Brentwood Mayor Says Budget for Racquet Facility Will Change

Brentwood’s new $121 million budget for fiscal year 2026 took effect on July 1. Despite months of contentious debate surrounding a new proposed pickleball and tennis facility, nearly $10 million remains earmarked in the city’s budget for its construction. However, Brentwood Mayor Nelson Andrews says that money is likely to be reallocated to other projects over the next several months.

The city’s property tax will decrease from $0.29 to $0.19 after a reappraisal of all city property saw an increase in the tax base and thus, a decrease in the tax rate. This marks the 35th year in a row that Brentwood has maintained the same effective tax rate — meaning that the city maintains a base tax rate that will see residents paying the same dollar amount every year despite changes in property valuations.

The city’s budget also includes $36 million in funding for the city’s Capital Improvement Projects (CIP). Of that, $10 million will go toward the widening of Ragsdale Road, $2.6 million will fund the completion of Windy Hill Park, and $2 million will go toward improving Split Log Road. Additional monies will fund additional improvements in city technology, utilities and facilities. The city anticipates putting nearly $209 million in city, state, federal and private funds toward capital projects over the next five years.

Another CIP included in the budget is the Crockett Park Racquet facility, a topic which dominated Brentwood’s recent election.

Some background: After the closure of the Maryland Farms YMCA in 2023, the Brentwood City Commission began debates over how to replace the 23 tennis courts lost with the YMCA’s closure. In July of that year, the city created the Brentwood Racquet Facility Ad Hoc Committee, led by citizens, parks officials and then-Commissioner Allison Spears, to investigate new options for city courts.

While Williamson County had originally offered to partner with the city on construction of a new racquet facility, county officials notified Brentwood commissioners in September 2023 that they were pulling out of the plan.

After the committee found that the construction of a new facility would cost Brentwood between $11 and $14 million, citizens began to express concerns over the project’s burden on taxpayers. The divide among residents resulted in a major rift within the city commission, resulting in a contentious election season that saw ethics concerns, state-led changes to the city’s charter and ultimately the reelection losses of former Mayor Mark Gorman and Spears.

In an interview with the Williamson Scene, current Mayor Nelson Andrews said that citizens made their thoughts clear on the facility during the election.

“The message in the election was loud and clear that the citizens of Brentwood don’t want us to do [the court] which I agree with,” he said.

Andrews said that the new commission voted to approve the budget with the money earmarked because the election happened just before the budget needed to be approved, which didn’t give commissioners adequate time to speak to the community and develop alternative ways to use that funding.

“Right towards the very end of that budget process in May we had an election and we had a significant change in the composition of our commission, and [there was] a decision by the new commission to not go through and radically change the budget at the last minute,” Andrews said.

However, money is only earmarked for the project in the budget, and before the money is appropriated over the next several months commissioners have the opportunity to have more intentional discussions about how to reallocate that money in appropriations.

“I think we’ll be doing an amended plan before too long and we’ve asked the city staff to take a look at it and present to the commission and have a good conversation about, ‘Hey if we’re not doing this large recreational project, how can we allocate those resources towards say, congestion, roadwork, some other things that seem to be more pressing issues in the city?’” Andrews explained.

He said that he expects much of the money earmarked for the court to be amended to go towards everyday city improvements.

“[We will see] a reallocation of a very expensive recreational project towards things that are more infrastructure-based and make a wider impact on the city,” Andrews said.

Many of the city’s ongoing capital projects, such as improvements on Ragsdale and Split Log Roads were included in Brentwood’s 2030 Plan, which was implemented in October 2016. As the city nears the nine-year anniversary of that plan’s creation, Andrews says he believes it’s time for the commission to start looking forward to the next decade.

“The 2030 plan was put together about 10 years ago, and that implies to me that it’s probably about time that we revisit it and update to the 2040 plan,” he said. “I think it’s probably time to update our North Star for what we’re looking for in opportunities and what we’re going to try to do in the long term. I feel citizen input is the most important thing, that’s where the big message is, people need to really listen to the people in Brentwood and really be sure that we’re taking direction from the folks that ask us to work on their behalf.”