The Sales Pitch

Lennar Homes Meeting- My Take

On Monday night I sat in the auditorium with 40+ other people. We listened for 45 minutes to the designer about the proposed development on New Hall Road. If you follow me at all, you have already seen the photos of this development. The division president for Lennar was there telling us all about the great “products” that will be built in this subdivision.

Here’s the deal. This development will have a pool, walking trails, parks, and green space that you and I will never see or use. It doesn’t matter how lovely the homes are or how big, you and I will never drive by them. They won’t be building a public pool, like I’m told the city promised years ago. They won’t be adding on to the existing greenway. In fact, they are building a complete community that you can drive through, but you have no reason to. Does any of that matter to me? Not really. I personally have no desire to live in a neighborhood like that. I have friends that do, and I fully support your choice to do so.

What will they be adding? Traffic. Kevin Sturgill, vice president of land for the Nashville Lennar branch, had the audacity to stand in front of us and tell us we already have a traffic problem. He offered $325k towards that problem if they are not rezoned for SRPUD. $325k might get ONE turn lane put in, but it won’t fix the traffic. When I asked him if he had driven the area during peak hours, he said no. In fact, he was a little indignant that I had even asked. Does he really think he’s going to get semis and dump trucks and concrete trucks safely through the intersection of New Hall and 76 any time during school hours? Oh but there’s more. If the city allows them to rezone to SRPUD, then they will give us $1.5 mil toward the traffic issues. Great, thank you so much. Wait, they are only putting that towards their “half” of the traffic signal. You know that OTHER subdivision across 76 was supposed to pay for a traffic signal. Lennar is not going to pay for that half. Let me translate. Lennar will put up some money, but the light will not go in because no one is going to hold any of these developers to their word. Lennar will build 958 homes, adding 2586 people and roughly 1800 more cars and maybe, just maybe, they will put in a couple of turning lanes. When we pressed them on these numbers and what would actually be completed, everyone in the auditorium came to the same conclusion. They are holding us hostage. Let us rezone so we can “fix” your traffic problem.

Sturgill assured us that Lennar is a company of their word. They have engineers that can design this signal and get it in in a reasonable amount of time. They have a lower BBB rating than Car Shield (extended warranties). They have a BBB rating roughly equal to that of a Nigerian Prince.

Consumer Affairs has more to say. This is just one of 51 reviews. I didn’t read all of them, but you sure can.

We are supposed to trust a company accused of defrauding elderly people to keep their word and put in a traffic light. Sorry, but I don’t buy ocean front property in Arizona any more.

Lennar did a traffic study. Thank you so much. We needed CESO Inc. to tell us that 76 is a nightmare and we need a light. However, CESO Inc. isn’t just a company that does traffic studies. They are an all-in-one kind of place. They don’t just study traffic, in fact, it’s hard to find that division on their website. They do it all. They design everything from retail to light industrial.

Personally, I don’t know anything about this company. What I do know is that traffic studies seem much like real estate appraisals. You seem to pay for what you want to hear. Looking at this gallery, I see a Love’s up there. If they did the traffic study for the Love’s here and aided in the design, I’m going to go ahead and say I would not hire them to design my driveway. Again, I do not claim that they designed our Love’s here, but that is what this company does.

Lennar has built Durham Farms in Hendersonville. In that subdivision, 10% of the homes are owned by investment firms, or other companies, that rent the houses out. I know this because of a friend who lives there and was told this by her rental company. Mickle, of Lennar, stated that they would NOT put language in their HOA prohibiting this. People should be able to rent homes. I am not against rentals. I am against large companies buying up 10-50% of a subdivision driving up the price and then controlling the HOA. That is not good for a community. Believe me, it’s happening. Read about BlackRock, and again BlackRock here, and the screenshot came from here.

Lennar does not care who or what buys their homes. They don’t care about our traffic, our schools, or the sewer plant that won’t be upgraded for 18-24 months. They don’t care if the entire development turns into rentals or simply falls apart. They will come in, build the cheapest “product” they can and leave. Lennar made $503 million in the first quarter ending February 2022. They are one of the largest builders in the nation right now, only behind D.R. Horton. We simply don’t want them here. We already have them on the Sumner County side of White House. We have D.R. Horton and Ryan Homes over here on the Robertson County side. I assure you, they don’t care either. I spoke to one of the real estate agents for D.R. Horton, and she told me that if I don’t like growth, I should just move out further. Because I don’t want the dense housing they build, I should move. Because I want to keep my small town feel, I’m the one that should move. She doesn’t live here, send kids to school here, have to teach kids to drive here, shop here, or have to look at the seas of houses. She will work here and simply make her money.

This is a bit of a rant. I’m not a fan of Lennar, Ryan, or D.R. Horton. I’m sure when Holly Tree and Indian Ridge went in, people were upset. Looking at both of those subdivisions though, the homes are further apart and have more variety. We do not need Lennar or their $1.5 million dollars. At most, we need that property to have 1+ acre home sites built by local builders. There will be plenty of homes like Lennar’s. The Parks, Legacy Farms, The Fields at Oakwood, Jackson Farms, Calista Farms, Sage Road Residential, Concord Springs, Frey Branch Cottages, Pinson Pointe Townhomes, are just the developments in Robertson County that will look like what Lennar is building. (and were all approved in the last 4 years) Nowhere on the list I have from the city planner are there homes with any type of acreage. There are better uses for this land from better developers.

Email and call your aldermen and your mayor. Email the city planning board. Tell them NO! Lennar won’t buy this property if they can’t build at least 850 homes. Ask your aldermen to put a moratorium in place until the sewer project is finished. That isn’t out of line. Tell that board they cannot approve another unit until the sewer can keep up. Tell them we are tired of smelling sewer on Wilkinson. Tell them they can’t approve another unit until Robertson County has property for another school. Let them know that when they start construction on the traffic signal at 76 and New Hall, that’s when they can approve more houses. You have the power to tell those officials no. If they don’t listen to you, you have the power to vote them out. You can run for office. The city administrator spoke to me at a planning meeting like I was just an out of line peasant. He’s right, I am a peasant in this game. What he failed to realize, is that when you make the peasants angry, they don’t just go back to the fields and their shops, they organize and get loud. It’s time to get loud. Let these guys know what and how you think. They are supposed to represent YOU. Call, email, set up meetings. If each of you reading this today sent one email, that’s potentially thousands of emails. That’s a powerful message. I’m not in this alone. I’ve met you. I’ve talked to you. We are neighbors. We all love this city. We all welcome new families. Let’s just tell the politicians what kind of growth we want, and how we want it done. It starts here. It starts local. Change yourself, change your family, change your neighborhood, change the world.