Site plans in metro Nashville

What shapes a site plan in metro Nashville

Metro Nashville-Davidson is a consolidated city-county with a plan-based zoning tool. Under Specific Plan (SP) zoning, the site plan is the zoning, and all preliminary SP conditions must be satisfied before a building permit ^[1]. Four conditions follow, and each one changes how a preliminary site plan is drawn here.

1. The plan is adopted, not just reviewed. An SP must be adopted by the Metro Council and reviewed by the Planning Commission ^[6]; the final site plan then goes to the Planning Department ^[1], so the layout is set by a council vote, not by staff review alone.
2. Review is concurrent. Since September 8, 2025, ePlans takes "one set of plans that will be reviewed concurrently by all permitting departments" ^[2].
3. Auto-oriented and storage uses move by legislation. The February 3, 2025 Planning and Zoning Committee agenda included rezonings "to permit a car wash" and "to permit a self-service storage facility" ^[7]. An adopted SP can also exclude a use outright: BL2024-665, effective February 7, 2025, prohibits uses including car wash in the SP district it created ^[8]. BL2025-909 created a commercial compatibility overlay that, once applied, limits car washes, auto repair and similar uses near residential ^[9].
4. Site plans are sealed. Metro's drawing requirements state: "A licensed Tennessee land surveyor or engineer must seal all site plans" ^[3]. The preliminary plan is the layout the surveyor or engineer of record builds that sealed plan on.

Nashville shares with Atlanta a reliance on discretionary, design-led tools: Atlanta's Special Administrative Permit, Nashville's council-adopted Specific Plan. Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham run technical staff review instead. The statewide picture is on the Tennessee site plan page.

Jurisdiction map: who governs where

The line between Murfreesboro and unincorporated Rutherford County changes the reviewing body and the fee schedule ^[12], so the site data table should name the jurisdiction before it names the district. Inside Davidson County, the first questions are whether the parcel sits in the Downtown Code or a UZO overlay ^[6] and whether it is already SP-zoned, and on what conditions, because those conditions bind the final site plan ^[1].

Site plan process: Specific Plan, then the final site plan

Because the adopted SP plan is the zoning, the decisions that drive yield (building placement, access, parking, open space and the unit or key count) are made at the preliminary SP stage, in front of the Planning Commission and Metro Council. The final site plan then has to satisfy every condition of the adopted SP before Codes issues a building permit ^[1]. The code is moving under the plan as well: BL2025-1005 added two new districts in December 2025 ^[15], so the site data table should name the code edition it was drawn against ^[13].

Asset rules in metro Nashville

For a car wash, the first tests are whether the parcel's SP text excludes the use and whether the overlay has been applied; the car wash site plan hub covers the layout standards that follow. For self storage, the first test is whether the district allows the use or a rezoning or PUD amendment is needed; see the self storage site plan hub. Hotels are covered on the hotel site plan hub and on hotel site plans in Tennessee, and RV parks on RV park site plans in Tennessee. Room-count and parking context across growth markets is in this post on hotel site plan requirements.

Growth corridors and proof points

The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin metro reached 2,197,416 in July 2025, up from 2,162,758 in 2024, a gain of 34,658, in U.S. Census Bureau figures republished through FRED ^[4]. The Nashville-Davidson balance stood at 721,074 in July 2025, up 9,244 ^[5].

Murfreesboro holds the metro's clearest recent hotel record. The Planning Commission approved the initial design review of a 65,000 sq ft, 4-story Fairfield by Marriott on 2.69 acres zoned MU and GDO-1 by a 5-0 vote on December 18, 2024 ^[18], and of a 124-room, 5-story hotel at North Church Lot 21, zoned CH and GDO-1, by 6-0 on July 15, 2026 ^[19]. Both motions approved the design subject to all staff comments, and no one signed up to speak ^{[18, 19]}. Both sites sit in the Gateway Design Overlay, which runs along the I-24 and Medical Center Parkway corridor ^{[20, 21, 22]}, and the standards applied there are architectural: masonry of 50 percent on fronts and 35 percent on sides and rear, as applied in 2020 ^[21]. The Murfreesboro model project shows how those rules set a hotel layout on a model parcel.

Site factors

• Sewer capacity. Metro Water Services requires a capacity study or permit with the final site plan application ^[1]. In Murfreesboro, a 2022 Planning Commission record shows staff telling an applicant it "would not be able to obtain any building permits for this property until sanitary sewer upgrades were constructed and completed in this area" ^[23].
• Construction stormwater. Disturbing one or more acres, or a smaller site that is part of a larger common plan of development or sale, brings Tennessee's construction general permit; the 2026 permit took effect October 1, 2026 and expires September 30, 2031 ^[24].
• Overlays on the sheet. Murfreesboro's checklist requires the site plan to show "airport zones, flood zones, battlefield protection districts, gateway design overlay districts, and historic districts" ^[11].
• Design overlays. Inside the Gateway Design Overlay, masonry is measured separately for the front and for the sides and rear ^[21], so elevations with a materials share per face go with the site plan.

What the preliminary plan carries in Nashville

In Nashville the preliminary plan does its most important work before the SP is adopted, because the adopted plan becomes the zoning ^[1]. It carries the layout, buildings, access, parking and yield, with a site data table, at the level the Planning Commission, Metro Council and the Planning Department will hold the project to; the same plan serves a lender, an investor or a general contractor pricing the work. In Murfreesboro, the due diligence meeting asks for exactly that document: "A dimensioned conceptual site plan is required depicting all proposed and existing structures, vehicle and pedestrian access, parking, landscaping, potential drainage area(s) and a site data table" ^[10]. The preliminary plan reserves the drainage area; the engineer of record designs it. Metro requires that a licensed Tennessee land surveyor or engineer seal all site plans ^[3], and Murfreesboro requires engineered, stamped drainage calculations at the site plan stage ^[11], so the sealed site plan, grading, stormwater, utilities and the capacity study are the surveyor's and the engineer of record's work, built on the preliminary layout. Where design review is part of the approval, as in the Gateway Design Overlay, the 3D renderings should come from the same model as the plan. The site plan consultant and site plan services pages explain how the studio works with the engineer and architect of record, and service areas lists every metro the studio covers.

By Viola Sauer, Principal, Innowave Studio