Metro Nashville Police’s Entertainment District Unit patrols Lower Broadway
A night with Metro Nashville Police’s Entertainment District Unit as the officers patrol Lower Broadway
Andrew Nelles, Nashville Tennessean
Change may be on the horizon for Nashville’s Historic Zoning Commission.
Consultants hired by the city’s planning and codes departments recommended that the commission — currently its own agency of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County — be reorganized within the Metro Planning Department, according to a report completed Jan. 23 and shared with The Tennessean a day later.
Doing so would require a series of additional steps, from securing Metro Nashville Council approval to making changes to Metro code. But the report says tensions at play between the Historic Zoning Commission and business owners on Broadway is one reason an overhaul is necessary.
“Of those with whom we spoke, very few think that Metro’s current historic preservation process is working well, especially as it relates to the downtown historic zoning overlays,” the report reads. “While there is always a healthy tension in a productive regulatory process, the degree of frustration is extensive and has led to serious efforts in the state legislature to preclude (the commission’s) authority over the Broadway and Second Avenue areas.”
What to know about how the Historic Zoning Commission works
HDR Engineering, the firm that completed the review, developed its findings in part by interviewing roughly two dozen people with insight about the commission’s process for regulating historic preservation efforts.
The commission is a nine-member board that reviews applications for work on properties that fall within a “historic overlay,” a type of zoning applied in addition to the base or land-use zoning of an area.
Six different types of historic overlays protect more than 30 areas throughout Davidson County. Areas like Broadway and downtown are in a type of overlay that regulates the majority of exterior alterations, while guidelines for the “Neighborhood Conservation” overlay type that applies to portions of places such as Belle Meade or Edgehill is much less restrictive.
The report suggests that this “single-function regulatory approach” isn’t the best model going forward, though it also acknowledges that the group’s independence and specific focus was important in giving voice to historic preservation efforts in decades past.
Consultants stopped short of sharing any sort of plan for moving the commission within the planning department, calling that “beyond the scope of this engagement.”
Tensions with Broadway business owners
One section of the report highlights recent efforts to amend state law to substantially limit historic zoning commissions’ authority in areas designated as tourist destination zones.
In Nashville, that legislative push involved the Broadway Entertainment Association, an alliance of downtown business owners that formed in early 2023 to back beneficial policies for the Lower Broadway tourism hub. Originally formed with 14 members, the coalition now lists three dozen members on its website.
That same year, the Tennessee legislature considered draft regulations that, according to the report, “would essentially exempt the Broadway area from any local government regulatory authority based on historic considerations.”
“While this law did not pass in 2023, several interviewees indicate that it will be revived in a subsequent legislative session if no resolution of the ongoing issues between the (Historic Zoning Commission) and Broadway stakeholders is found,” the report reads.
That wasn’t the first noteworthy clash between the commission and Broadway business owners. In 2017, a smaller group of seven owners publicly opposed a set of proposed downtown design guidelines. Tensions continued into the following year, with Broadway business owners saying historic zoning issues were hurting business. And in turn, the commission sued a honky-tonk in early 2019 accusing it of violating an August 2017 policy banning colored exterior lights in districts with historic overlays.
