The Metro Nashville Council approved a resolution on Tuesday opposing the Music City Loop project, a 13-mile route.
Council members passed the resolution by a 20-15 vote, with two people abstaining.
In February, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration approved the Boring Company’s lease application and enhanced grading permit for the use of state-owned property along Tennessee’s highway system.
The Music City Loop will be an underground transportation system that connects “downtown Nashville, Music City Center, and Lower Broadway to West End Ave and the Nashville International Airport.”
The resolution objected to the Boring Company’s Music City Loop project because of the “company’s lack of transparency, inadequate community and Metropolitan Council engagement, and troubling labor and safety practices.”
Council Member at-large Delishia Porterfield, who is one of the resolution’s sponsors, stated, “Public land needs to be for [the] public good.”
“Public infrastructure decisions must prioritize the welfare, safety, and express needs of Nashville residents,” Porterfield noted.
She added that the resolution “gives an outline towards creating public trust” by asking the Boring Company to “participate in ongoing public briefings before the full council and relevant committees.”
According to Porterfield (pictured above), the resolution asks the Boring Company to “release all environmental, geological, safety and fiscal studies for independent review.”
The resolution also asks the company to comply with “fair labor and contractor standards,” “transparent communication with all council members,” and provide “clear contingency and restoration plans in the event of project delay, alteration, or abandonment.”
“We can’t stay silent on this issue,” she stated.
Porterfield asked other committee members if they think Nashville “deserves better” and should “be a part of the process, then I’m going to ask you to vote in support of this substitute.”
Council Member John Rutherford (District 31), who opposed the resolution, said it would be easy for committee members to vote “yes” for the resolution, but he added, “Sometimes to do what is best for Nashville, we have to do what is hard.”
Rutherford noted the city had two paths forward: to maintain dialogue or to close dialogue with the Boring Company.
Regardless of how committee members voted, he pointed out that the “project is happening.”
“It’s not about fear of the state. I don’t fear the state. It’s about doing what is the right thing to do for the city,” Rutherford stated.
In reaction to the vote, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) criticized the Metro Council.
“The Nashville Metro Council voted to oppose the Music City Loop, a private project that would improve infrastructure in Tennessee at no cost to taxpayers,” she stated. “Woke bureaucrats should not condemn the [Boring Company] simply because they don’t like [Elon Musk].”
Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) also criticized the Metro Council’s passage of the resolution.
“It should come as no surprise that Nashville’s Bolshevik Metro Council voted to halt the Music City Loop,” Ogles said.
“The same body that refused to conduct effective oversight over the rogue Nashville Electric Service or rein in its radical communist mayor is trying to shut down a cost-free private project that will make Nashville one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world,” he added.
Ogles said he stands with the Boring Company.
The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce warned the Metro Council before it voted on the resolution about the message it sends to the companies looking to invest in Nashville.
“In one of the country’s fastest-growing regions that is competing fiercely for talent, investment, and quality jobs, mobility is a core economic driver,” the chamber stated. “Strategic infrastructure investments and innovative partnerships are essential to sustaining long-term growth and regional competitiveness.”
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com.
