NFL Draft organizers worked directly with the Nashville Mayor’s Office for months to get approval on event plans, Metro Parks officials confirmed Tuesday — and they filed a permit application with the administration in January.

The plans, which included removing cherry trees along Riverfront Park, never came before the parks board, which Metro Parks Director Monique Odom said was an “oversight.”

Odom told the Metro Nashville Council’s Parks, Library and Arts Committee Tuesday afternoon that the permitting was done through the Mayor’s Office of Film and Special Events.

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Briley’s administration said they — along with Nashville Convention and Vistors Corp. and the NFL —have been in talks about the draft events since late summer and discussed the potential need to remove trees.

C3 Productions, the production group working with the NFL, formally filed a permit application to the mayor’s office, which was endorsed by all groups involved.

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Randall Lantz of Metro Parks addresses cherry tree removal concerns and explains the moving process. Autumn Allison, Nashville Tennessean

Public outcry shifts plans to cut down trees

The decision was not relayed to Metro Council or the public, because it was “not a major project,” according to Randall Lantz, who works for the city’s parks and recreation department in landscaping and horticulture.

Lantz also said that no Metro ordinances or codes required a permit approval specifically to remove the trees. 

The plan remove and mulch 21 cherry blossom trees from the Riverfront Park to make way for upcoming NFL Draft structures caused a hue and cry across Nashville in protest after it was revealed Friday night.

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Nonprofit leaders at a Root Nashville meeting were informed of the plan, originally set to begin Monday at 9 a.m. The group is a public private campaign, led by Metro Nashville and the Cumberland River Compact, to plant 500,000 trees across Davidson County by 2050.

The outcry reached a fever pitch over the weekend, and Mayor David Briley eventually announced that 10 of the trees would be transplanted elsewhere while the others would remain. Work to move the trees is set to begin early Wednesday morning. 

“This project [the NFL Draft] has a million logistical details and moving parts. Something was bound to fall through the cracks and I’m sorry this was one of them,” Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. President and CEO Butch Spyridon said Tuesday. “We’re learning as we go.”

Echoes of the 2016 Fort Negley incident

The outcry echoed that from 2016 after trees and shrubs at Fort Negley were removed without public notice. A mayoral executive order in the wake of that event set new guidelines for the city’s processes when public trees are involved. 

Odom said that a better communication process was established after the Fort Negley incident.

“Yet here we are,” she said. “Please continue to work with us, push us and hold us accountable to ensure that this indeed never happens again.” 

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The Metro Tree Review Panel was created as part of the executive order to review and approve Metro projects on city-owned properties that include removal of any trees that are more than 30 inches in diameter, or a group trees that, combined, are more than 100 inches in diameter.

The cherry trees at the river, Lantz said, do not meet the criteria.

Council member Angie Henderson pushed back, saying that relying on that technicality did not follow the “spirit and intent” of the order.

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In hindsight, Odom said the event planners not coming to the parks board was an “oversight.” 

“In my world, this is not a major project,” Lantz said, adding that he did not see the need to bring the issue to the public. “This is not out of the scope of my day-to-day job.” 

Lantz said he did not consult the Cherry Blossom Festival organizers, scheduled for April 13 in Public Square Park, because the group trusts him to make the right decisions. 

“I’m the cherry blossom guy,” he said. 

While tree advocates have said that moving the trees earlier would have made the move less risky, Lantz said officials didn’t want to move the trees until after they were done blooming. 

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Randall Lentz of Metro Parks details the work being done to begin the removal of the cherry trees on Broadway ahead of the NFL Draft. Shelley Mays, smays@tennessean.com

200 new cherry trees to be planted 

Spyridon said NCVC will take the responsibility to fill the empty spaces along Riverfront Park so that there are two complete rows of trees, and to coordinate ongoing maintenance for the transplanted trees. 

In place of the 10 trees to be removed, the NFL and the NCVC plan to donate 200 cherry trees to be planted across the county. 

Lantz said he views the deal as a way to get more trees for Nashville through its partners. 

“The intent was to try and have a very sad space begin to regain a little polish,” Lantz said. “The whole deal was to try to make the park, our front door … the best.” 

Advocates unite to speak out

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Protesters push for transparency on tree removal plans in future Mariah Timms, USA Today Network-Tennessee

Tree advocates from the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps, a rebrand of many involved with the Nashville Tree Task Force, were present Tuesday as part of a “peaceful gathering” on city hall’s front steps. 

“Even though this project is as small as it is, the mice roared and it was an incredible organization pf people coming together and saying enough is enough,” tree advocate Jim Gregory said. 

Gregory said the parks committee members’ focus on increased transparency for all plans affecting trees on public land gave him “hope.”

“I am a little let down that we didn’t talk about the precedent this sets with how our public spaces are handled,” he said. “That’s not an acceptable answer for any Metro department to say that, ‘Oh well, we forgot to include the public in this decision.'”

Reach Mariah Timms at mtimms@tennessean.com or 615-259-8344 and on Twitter @MariahTimms. Reach Yihyun Jeong at yjeong@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.

Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/04/02/cherry-tree-removal-nfl-draft-riverfront-park-mayor-david-briley-nashville-special-events/3344016002/