Town of Nashville adopts five-year outdoor recreation implementation plan from NC Commerce CORE program

The Town of Nashville on March 4 adopted the Creating Outdoor Recreation Economies (CORE) strategic and implementation plan developed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

The five-year plan, which the town applied for in November 2022 and formalized with a memorandum of understanding in December 2023, lays out strategies to position the town as an outdoor-recreation destination and to spur related economic growth, including goals for trail and greenway development, marketing, event activation and attracting light manufacturing tied to outdoor gear.

The plan’s implementation horizon is five years and will be supported by the Commerce department’s Rural Economic Development staff and partner universities in the UNC system, the presentation said. The plan’s asset mapping highlighted Stony Creek Environmental Park and town-owned parcels acquired through flood buyouts that total roughly 78 acres, plus an approximately 30-acre parcel identified for activation as trail and greenway connectors.

Adoption came after a staff presentation that summarized three high-level strategies, six goals and 16 objectives designed to: (1) build outdoor infrastructure and a connected trail/greenway network; (2) improve marketing, communications and events; and (3) leverage the town’s agricultural heritage to spur agritourism and product manufacturing. The presentation noted statewide figures for outdoor recreation’s economic footprint—figures shown to the council were $16.1 billion in total economic impact, about 45,000 direct jobs and $7.7 billion in wages (data cited by the presenter as statewide totals for a recent year).

Councilor Coy moved to adopt the CORE implementation plan and the motion carried by voice vote.

Council members and staff said Commerce and UNC-system partners can help identify implementation funding, including Economic Development Administration contracts and university-led technical assistance for festival and event design, monitoring and evaluation. The plan calls for a continuing CORE work group to meet regularly and to pursue funding and design projects in coordination with town staff.

The council did not attach additional conditions to the plan at adoption; staff said detailed project-level design, permitting, and funding decisions would return to the council as needed.

The plan and implementation schedule returned to the council as an advisory roadmap rather than an immediate capital-works appropriation; project-specific funding and permitting remain subject to later approvals.