Primary Election Day and Zoning Bills
Cash, Thomas (Council Member)
Election Day- District 7 Special primary
It’s primary Election Day for the U.S. House District 7 vacancy created by Rep. Mark Green’s resignation. Voting is from 7 am to 7 pm. Here you can find where you vote, see a sample ballot, and see key dates for the general election for House District 7. Most of District 18 north of I-440 is US House District 7. Turnout for early voting was kind of low but we can change that today. Get out to vote!
Proposed Zoning Reforms
The Planning Department in the last several months has been working on Nashville’s unified housing strategy and has introduced several pieces of legislation in Council. The first, BL 2025-1005, is on public hearing at this Thursday’s Council meeting. it creates two new zoning designations, RN and RL, that provide tools for creating new districts for smaller scale multifamily and a mix of housing types. Included in the zoning designations are design guidelines to make sure they fit within existing neighborhood character. This bill doesn’t re zone any property or neighborhood. It only creates two new zoning types to add tools to the dozens of zoning types we already have.
BL 2025–1006 would make adjustments for building codes to lower the maximum height in R and RS districts: currently 45 feet lowered to 35 feet. This keeps new homes from towering over shorter homes and protect smaller, more comparatively affordable homes.
BL 2025–1007: Makes changes to detached accessory dwelling units (DADUs). Currently allowed in R districts by right and allowed in RS districts with passage of an overlay. They are limiting criteria for areas eligible for DADU overlays, chiefly lot size and requiring alley access. This bill removes those limitations and allows DADUs across the urban services district in areas zoned RS and via overlays in the general services district. DADUs are not allowed to be short term rentals and the homeowner cannot rent out the home and the accessory unit in separate leases nor can it be subdivided.
BL 2025-1006-7 will be on public hearing at the first Council meeting in November.
BL 2025–1008 creates an affordable housing incentive to add extra height for including affordable units. This is only eligible for the new RL districts.
Metro Planning Department has additional info including FAQ on its facebook page.
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