A battle is brewing in Nashville over efforts to alter zoning to allow missing middle housing. Growing opposition is playing a familiar tune.

Protect our neighborhoods.”

Earlier this year, Metro Nashville Planning released its draft of

Image source: Housing And Infrastructure Study, Nashville

Median-income households earning $100,000 a year can afford homes in only 9% of neighborhoods, dropping to less than 1% for Black and Hispanic families, the study finds.

Missing Middle Solution

The study recommends altering zoning for more low-rise, moderately dense housing types.

By striking a balance between construction and land costs, they can provide both rental and ownership opportunities at a lower price point and more in keeping with smaller homes off of corridors,” the study notes. “New construction alone will not perfectly match the incomes of low- and moderate-income households but adding more homes at a lower cost than either large-lot houses or dense towers in downtown will absorb demand from other areas of the market and reduce the pressure on older homes, keeping them more affordable.”

Based on its findings, Nashville’s city planning department determined that new for-sale home prices could be $220,000 to $344,000 less than typical current prices, and rents would drop by $300-to-$600 per month.

The study says the income needed to afford this housing would drop by 12% to 30%, depending on the building type. Rents were 100% of the area median income, while for-sale homes remain priced at or above 200% of AMI.

What’s Next

The study’s findings and rezoning recommendations will be hashed out publicly throughout this year, likely drawing stiff opposition from West Nashville and other parts of the city.

An added complexity is that the city and the county are the same. Nashville and Davidson County consolidated in 1963, and the Metro Council has 40 members, the third largest in the country behind Chicago and New York City.

Decision-making can take a long time.

Opponents of the added missing-middle density recommendations claim that Nashville has plenty of land available for residential development after the council passed legislation last year to open commercially zoned areas to residential.

Other West Nashville residents – opposing changes to current zoning that restricts missing middle residential buildings – are even looking into how to break ties with Nashville and create their own city, like Belle Meade.

For perspective, Belle Meade was a plantation dating back to the early 19th century. Planned residential development came in the early 20th century, and Belle Meade was incorporated in 1938. An old-money, wealthy city, Belle Meade remains independent, along with Goodlettsville and Berry Hill, a small area not far from downtown Nashville.

West Meade is newer and was once part of the Belle Meade Plantation. Residential development started in the 1940s, post-World War II ranch homes on one-acre and larger lots. This area has been popular for teardowns in favor of much bigger homes — the McMansions that sell in the millions.

The feeling is that it’s their choice to tear down and build bigger if they want, and it should remain that way.

Some of the same crowd of opponents defeated a light-rail referendum in 2018 and previous transit plans. They tried and failed to beat last year’s transit referendum, which included supporting affordable housing. Even though that referendum passed handily, opponents sued to invalidate the election results.

That matter is still in the courts.

Proponents of missing middle housing everywhere will do well to watch how the fight plays out in Nashville. It could serve as an extended-run sneak preview – for better or worse – of local zoning dust-ups coming to a city hall near you.