RV park site plans in Tennessee

The state regime: a TDH organized camp permit

Tennessee regulates RV parks as "organized camps" under T.C.A. 68-110 and Rule 1200-01-05, and a "travel camp" is a camp with sites that have utility hookups ^[1]. No site may operate as an organized camp without a permit from the commissioner or public health officer, and the annual fee follows a statutory schedule ^[5]. The rules require plan approval for construction or extensive remodeling ^[6], local environmental health departments inspect and enforce ^[7], and the rule text cited here is the July 2002 revision ^[1].

The rule sets spacing and sanitation, and leaves the rest of the geometry to local zoning:

T.C.A. 68-110-103 sets the annual permit fee on a schedule by site count, with a travel campsite category for spaces equipped with utility connections and a late penalty of one-half the fee ^[2]. A duplicate permit is $3.00, and 95 percent of permit money stays with contract county health departments (68-110-103(f)) ^[2]. Because the fixture table steps at 25 and 40 sites above 100, the site count in the data table drives the bathhouse program as well as the permit ^[1].

Approval layers in Tennessee

Tennessee's planning law is enabling: Title 13 of the Tennessee Code lets local governments and their planning commissions plan, adopt subdivision regulations and zone ^[8]. Regional (usually county) and municipal planning commissions may both adopt site plan review powers in their subdivision regulations and recommend zoning amendments for planned unit developments (T.C.A. 13-3-413 and 13-4-310) ^[9]. Under the mandatory referral rule, no street, park, public way, public building or public utility may be built until the planning commission approves its location and extent, and the legislative body can overrule a disapproval (T.C.A. 13-4-104 and 13-3-404) ^[10].

TDEC's Construction General Permit covers construction that disturbs 1 acre or more, or less than 1 acre if part of a larger common plan totaling 1 acre or more ^[3]. The signed Notice of Intent and a site-specific SWPPP go in through MyTDEC Forms-CGP, and TDEC issues a Notice of Coverage ^[15]. Any alteration to waters of the state needs an ARAP before the work begins, and the ARAP serves as the Section 401 water quality certification where a federal Section 404 permit is involved ^[11]. Construction stormwater permits are not issued until the ARAP or 401 decision is made ^[16], so a stream or wetland on the parcel moves to the front of the schedule. A driveway on state right-of-way, including a change in the use of an existing one, needs a TDOT Highway Entrance Permit first, and TDOT can require a Traffic Impact Study prepared by a licensed professional engineer to ITE standards ^{[12, 17]}.

The State Fire Marshal has adopted the 2021 edition of most International Codes, with the 2018 IRC, under Rule 0780-02-02, and adopted codes may be no more than seven years older than the latest edition ^[13]. Where a city does not adopt and enforce current codes, the statewide code applies ^[14].

Who prepares and seals what

Tennessee draws the line by building size and type. T.C.A. 62-2-102(b) makes it unlawful for anyone other than a registered architect or engineer to prepare plans and specifications for a building or structure, except business, factory-industrial, hazardous, mercantile, residential and storage occupancies that are both less than three stories in height and less than 5,000 square feet in total gross area, one- and two-family dwellings, farm buildings not designed for human occupancy, and small signs ^[18]. The section was amended by 2022 Tenn. Acts ch. 904, effective July 1, 2022 ^[18]. A park's clubhouse, bathhouse or office is checked against that list; above it, the architect or engineer of record prepares and seals the building plans. Plats carry their own seal: under T.C.A. 66-24-116 the register of deeds may not record a map, plat or survey without the signature and seal of the registered land surveyor or registered engineer who prepared it ^[19]. For sites on Impaired or Exceptional Tennessee Waters, the SWPPP must be prepared by someone who has completed TDEC's EPSC Level II Design course, and erosion and sediment controls are designed for the 5-year, 24-hour storm ^[20].

The preliminary plan is not a sealed drawing, and the engineer of record does not simply seal it. T.C.A. 62-2-103(1) lets a person do architectural or engineering work as an employee of a registered professional, provided the work does not include responsible charge of design or supervision ^[21]. So the engineer of record takes the studio's plan as the layout brief and draws the sealed set (grading and drainage, the SWPPP, sewer or subsurface disposal, the TDOT entrance and any sealed lighting plan) under their own responsible charge, and the architect of record does the same for buildings above the 62-2-102(b) thresholds.

The local layer: Pigeon Forge PUDs

In Tennessee the rules that bind an RV park layout sit in city and county zoning. In Pigeon Forge, a travel trailer park is "any plot of land approved as a planned unit development" (Section 340.1), reviewed under Section 407 ^[4]. Density, road width and open space are set in each PUD ^[4]. A parcel that needs a rezoning first goes to the Pigeon Forge Planning Commission and then the Board of Mayor and Commissioners under Article XII (Sections 1201 to 1203), and building permits and the certificate of occupancy follow Sections 1002 to 1004 ^[4].

The Pigeon Forge Zoning Ordinance, updated through July 2023, also requires a buffer strip planted as a screen at least 6 ft tall (Section 306) and, where lighting is proposed, a photometric plan with foot-candles every 5 to 10 ft that is "signed and sealed" (Section 320(b)) ^[4]. Parking falls under Section 402 with lot design under Section 410, driveways under Section 411 and signs under Section 408, and floodplain sites under Section 406, the FP-1 district (Section 708) and the Municipal Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance ^[4]. The ordinance defines "Architecture," including entertainment-themed styles (307.7), so building elevations are customary at PUD review ^[4]. On the Pigeon Forge Regional Planning Commission's October 22, 2019 agenda, an RV park's revised final PUD (Smoky Mountain RV Park & Resort, Phase 1) and a campground's preliminary PUD (Appalachian Springs Trout Farm & Campground, Phase 2) came forward phase by phase, with plans prepared by engineering firms ^[22]. The Sevier County model project walks a 100 to 200 site resort with cabins through the Pigeon Forge PUD path step by step.

Outdoor hospitality is being built across the state. Streamside RV Resorts & Campgrounds acquired Little Arrow Outdoor Resort and Little Arrow Base Camp RV Park in Townsend, near the Great Smokies, and Base Camp opened in 2026 with 30+ campsites ^[23]. Rockwood Marina & RV Resort on Watts Bar Lake is a new build with 150 RV sites and 70 covered marina slips ^[24]. A lake park with docks also needs TVA Section 26a approval before any dock, pier, marina or launch ramp is built; with a complete application the process typically takes up to 100 days, TVA warns it can extend to 120 days, and the new-construction fee is typically $500 ^[25].

Nashville and Middle Tennessee

Nashville's discretionary route is Specific Plan (SP) zoning: the site plan is the zoning, and all preliminary SP conditions must be satisfied before a building permit ^[26]. A capacity study or permit from Metro Water Services is required with the final site plan application ^[26], and since September 8, 2025, Metro Codes' ePlans portal has let one set of plans be reviewed concurrently by all permitting departments ^[27]. The Metropolitan Planning Commission approves, conditions or disapproves subdivisions after a staff recommendation and public hearing ^[28]. An SP is adopted by the Metro Council after Planning Commission review, and the Downtown Code and the UZO overlays apply on top of base zoning in the consolidated government ^[29]. The Nashville-Davidson balance counted 721,074 residents in July 2025, up 9,244 ^[30].

Growth is concentrated here: Davidson County posted Tennessee's largest population gain in 2025, 9,821 people (1.3%), with Rutherford (+6,266) and Wilson (+4,693) second and third ^[31]. In Franklin, a Development Plan (PUD) typically takes 4.5 to 5 months through BOMA when all steps are met on time, a staff meeting is required before an application is accepted, and site plan review costs $500 plus $0.02 per sq ft of nonresidential area plus $10 per dwelling unit ^[32]. Middle Tennessee also sits on limestone karst: Murfreesboro's Stormwater Management Code (Chapter 27.5) defines karst, karst windows and closed depressions ^[33], and USGS has documented sinkhole flooding in Murfreesboro and Rutherford County that has overtopped roadways ^[34]. The Nashville page covers the metro's process in more depth, and the select-service hotel model project in Murfreesboro shows a Rutherford County site.

Site factors across Tennessee

West Tennessee lies in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, where USGS states there is "a 25-40% probability of a magnitude 6.0 or greater in the next 50 years," and western counties carry higher Seismic Design Categories (C or D) than the rest of the state ^[35]; that reaches the foundations of a park's permanent buildings. Statewide, an RV in a special flood hazard area must meet manufactured home elevation and anchoring under 44 CFR 60.3(c)(14) unless it is on site fewer than 180 consecutive days, or is fully licensed and ready for highway use ^[36]. In Pigeon Forge that federal rule sits alongside Section 406 and the FP-1 district ^[4].

How Tennessee's rule compares

Florida's 25 per gross acre and 1,200 sq ft per space are hard state numbers ^[38]; Tennessee, like Georgia, gives the planning commission the count.

What the preliminary plan carries for a Tennessee park

A preliminary site plan for a Tennessee park is drawn for the PUD or zoning plan and the TDH plan together. The TDH plan must show dimensions and road widths at 1 in = 100 ft or larger ^[1]; the PUD fixes density, road widths and open space for the project ^[4]. Its site data table carries the gross acreage, the proposed density and open space, the 15 ft unit spacing, the site count against the fixture table, the share of sites serving holding-tank RVs, the 20 A, 30 A and 50 A site counts, the buffer strips, and the disturbed area against the 1 acre stormwater trigger ^{[1, 3, 4]}. In the 2023 text of NEC 551.71, every site with electrical supply has a 20 A receptacle, at least 70 percent of sites have a 30 A receptacle and at least 40 percent of new sites have a 50 A receptacle ^[41].

The plan goes to the planning commission at concept and pre-application, to a lender and to a general contractor for pricing, and the same layout drives the RV park and resort rendering views for the PUD hearing. The engineering layer belongs to the engineer of record, as set out above. The Tennessee site plan page covers the statewide layers for every asset; the RV park site plan hub and the RV resort site plan hub set out the layout method, the campground and glamping pages cover cabin and tent programs, and the RV sites per acre guide compares yields across states. Other state pages: RV park site plans in Georgia and Florida RV parks. Cost context is in what it costs to build an RV park or campground.