 "Photo: Justin Keoninh")
A fence surrounding the new Womack Lane parking lot is the center of recent problems between MTSU Campus Planning and local Murfreesboro residents.
The parking lot is located next to the Ragland Court Subdivision residential area and the fence will boarder between the lot and the houses. The lot itself sits on property previously occupied by four houses.
The problem, according to residents Steve and Jeanne Lund, is that the proposed "privacy" fence is chain-link. Steve and Jeanne, who bought and built their house, located across the street from the parking lot, have lived in Ragland since 1992.
"They had better places to put the parking lot, like on the intramural fields," Steve Lund said. "But now we are concerned with the fence, although one of the owners of the four houses bought by MTSU only sold because he was told by the university that there wouldn't be a parking lot."
The previous house owners, Baxter and Ann Cook, wrote a Letter to the Editor to the Daily News Journal, in which they expressed their dissatisfaction with the parking lot.
"One of the four lots they will be using was our home for 35 years," the Cooks wrote. "When we sold to MTSU, we were told that our property would be used as pedestrian access to their East Main property. If we had known they were going to build a parking lot, we would not have considered selling to them."
According to original construction plans given to the Lunds, the contractor was "to provide a 6' privacy fence around the outside perimeter" of the parking lot. It also stated the contractor "shall coordinate with MTSU on appropriate material for screening."
"What we have asked is the university do something different," Jeanne Lund said. "A 'chain-link' fence is not a 'privacy' fence."
A meeting was held between Campus Planning and residents of Ragland in May to inform and receive imput from the neighborhood.
"It was really a 'here is what we are going to do' meeting," Steven Lund said. "[MTSU] basically made it sound like it was a done deal."
The Lunds began sending e-mails concerning the fencing issue to multiple university and community officials, including Sidney McPhee, Tommy Bragg, Murfreesboro mayor, and John Cothern, senior vice president of Campus Planning.
The first was on Sept. 2, sent by Steve, inquiring on the material to be used for the privacy fence. Cothern responded immediately on Sept. 2, saying he would reply later in the week with the answer.
On Sept. 5, Cothern responded to Steve and said the university would follow suit with their original construction plans.
"The fence will be a black chain link 6' fence," Cothern said. "It will be installed on the perimeter."
Steve's response addressed a DNJ article, in which the university made a statement that the chain-link fence was being reconsidered.
"After further consideration of possibly changing from chain link to wood fencing, we have decided to stay with the chain-link fencing for safety and security reasons," Cothern said in a Sept. 12 e-mail.
Steve and Jeanne questioned the reasons of safety and security.
"How can a chain-link fence be safer than wood or brick?" Jeanne Lund said. "It is absolutely nonsensical."
In his Sept. 12 response, Cothern also expressed the university's intent to provide "appropriate and desired security visibility for anyone in the area, including Murfreesboro Police and MSTU Public Safety" with the chain-link fence.
"We feel that MTSU has shown consideration for the neighborhood relative to improvements to University properties," Cothern said in his e-mail. "Additionally, in this specific case, it was decided not to provide parking lot access to or from Ragland Court and not to allow the contractors to use Ragland Court during construction when opposing alternatives could have easily been decided."
Steve and Jeanne said the "sacrifice" of an alternative plan for parking lot access through Ragland and construction equipment on their street implied other motives.
"Basically, the underlying message is 'we could make it worse if we wanted to,'" Jeanne Lund said. "This is just an example of the consideration for our neighborhood."
"At this point, we are just looking at them to throw us a bone," Steve Lund said. "We have not been given a final date for when the fence will be put up."
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