Question 1

What did BL2025-1006 change about tall-skinny height?

Accepted Answer

Maximum height on the single-family and two-family bulk table dropped from 3 stories to 2.5 stories. The ordinance passed third reading December 16, 2025 and was approved December 17, with the height table itself effective February 27, 2026. Note 6 sets 24 feet to the eave or parapet and 35 feet to the roof ridge, with a blockface exception where more than half the existing structures on the same block face already exceed 35 feet. A new half-story definition at 17.04.060 counts a half story as a full story if the top wall plates on at least two opposite exterior walls sit more than 4 feet above that story's floor, so attic space you used to get for free now counts. Dormers cannot occupy more than 50% of a roof face, must sit at least 2 feet below the ridge, and must be inset at least 2 feet. Note 4 keeps the tall-skinny ratio itself: two detached units on one lot cannot exceed 1.0 horizontal to 1.5 vertical per structure. A deal underwritten before 2026 to a 3-story outside the interstate loop does not pencil the same way now.

Question 2

Is there anywhere in Nashville the 3-story envelope survives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, inside the interstate loop. Note 7, the urban-core carve-out added by amendment, keeps the maximum at 3 stories in 45 feet within the area bounded north by I-65, west by I-65 and I-40, south by I-40, and east by I-24, and the Note 6 eave and ridge maximums do not apply there. Outside that boundary you are building to 2.5 stories, 24 feet to the eave and 35 feet to the ridge, unless the blockface exception applies. That boundary is now a real value line on a lot basis, so confirm which side of it your parcel sits on before you set a budget and a sale price. The other half of the same ordinance runs in your favor: the old five-part conditions test for two-family, with its pre-1984 lot-of-record requirement and 25% subdivision caps, is deleted in full and replaced with a straight rule. Two-family is permitted on any lot legally created under state law or inside an approved final plat, as long as it meets the district minimum lot size.

Question 3

How do two detached houses end up on one Nashville lot?

Accepted Answer

Through the Tennessee Horizontal Property Act, not through a subdivision. Under T.C.A. section 66-27-102 an apartment is any part of the property intended for independent use, and the definition expressly includes a separate free-standing building. A recorded master deed creates the regime, which is how two physically detached houses are conveyed as separate units on a single legal lot. That matters to us at three points: the comps an appraiser can use, how title reads, and the release mechanics when you sell unit one and still owe on unit two. Bring the master deed language to underwriting early rather than at the closing table. Structuring the regime itself is your real estate attorney's call, not ours. One more piece of the same ordinance: two-family structures legally built before the effective date may remove the connector.

Question 4

Do the new RN and RL districts mean I can build more units by right?

Accepted Answer

No. RN and RL have to be applied for parcel by parcel. BL2025-1005 passed December 4, 2025 and took effect December 12, creating Residential Neighborhood and Residential Limited as new districts at 17.08.010.B, along with building types including Single-Family Attached, House Court, Plex House, Manor House, Multiplex, Courtyard Flats and Low-Rise Flats. RN allows houses and townhouses at lower density near corridors, parks, schools and transit; RL allows houses, townhouses or small apartment buildings at moderate density near transit corridors. This is the scaled-back version of the earlier broad upzoning, and the districts are not applied countywide. Getting them means a rezoning, with Planning Commission and Council review each time, on your clock. Underwrite the lot yield you have today and treat the rezoning as upside, not as the base case. Two companion bills did pass in the same package and are worth knowing: BL2025-1007 expanded detached accessory dwelling units across large parts of the Urban Services District without an overlay, and BL2026-1257, passed April 21, 2026, allows a DADU on a legally created residential lot with non-conforming lot area.

Question 5

Is there anything that puts a clock on Metro plan review?

Accepted Answer

There will be, starting January 1, 2027. Tennessee Public Chapter 1044 binds every city, county and metropolitan government in the state, Metro Nashville included. Written staff comments are due within 30 business days, and approval or advancement to the decision-making body within 60 business days of submittal. Miss either deadline and the application is automatically approved as submitted. Local governments get at most two written notices of deficiency; after that they must deny and refund half the application fee, conditionally approve, or put it on the next available agenda. A new section 7-70-101 gives 120 business days to release surety once an independent engineer certifies completion, with a written response due in 20. Read the limits honestly: it forces timely action, not approval, and it governs plan review, not the physical inspection cycle. Until then Metro Codes publishes no review standard or service-level target at all, though it does run concurrent electronic review with Water and Sewer, Stormwater, Health, the Fire Marshal, Planning, NDOT and Historic on one plan set. One scheduling trap to plan around: only registered licensed contractors can hold an ePermits account and self-issue online. An unlicensed owner-borrower has to appear in person, and that is real calendar on an owner-managed build.

Question 6

Is crew availability still the binding constraint on a Nashville build?

Accepted Answer

Not as of mid-2026. The labor-shortage framing is out of date. Nashville MSA construction employment ran 63,000 in June 2023, 66,300 in 2024 and 67,300 in 2025, then fell to 65,800 in June 2026, down 2.2% year over year. Employment peaked in 2025 and is contracting, which says the constraint today is demand and capital cost, not crews. Materials are the line that moved against you: BLS producer prices for inputs to residential construction were up 9.0% in June 2026 over June 2025, against 3.2% the prior year, with steel mill products up 16.0%, lumber and wood up 5.1% and ready-mix concrete up 1.8%. Permit volume tells you where the work went. Davidson County single-family permits were down 35.1% in the first half of 2026 while Rutherford County, the I-24 southeast corridor through Murfreesboro and Smyrna, was up 17.6% and took a quarter of all MSA single-family permits. Build your bid off current subcontractor pricing rather than last year's, and expect us to underwrite the contingency line, not just the hard cost.

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