Clarksville's City Council voted 9-3 Thursday to approve two access points along Ted Crozier Boulevard for a piece of agriculturally zoned property near Dunlop Lane, a decision that does not greenlight any specific development but sets the stage for how traffic will flow through one of the city's fastest-growing corridors. The property sits just south of Freedom Farms, the 220-acre development expected to bring Clarksville's first Costco, hundreds of homes and additional shopping to the area.
The vote, reported by WZTV, does not approve any specific project on the Dunlop Lane property, which is separate from Freedom Farms itself. Instead, the access plan realigns the existing Dunlop connection with Dunlop Lane, creating a four-way intersection at the existing traffic light and limiting the property to just two access points along Ted Crozier Boulevard. Council members who supported the plan argued the realigned intersection could actually be safer than having two nearby separate intersections, and that approving the access points now gives the city more control over future traffic movement as development continues.
A Corridor Already Under Strain
Councilman Tim Chandler, whose district includes the area, told fellow council members that a major development is about to be built just north of the property and that Ted Crozier Boulevard is already extremely difficult to drive on. He described morning traffic on the road as bumper to bumper, according to the same WZTV report. Clarksville's roads already carry thousands of drivers daily, and Chandler's warning underscores the central tension facing council: rapid commercial growth colliding with a road network that residents say is already strained.
That strain is only expected to intensify. Freedom Farms, developed by Nashville-based Oldacre McDonald, LLC on land converted from agricultural use by the Feltner family, is slated to include over 600 residential units in addition to the retail anchor, according to Clarksville Now. Any future development on the Dunlop Lane property itself will still have to go through the city's separate approval process before construction can begin.
The Costco Math Behind the Push
The retail centerpiece driving much of this growth is a planned Costco warehouse on 25 acres within Freedom Farms. Clarksville Now reports the company intends to invest roughly $55.2 million on the store, which is projected to create 600 direct jobs and generate an estimated $250 million in annual sales, with construction expected to begin in spring 2027 and an opening targeted for spring 2028.
City officials estimate Costco alone will generate about $6.2 million in annual local sales tax revenue, with $4.57 million earmarked for Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools and $1.65 million for the City of Clarksville, funding that flows into municipal infrastructure including roads, fire and police. To land the retailer, local economic development officials structured a 10-year, $21.5 million performance-based sales tax incentive under which Costco only receives a share of the taxes it generates after surpassing set thresholds, with no upfront public dollars paid to the company. Officials pursued the deal in part because research found roughly 50,000 Montgomery County residents were already driving south to Nashville each year to shop at Costco, a steady leakage of local retail tax revenue that city leaders spent three years working to recapture.
Developer-Funded Roads Aim to Ease the Load
Part of the traffic-mitigation strategy hinges on Oldacre McDonald's agreement to build an extension of Spring Creek Parkway through Freedom Farms, connecting it to Ted Crozier Sr. Boulevard and ultimately linking Trenton Road to Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. That work absorbs what had originally been planned as a municipal expense for the city. According to discussion at the council meeting, the developer behind the Dunlop Lane access points will similarly pay for the road work tied to that realignment.
The pressure on this stretch of road isn't coming from Freedom Farms alone. A separate 69-acre site bounded by Ted Crozier Boulevard and Dunlop Lane has been designated for a $16 million public infrastructure plan to host a 235,000-square-foot VA multi-specialty clinic, along with a hotel and conference center, per Clarksville Now's earlier reporting. That planned clinic would be six times larger than Clarksville's existing VA facility. Separately, the Clarksville City Council advanced roadway legislation in August to officially designate the stretch of Dunlop Lane from Ted Crozier Sr. Boulevard to the bridge as LTC (Retired) Thomas L. Ely, D.O. Lane, according to city meeting records.
A City Growing Faster Than Its Roads
The stakes extend well beyond a single intersection. Clarksville's population reached an estimated 193,395 residents in 2026, with an annual growth rate of 2.42% that keeps it among Tennessee's fastest-growing cities, according to data reported by Axios Nashville. Montgomery County is projected to gain more than 90,000 residents by 2040, a trajectory that puts even more long-term pressure on thoroughfares like Ted Crozier Boulevard as commercial corridors, medical campuses and residential developments continue to converge on the same few roads.
For now, the council's Thursday vote leaves the door open for future projects on the Dunlop Lane property while locking in a traffic pattern designed to keep pace with what's coming. Whether that pattern holds up once Costco shoppers, Freedom Farms residents and VA clinic patients are all sharing the same roadway remains to be seen.
