Changes to Nashville zoning code could help create ‘thousands’ more homes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Nashville’s Metro Council has passed a new law to improve Nashville’s housing crisis by adding more inventory as the city aims to create more than 50,000 new housing units in the next six years.

The law expands what is known as “adaptive residential development”, which allows housing to be built in areas currently zoned for commercial use, offices, and shopping districts.

“What this bill does is expand housing in commercial and office and shopping districts. Currently, it’s already permissible to build housing in commercial districts where certain conditions are satisfied, including most significantly and detrimentally that the parcel be located on an arterial or collector street,” said bill sponsor Councilmember Rollin Horton.

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Horton said, because arterial and collector streets are often the busiest, building housing along these main thoroughfares presents dangerous conditions for pedestrians going to or leaving these units.

In addition, under previous zoning laws, a developer could only build in an area zoned for commercial use if the land was within Nashville’s Urban Services District . Horton’s bill expands that to all of Metro Nashville.

“This really does open a lot of land that is available in Nashville to be developed for residential uses, so I think it’s really huge,” said urban planner Parker Hawkins.

“It could bring thousands of units online and if we want people to have affordable homes we have to do that,” said Councilmember Quin Evans Segall.

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Hawkins also noted that this legislation makes it easier for affordable housing developers, who are already working on thin margins, to build on land zoned for commercial use without needing to go through the rezoning process.

The final version of the bill also included an amendment making it so there can be no short-term rentals in the new housing units this bill creates.

However, despite a lot of support for the legislation, seven council members voted against it.

Councilmember Jeff Eslick was concerned about a developer trying to build homes near a rock quarry.

“This is just a street that I already have issues with big trucks going down starting early in the morning and it would be terrible to put housing on there. I don’t think the developers would have the best interest at heart of the people that are gonna move in there, and they would just build it, sell it, and move on,” he said.

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According to Horton, the ordinance takes effect immediately.

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