as Collins describes the city’s current existence — that’s home to a Publix and Walmart built in the last eight years and assume homes are already popping up.
Collins said that’s not the case. And, he says that’s not only a problem for Fairview’s growth but also tenuous financial situation.
Collins said he’s “comfortable” with the upcoming budget year, starting July 1, which was approved by the Fairview Board of Commissioners this month.
However, he added that “cash flow is a concern” for the next two budget years, at least.
Briefly mentioning that budget numbers prior to his arrival were “not completely accurate,” Collins said it’s clear the current revenue trend for the city is “certainly not sustainable long term.”
“The primary way we can increase revenue is to embrace residential growth. We are going to have to embrace residential growth,” Collins said. “You don’t want to build houses for the sake of building houses. You also don’t want to turn down subdivisions for the sake of denying growth either.”
“If the city is going to grow or even sustain itself as it is today, welcoming smart growth is going to be important,” Collins added.
Highway traffic increase
Collins and Fairview city officials, with input from residents, in the last year have developed the Fairview Forward 2040 comprehensive plan that obviously provides criteria for smart growth but also suggests three “city center” locations. A Fairview center might reduce the cut-through community reputation that Collins has described.
Much of that traffic slicing through the city is on Highway 100, which the state is discussing widening as well as expanding the highway’s sidewalks near Bowie Park. Highway 100 connects to I-840, which connects to Interstate 40. Highway 96 from Dickson County is also highly trafficked.
“The belief is that Fairview should slow down its own growth because of all of the traffic and everything people see every day,” Collins said. “When in reality, Fairview is growing at a much slower pace than anywhere else in the region.”
“The regular resident doesn’t see that. They see that it takes them...longer to get home. Or they have to stop at two red lights,” Collins added.
Surrounding growth, outside shoppers
Collins looks around Fairview and sees a city being left behind. The city grew in population about 27 percent from just over 6,000 people in 2000 to more than 7,700 in the 2010 Census. Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 9,000 Fairview residents in 2020, which would be about a 16 percent increase.
From July 2016 to July 2017, Collins said Fairview received nearly $370,000 in building permit revenue. For the next 12 months, Collins projects about $150,000 in building permit revenue.
“Fairview’s growth dilemma is that there’s been a lot of growth around Fairview. Hickman County is growing like crazy. Dickson (County and city) and Burns (in Dickson County) are growing like crazy,” Collins said. “All of those areas put traffic through Fairview ever day.”
Of the estimated $125 million in retail sales that take place in Fairview annually, according to information Collins, about 75 percent of those sales are from shoppers who live outside Fairview.
“(Walmart and Publix) did not come here because the Fairview market supports the store. They moved here because Highway 100 traffic supports the store,” Collins said.
He said he arrived at the estimate using a quick calculation involving the following Fairview data: Number of households, median household income, and disposable income.
“If you do that quick calculation, that tells you that we can’t support those stores,” Collins said.
Collins and city officials also used a simple eyeball test to gauge the residence of Walmart shoppers. Every Thursday and Saturday, once a month during each quarter of a year, Collins said they counted every car and looked at the county on every license plate.
“Eighty percent of those vehicles were from a county other than Williamson County,” Collins said.
If no residential growth, what’s next?
Collins said if residential growth doesn’t take place, city officials will have to look at alternatives.
“No one wants a property tax increase,” said Collins, adding that’s one of the “obvious” ways to increase bump up revenues.
Further budget cuts are also possible, Collins indicated.
“Our number one expense is personnel,” he said. “We have reduced a significant number of personnel to adjust for the decrease in revenue.”
Specifically, since August last year, the information technology director, finance clerk, and city planner positions have been eliminated. Also, three public works positions have not been refilled. He said the 21-officer police department and 18-person fire department are both departments that won’t be reduced.
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