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Communities, Retreats & Experiences / Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee

Brandau Road mixed-use proposal: compare home lots with long-term operating income

Metro Nashville's October 22 packet compares a paper maximum of 136 RS15 home lots with a 47.08-acre mixed-use plan for rural, hospitality, event, food, and residential uses. Neither path is approved income.

Published 2026-10-22Checked 2026-10-22UPP Project Blog

The question in plain English

Metro Nashville's October 22 Planning Commission packet includes a 47.08-acre Brandau Road proposal identified as Copperline Ranch. The land is now zoned RS15 for single-family homes. The request would create a property-specific mixed-use plan for rural, agricultural, cultural, lodging, event, food, beverage, and residential uses. Should an owner value land like this only by the home lots it might produce, or by the income an operating place might earn over time? The answer is to compare both with the same evidence. This is a named public planning case. It is not an Urban Planning Pros project, a Retreat Companies project, or private client work.

The short answer

The current zoning produces a paper maximum of 136 single-family lots based on acreage alone. Metro's staff report immediately warns that streets, open space, drainage, utilities, and the subdivision rules may reduce that count. The proposed plan takes a different path: it would allow up to 120,000 square feet of listed residential and nonresidential uses, but within a low overall building footprint and detailed conditions. Neither number is a guaranteed value. One path depends on buildable lots, infrastructure, home prices, and sales pace. The other depends on final approvals, water and sewer capacity, access, noise limits, construction cost, and an operating business that can attract and retain customers.

What is current on October 22

Case 2026SP-016-001 is scheduled with an associated community-plan amendment. Metro staff recommends approval with conditions only if the related plan amendment is also approved. The Planning Commission meeting had not occurred when this Field Note was checked, so the packet is a recommendation—not an approval, permit, or promise that every listed use will open. The public report describes existing residences, an event barn, studios, maintenance buildings, a tennis court, ponds, pastures, woods, a creek corridor, and a historic spring-fed aqueduct. It says Brandau Road is the property's only road frontage. Those facts make the case useful for owners of working land whose value may come from both real estate and an operating use.

Start with the single-family land case

RS15 zoning requires at least 15,000 square feet per lot and is intended for single-family homes. Metro calculates up to 136 lots from gross acreage, but that is not a subdivision plan. A serious home-lot case must map flood areas, the creek, ponds, slopes, trees to preserve, soils, road grades, fire access, stormwater space, water and sewer routes, utility easements, buffers, and usable open space. Brandau Road access and any off-site improvements also matter. Build low, expected, and high lot-count cases. Price the expected case only after the largest constraints are mapped, and keep the low case in the financing decision. A paper count can be useful, but it is not the same as recorded or buildable lots.

Then test the operating-place case

The proposed plan would use modified commercial rules to continue and regulate a mix of rural and hospitality activities. The staff report identifies possible event, lodging, studio, equestrian, food-and-beverage, tasting-room, artisan-distillery, festival, and agricultural uses while prohibiting several auto-oriented and other uses. It limits building area to 120,000 square feet and an overall floor-area ratio of 0.1, with height limited to three stories or 40 feet. Live or amplified music would have to end by 8:00 p.m., and commercial noise rules and a sound limit would apply. That can preserve open land while allowing income, but only if demand, staffing, insurance, licensing, parking, maintenance, and year-round operations work.

Residential permission still needs a real unit plan

The proposal includes residential uses, but the staff report does not publish a final number or mix of homes. It says the number of residential units may vary, which is why Metro does not make a final school-impact estimate. Do not convert 120,000 square feet into a guessed unit count. Confirm the exact residential building types allowed by the final ordinance and plan, then prepare a site plan that fits the listed nonresidential uses, access, fire protection, utilities, parking, stormwater, buffers, and private-drive maintenance. A home used by an owner, staff housing, lodging for guests, a long-term rental, and a home sold on its own lot are different legal and financial products. Each needs a clear place in the approval and operating plan.

Triplexes and quadplexes are a separate decision

A mixed-use label does not automatically approve a triplex or quadplex. Metro's conditions say permitted uses will follow the final property-specific plan and its listed commercial base rules. Before assigning value to three or four long-term homes in one building, obtain written confirmation that the exact building type is allowed. Then test fire access, water and sewer demand, parking, private drives, trash, mail, outdoor space, accessibility, building code, insurance, financing, management, and how residents would live beside events or guest activity. A triplex or quadplex could add steady housing income and serve workers, families, or older residents, but only where the final rules and site plan support it. Keep unconfirmed rent out of the base case.

Compare selling and holding on one page

Put at least four choices side by side: sell under current zoning; seek subdivision approval and sell lots or homes; seek the mixed-use plan and sell the approved operating property; or hold the land and run lawful uses for income. The subdivision case includes survey, design, roads, drainage, utilities, permits, financing, construction, sales, commissions, and warranty costs. The operating case includes plan approval, final site work, buildings, parking, furnishings, licenses, insurance, payroll, marketing, repairs, reserves, taxes, utilities, and slow seasons. If housing is confirmed, model home sales and long-term rent separately from event or lodging revenue. Use conservative occupancy, vacancy, and margin assumptions, then compare cash flow after debt and reserves—not gross sales.

The unfinished approvals belong in the budget

Metro Water Services says public or private water and sewer construction plans must be approved before the final plan. A capacity study and payment are required before capacity is reserved, and capacity is not guaranteed until the full charge is paid. Nashville's transportation staff says a multimodal transportation study may be required, with vehicle and pedestrian improvements carried into the final plan. New access points must meet current rules. The conditions also call for a landscape buffer and six-foot masonry wall beside the Magnolia Farms subdivision, final architectural elevations, possible platting, fire access, water supply, and review of changes to buildings, uses, or access. These are not footnotes; they affect cost, timing, phasing, and debt.

A good plan protects neighbors and the business

The proposal sits beside rural land, homes, a subdivision, a railroad, and environmentally sensitive areas. The public conditions address noise, buffers, access, fire protection, water, sewer, and open-space character because those issues shape daily life for residents and guests. A workable plan should also manage event traffic, lighting, deliveries, waste, security, quiet hours, pond and creek safety, private-road maintenance, and emergency response. Those protections can feel like lost building area in a quick land model, but they help reduce conflict and support a dependable place people will return to. Community fit and business durability are part of the same value test.

Demand supports comparison, not a promise

The Census Bureau estimates Davidson County at 745,904 people in 2025, up 4.2% from the 2020 estimate base. It reports 389,379 housing units, 5,632 building permits in 2025, a median owner-occupied home value of $417,400, and median gross rent of $1,582 for 2020 through 2024. Those countywide figures support testing housing and operating uses, but they do not prove demand, price, rent, event bookings, occupancy, approval, or profit for Brandau Road. Urban Planning Pros also reviewed 1,406 anonymous site events from the last 30 days: 1,400 page views, four property-review clicks, and two service clicks. No event included a city value, so the activity supports this decision format—not a Nashville demand claim.

The next property check

For a property with both development and operating potential, confirm the current zoning, final proposed use list, approval stage, buildable land, flood and drainage areas, road access, soils, water and sewer capacity, fire protection, utility work, buffers, noise rules, licenses, and every condition that survives approval. Prepare a conservative single-family plan, a separate lawful triplex or quadplex case if the City confirms it, and an operating plan with real staffing and expense assumptions. Compare selling now, selling after approval, building homes for sale, holding homes for rent, and holding the larger place for operating income. Urban Planning Pros can organize this through a Highest & Best Use Analysis. Use the Review My Property link below to begin with the actual land. Nashville information was checked October 22, 2026.

Source note

Highest & Best Use Analysis ↗Review My Property ↗