David Greaves, an engineer with the Nashville Department of Transportation’s traffic-calming program, presented a concept design for J Street on a neighborhood call and said the neighborhood will be mailed a ballot to approve the project.

Greaves said field measurements showed the 80th‑percentile speed on J Street was 34 mph and average daily traffic about 343 vehicles. Because the street is narrow, the department’s concept relies primarily on modular speed cushions (one in each travel lane at each location), a series of three cushion clusters between Forest Avenue and Sterling Boone Drive, bulb-outs at the Sterling Boone Drive intersection, a pinch point proposed between Rasko Road and Pickle Drive, and advance signage to warn drivers. Greaves said similar cushions in other Nashville projects reduced average speeds in some cases from about 31 mph to about 22 mph.

The meeting included a public comment from Majid Abdul Malik, a board member at Saint George Church on J Street, who said a car struck one of the church’s children in October 2023 and that the child required emergency treatment and roughly a week to 10 days of recovery. "She almost died," Malik said, urging the department to move the project forward to protect children who walk between church buildings and residences.

Greaves expressed sympathy for the child and noted the department has that collision on record; he said J Street already had been selected for the program last summer and the purpose of the meeting was to review and refine a design for neighborhood consideration.

On the ballot process, Greaves outlined how ballots are mailed: property owners of residential lots, churches and schools that touch the affected right-of-way each receive one ballot; vacant lots and most operating businesses are not eligible. Voting typically remains open about six weeks; the project proceeds only if two-thirds of respondents vote yes. If the ballot is successful, Greaves said the project would likely be built on an 8–10 month timeline from the ballot passing, subject to the program's scheduling.

Greaves also described installation constraints: devices are not sited within 15 feet of driveways, and the proposed pinch point location was chosen because it offered sufficient space between driveways. For residents who could not view the slides during the meeting, Greaves said the session would be posted to YouTube and he would email the PDF plans on request; he provided the traffic-calming team email n.trafficcalming@nashville.gov for follow-up.

Next steps: the department will finalize the mail ballot and send ballots in the next few days; the neighborhood’s votes will determine whether the design proceeds to construction. If residents have questions about who receives a ballot or do not receive one they expect, Greaves said they should contact the traffic-calming team for help.