Here the Buyer Might Actually Be Eligible
Which is unusual and it changes who competes for a damaged property.
New not owner-occupied permits are barred in AR2A, R, RS and RM zoned properties, and permitted with conditions across a range of mixed use, office, commercial and downtown districts. North of downtown both kinds of district exist within short distances of each other, so a purchasing investor here may be eligible where the same buyer a mile east would not be. The full position is on our page covering the permit and the charter.
Does That Raise What My Property Is Worth?
Specific Plans Complicate It Further
A good deal of the redevelopment through this part of the city has happened under Specific Plan zoning or within Planned Unit Developments, and the permit position there is not a matter of general rule.
Permits for SP zoned properties and properties within a PUD are issued only if the SP or PUD allows it, and the conditions attaching to those are a question for the Planning Commission. So an owner in one of them cannot read the answer off any published district table.
How Do I Find out What My SP Says?
We publish no zoning determinations, SP conditions or permit eligibility conclusions for individual north Nashville parcels. Metro and the Planning Commission hold those and will answer for your address.
What the Age of the Housing Adds
The stock here is among the oldest in the city, and after a fire that mainly affects how confidently anyone can price it.
Buildings of this age have usually been altered several times, so the construction date is a weak guide to what is actually behind the finishes. That widens the range of outcomes a buyer has to allow for, and buyers price the unfavourable end of a wide range.
An inspection narrows it, and on older stock that narrowing is worth considerably more than it costs. It is the same reason two apparently similar buildings on the same street attract very different offers.
Two Enquiries Rather Than One
The practical summary for this area. Owners elsewhere in the county have one question to resolve before taking offers, which is what the fire did. Here there are two, because the zoning answer changes who your buyers are and the structural answer changes what they are buying.
Both are answerable in a week and neither costs much. An owner who has done both is negotiating with the same information as the buyers across the table, which in this particular area is not the usual position.
Germantown in Context
Where the zoning is more uniformly residential and the framing does the deciding, see our page about East Nashville. Where zoning varies even more sharply along industrial edges, see our page for South Nashville and Wedgewood-Houston.
The Sections That Govern the Question
Permit requirements sit at section 6.28.030 of the Metropolitan Code, with zoning treatment at sections 17.16.250 and 17.16.070. Ordinance BL2020-187 is the current law, following BL2016-381 and BL2016-492, and Tennessee's framework is at sections 13-7-601 to 13-7-606.
A permit runs 12 months and renews at $313.00. Housing across this area largely predates 1920, which is why the construction date is a weak guide to what sits behind the finishes.
North Nashville Questions
Can a Buyer Be Permitted at My Address?
Depends on the district under your specific parcel, and here that differs over short distances. Metro will confirm it, free.
I Am in a Specific Plan Area.
Then the general district rules do not answer it. The Planning Commission holds the conditions and is the right place to ask.
Will You Buy an Older Building Here?
Yes. Where the zoning makes a permitted buyer eligible, we will often tell you that buyer can pay more than we can.