Case Study: East Nashville, Tennesse

Nashville, Tennessee has a number of historic zoning overlay districts in a variety of locations including the downtown, urban neighborhoods, and some neighborhoods farther from the city center. While Nashville uses both historic preservation districts and conservation districts, the Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay (NCZO) is more popular and widely used, accounting for 10% of total parcels within Nashville city limits (Placeeconomics, 2019, p. 9). According to PlaceEconomics and their study on historic preservation in Nashville, the city has 23 conservation overlay districts. Particularly, East Nashville, known for being a home to creative working individuals, has made a name for itself within the broader Music City. East Nashville embraces a variety of businesses, restaurants, local retailers, art galleries, and a unique nightlife scene. Five points, one of the major commercial districts in East Nashville, is surrounded by two historic overlays, and is partially located within a conservation overlay. The area has developed into a commercial center for East Nashville and developed creatively and successfully while also protecting urban housing stock and unique historic and local resources. Due to the success and growth in established East Nashville neighborhoods, commercial centers, and mixed-use areas, Nashville continues to invest and support growth in historic neighborhoods and their accompanied conservation overlays.

East Nashville, and the Five Points area specifically, feels very similar to the Village of West Greenville. East Nashville is marketed as the hip, artsy, and alternative version of Music City, but it also encapsulates this creative environment that is distinct from downtown Nashville. In the 1970s neighborhoods such as Edgefield and Lockeland Springs- East End, located in East Nashville, were rediscovered by those in need of more affordable housing. By the 1990s, young musicians, artists, and creative types discovered East Nashville’s charming qualities and low housing and rent costs (Historic Edgefield Timeline, n.d.). The Five Points area was specifically marked as a redevelopment zone by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) (“Redevelopment Districts,” n.d.). This designation along with the conservation overlay have helped to protect the historic character of the area, preserving the qualities of a walkable urban neighborhood, and creating the unique and lively urban neighborhood center it is today.

The Metropolitan Historic Zoning Commission is responsible for reviewing applications for new zoning overlay districts and approves and reviews permits for changes to structures in the historic overlay districts throughout the city (Metropolitan Government of Nashville, n.d.). The Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay (NCZO) is described as, “the least restrictive type and only guides change for new construction, additions, demolitions or moving of structures” (Metropolitan Historic Zoning Commission, 2022, p. 7). Placeeconomics similarly describes this overlay type as a way to protect character, with less stringent guidelines (2019, p. 8). According to the Metropolitan Historic Zoning Commission (MHZC), the use of these zones is typically initiated by local residents or neighborhood members. The zoning proposal will work its way through the MHZC and end up facing final decisions in front of the Metropolitan Council. If approved, the zoning overlay is supported with the adoption of an ordinance and area-specific design guidelines.

Instead, their oversight would be required by developers and others making changes in the district, who would need to work with the board before receiving formal approval from the Planning Commission. Overall, the board would be concerned with promoting design that fit its own limited guidelines that would focus on mass, form, and scale more than paint color or fenestrations, for example.

Altogether, if the city created this body, the West Greenville Conservation District Board, the organization would fill the void between city and Village communication, serving as an official advisory board for the neighborhood, as well as providing a specific method with which to bring residents and business owners together as part of one voice.

Drawing from the rationale used to define the study area, the conservation district boundaries will need to be set to include the properties most likely to harbor larger-scale new development, which are predicted to be proposed close to Pendleton Street and the Village’s core buildings, as well as larger redevelopments, like Brandon and Woodside Mills, or Poe West. As such, a proposed boundary has been prepared that includes 467 parcels, and as previously explained, this new overlay would be placed under the jurisdiction of the West Greenville Conservation District Commission.

As seen in the included graphic, the proposed conservation district includes up to 467 parcels, stretching from Brandon Mill and the Shoeless Joe Jackson Memorial Park, across the railroad easement dividing the neighborhood and up to Woodlawn Ave, some parcels northeast of Poe West, and along the triple corridors of Perry Ave, Pendleton Street, and Traction Avenue toward downtown. Woodside Mill and its adjacent residential neighborhood was deemed too spatially distant from the Village core to be included within these initial boundaries. Conversely, the height and scale of Brandon Mill, which is far closer to Pendleton Street and ongoing redevelopment, could encourage surrounding projects to scale up or add inappropriate density. As such, it has been included in the conservation district. The same potential to spur development incongruent with the rest of the Village is true of the major streets, especially Pendleton Street, as it was highlighted as a corridor with the suggestion for denser adjacent land use in GVL 2040, the city’s comprehensive plan.

Additionally, this boundary was set to limit the amount of parcels the proposed neighborhood board will be able to weigh in on, as an unnecessarily excessive jurisdiction runs the risk of overloading the group. Also of note, many of the proposed parcels fall outside of city limits, meaning an agreement would have to be arranged between Greenville County and the city, in conjunction with the neighborhood, to legally establish this zone in that unincorporated area. Annexation may be a better solution, as well as the inevitable one, as any legal power of such a board is dependent on local authority. See Section 5.3 for recommendations concerning annexation by the city.

Of course, this proposed boundary should not be seen as the permanent limits of the conservation district, but instead one that must be agreed to by the community, and revisited at regular intervals, such as every five to 10 years, to be redrawn. Though this conservation district will differ from Greenville’s preservation overlays, it will follow the same process of originating from the neighborhood and working its way up with the help of professionals until it meets and receives approval by the Greenville City Council and Planning Commission.