Planning Department

Downtown Community Plan (Subarea 9)

downtownFinal draft of Downtown Code posted

The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the Downtown Code and its related amendments at the regular Commission meeting on Thursday, November 12; the Code is on the Metro Council's January 5, 2010 agenda.

Final Draft of the Code, posted November 6

Edits to the draft

Draft Ordinance

Community Plan Amendments

Executive summary

How to use this plan

Downtown vision

Amendment maps

Downtown neighborhoods

Downtown neighborhoods: Central

Downtown neighborhoods: Gulches

Downtown neighborhoods: North

Downtown neighborhoods: South

Attachment to resolution document

Questions or comments about the Downtown Plan

Questions or comments about the Downtown Plan

Downton buildingsProposed amendments to the Downtown Community Plan would provide closer connection with Downtown Code

Planners held a community meeting September 3 to review proposed amendments to the Downtown Community Plan. Those amendments would better focus the Downtown Plan on broader intent and vision language which will be implemented in large part through the draft Downtown Code, a new zoning code which would promote development of the new neighborhoods envisioned in the Downtown Plan inside the I-40 loop; planners' presentation from that meeting and an updated draft of the Downtown Code are posted below.

Presentation from the Sept. 3 meeting

Summary of proposed updates to the Downtown Community Plan

Contact project manager Joni Priest to schedule an informational presentation for your business, community, or neighborhood organization.

Who is proposing the Community Plan amendments and why are they being proposed?

The Metropolitan Planning Department is proposing the amendments, and their purpose is:

  • To maintain consistency between the Downtown Plan and the new DTC that will be used to implement it;
  • To reflect the results of further analysis that went into developing the DTC and that revealed the need for refinements to the Downtown Plan; and
  • To better focus the Downtown Plan on intent rather than regulation and allow the new DTC to address the more quantitative elements.

The proposed amendments to the Downtown Plan fall into two categories: changes to the policy and its regulatory subdistrict maps, and changes to the text of the Downtown Community Plan.

The map changes would align boundaries in the Community Plan with boundaries in the proposed DTC; the text changes would ensure that the guidance contained in the Plan is consistent with the regulatory standards used to implement the Plan, and that the Plan focuses more heavily on intent language than it does on quantitative standards. All of these proposed changes are refinements resulting from the further analysis that went into developing the proposed DTC.

Summary of Proposed Amendments to the Downtown Community Plan: 2007 Update

Community Plan guides downtown growth and development

The Downtown Community Plan is one of fourteen community plans which guide growth and development in Davidson County.  Each of those plans is updated every seven to ten years, and amended as necessary; the Planning Commission unanimously adopted the Downtown Plan on February 22, 2007.

This page also includes Detailed Neighborhood Design Plans and Urban Design Overlays in the Downtown area.  Links to individual DNDPs are found in Chapter 5 of the plan document.

Land use policies shown in the Community Plan and the DNDPs are contained in the Land Use Policy Application document, or "LUPA." On August 14, 2008, the Planning Commission approved a new land-use document, the Community Character Manual which replaces the Land Use Policy Application.  The CCM will be used as community plans and amendments are updated in Subarea 9.

Urban Design Overlays

For more information or questions on the Downtown Community Plan, please contact:
Jennifer Carlat
Community Plans
Metropolitan Planning Department
800 2nd Avenue South
Nashville TN 37210
(615) 862-7210

Joni Priest
Design Studio
Metropolitan Planning Department
800 2nd Avenue South
Nashville TN 37210
(615) 862-7165