Bells Bend large-parcel holdings
The May family purchased 682 acres of the former Graves farm in March 2021. No development application is on file; we monitor the Development Tracker and Parcel Viewer.
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Neighborhood
Bells Bend
12,000+ years of people choosing this land — the county’s richest archaeological landscape, its best-known cluster of working farms, an 808-acre park in the river’s loop, and a 40-year record of turning outsized proposals into conserved land.
What's changing here
Issues touching Bells Bend
Highland Rim Forest conservation funding
The Alliance's goal: 12,000 more conserved acres by 2040. Metro's RS2025-1549 would formally name Nashville's Highland Rim Forest; June budget hearings are the recurring pressure point.
A smaller Metro Council?
The State may compel a smaller Metro Council. If that happens, District 1's lines and representation change materially. The places on this site — and this site — aren't going anywhere.
Who's organized
Organizations & churches
- Bells Bend Conservation CorridorVERIFIED
Bells Bend / Scottsboro · conservation & rural preservation · Website · Facebook
Full lists live in the directory: organizations, churches, businesses.
Anchors
Places & businesses
- Bells Bend FarmsVERIFIED
Farm & nursery · 5194 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN · Website · Facebook
- Lewis Country StorePOSSIBLY CLOSED
Groceries & everyday · 5106 Old Hickory Blvd (at Ashland City Hwy), Nashville, TN
- Old School FarmVERIFIED
Farm & nursery · 5022 Old Hydes Ferry Pike, Nashville, TN · Website · Facebook
- Sulphur Creek Farm (Bells Bend Neighborhood Farms)VERIFIED
Farm & nursery · 5188 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN · Website
How we got here
Bells Bend history, briefly
Two different landfills — never the same one
Closed · 1996
The old Metro landfill
County Hospital Road — Metro's municipal household-waste landfill, closed in 1996 after years of resident protest led in the Thelma Harper era. Habitat restoration began 2004; certified wildlife habitat since 2013.
Active · Near capacity
Southern Services C&D landfill
4651 Amy Lynn Drive, off Ashland City Hwy at Briley — Waste Management's construction-and-demolition landfill. Still operating, WM-arranged intake only.
- 12,000+ years ago People choose this land. Bells Bend holds 60+ recorded archaeological sites — the county's richest archaeological landscape. (archaeological record; softened phrasing per source guidance)
- 1990s Bells Bend residents defeat the Spicewood landfill proposal — the "garbage pyramid" fight, with its tractor parade and roughly 30 arrests — ending in a TDEC unsuitability ruling. Metro later purchases the land; it opens as Bells Bend Park in 2007. (research report §3; Bells Bend Park record)
- 2006–2009 Bells Landing (835 acres) is defeated in 2006; residents co-write the Detailed Design Plan with Metro Planning in 2007–08; the 4,000-acre May Town Center proposal is defeated in 2009. Saying no to the wrong thing is how you save room for the right one. (research report §3)