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

Brick Church Pike split zoning: compare the RL1 and RN1 plans before pricing the land

A November 12 Nashville hearing would place RL1 on about two acres and RN1 on about 0.73 acre. The split can support different housing choices, but it is not a unit count, site plan, permit, or cash-flow result.

Published 2026-11-09Checked 2026-11-09UPP Project Blog

The question in plain English

Metro Nashville's draft November 12 Planning Commission agenda lists a request involving 3309 Brick Church Pike and 3405 and 3409 Gwen Drive. It would move about two acres from R8 to RL1 and about 0.73 acre from R8 to RN1. Does that tell an owner how many detached homes, triplexes, quadplexes, or small apartment buildings can be built—or what the land is worth? No. The Commission has not voted, Council has final rezoning authority, and the record supplies no fitted site plan, utility commitment, budget, rent roll, or sale schedule. This is a public planning case, not a private-client project.

The short answer

Treat the split as two planning areas that must work together. Start with current R8 rights for single- and two-family homes. Test the smaller RN1 area with neighborhood-scale forms, including a triplex or quadplex only where plex-house standards and the site allow it. Test RL1 separately because it can support a broader housing menu. Then combine access, grading, drainage, utilities, fire service, parking, open space, ownership, phasing, and circulation. Do not price the land by dividing 2.73 acres by a minimum lot area or assigning the most intensive form everywhere.

What is current on November 9

The official November 12 draft agenda identifies Case 2026Z-087PR-001. It covers about 2.73 acres: roughly two acres at 3309 Brick Church Pike proposed for RL1 and about 0.73 acre across part of that property and 3405 and 3409 Gwen Drive proposed for RN1. Staff recommends approval. The Commission recommends action on zone changes; Council has final authority. Neither a recommendation nor a future hearing changes zoning today. The hearing record, Council bill and readings, adopted map, and later permits still matter. Treat the proposal as pending until those records say otherwise.

Why RL1 and RN1 are not interchangeable

Metro created Residential Neighborhood and Residential Limited districts to add housing choices in appropriate contexts. RN1 is suburban Residential Neighborhood. Adopted materials list single-family, two-family, attached homes, house courts, plex houses, and manor houses under conditions. RL1 is suburban Residential Limited and can add multiplexes, courtyard flats, and low-rise flats under conditions. A plex house is a detached building with three to six homes arranged side by side or stacked, so a triplex or quadplex may fit. The labels identify a menu and standards; they do not choose a form or approve a layout.

Build the current R8 baseline first

R8 is intended for one- and two-family residential use with an 8,000-square-foot minimum lot under Metro's zoning summary. That is not a buildable-lot formula. Confirm legal parcels, zoning, frontage, access, easements, utilities, stormwater, slopes, trees, overlays, restrictions, and subdivision history. Draw the lawful detached-home or two-family plan that survives, then add site work, fees, permits, financing, construction, sales costs, and schedule. This baseline avoids assuming the November request succeeds or pricing hoped-for zoning into today's land value.

Test the triplex or quadplex on the RN1 area

A triplex or quadplex may be worth testing because RN1 can permit a plex house under conditions. Put the building, entrances, parking, fire access, utilities, trash, grading, drainage, yards, open space, and accessible paths on a current survey. Confirm whether the 0.73-acre area remains one parcel, becomes several, or depends on shared facilities. Ask Metro to confirm the building type, frontage, lot, parking, subdivision, site-plan, and permit route in writing. If three units fit but four create an access, parking, stormwater, or fire problem, the honest result is three—not the larger pro forma.

Test the RL1 area as its own decision

The two-acre RL1 request is not spare land left after the RN1 concept. Its broader housing menu may change building form, ownership, open space, parking, utilities, and fire review. A small apartment form can require a different permit path and operating model than detached homes or one plex house. Metro says multifamily projects with three or more units can require coordinated zoning, site, and fire-life-safety review, and a master permit is not a construction permit. Compare detached homes, lawful plex forms, and any broader RL1 form only after the code and fitted site support them. Keep each option's infrastructure and review costs with that option.

Make the shared site work before counting doors

Split zoning can fail when each area is studied alone. One access point may serve both districts. Detention, sewer, a fire lane, retaining walls, or utility easements may consume land in one district while supporting homes in the other. Draw one existing-conditions plan and one infrastructure plan before assigning unit counts. Show which parcel or phase pays for shared work and who maintains it. A permitted building form is not feasible if the combined property cannot carry the roads, utilities, drainage, fire access, parking, and resident space it needs.

Compare selling now, selling later, and building

A current-zoning sale transfers rezoning, design, hearing, infrastructure, and construction risk to the buyer. A sale after rezoning may narrow one risk but still leave parcel changes, site planning, utilities, permits, and market timing unresolved. A later sale after a fitted concept may give clearer evidence, but the owner carries professional fees, taxes, insurance, interest, and delay. A build-and-sell plan adds site work, construction, financing, marketing, closeout, and warranty. Compare all paths on the same date and with the same land and infrastructure facts. Measure higher net sale proceeds against every cost and month needed to reach them.

Compare single-family sales with long-term cash flow

For detached homes built for sale, estimate net proceeds after land, roads, utilities, drainage, design, permits, construction, financing, marketing, closeout, and carrying time. For a lawful triplex, quadplex, or other hold plan, start with collected long-term rent and deduct vacancy, management, repairs, turnover, owner-paid utilities, taxes, insurance, reserves, common-area care, and debt service. Test lower rent, slower lease-up, higher cost, and a delayed second phase. Several rent streams may soften one vacancy, but more homes add systems, residents, code obligations, and management. Cash flow is what remains after those obligations—not advertised rent multiplied by the largest theoretical unit count.

Current demand supports a cautious comparison

The Census Bureau estimates Davidson County at 745,904 residents on July 1, 2025, with 389,379 housing units, 5,632 building permits in 2025, a 52.8% owner-occupied rate, a median owner-occupied value of $417,400, and median gross rent of $1,582. FRED's publicly displayed September 2026 estimates show 12,150 active Nashville-area listings, 62 median days on market, and 4,606 price reductions. Those figures support conservative sale timing and cash-flow tests; they do not prove demand, price, rent, approval, construction cost, financing, absorption, or profit for these properties. The broad U.S. Google Trends feed had no matching land-development topic, which is not evidence of zero niche demand.

What the anonymous site signal says

Urban Planning Pros reviewed 2,959 anonymous content events from October 10 through November 9: 2,947 page views, seven service clicks, four Review My Property clicks, and one guide read. The home page had 207 views, request-a-quote 110, the book page 92, insights 63, services 52, the Nashville growth-map guide 44, property-review-before-drawings 41, fractional feasibility 39, and the phased sales-and-rental guide 37. Every city and referrer field was empty. The activity supports a plain-English feasibility and housing-choice guide, but not a Brick Church Pike demand claim. Search Console reporting was not connected. No live Similarweb connection was available, so no Similarweb value was used, estimated, or invented.

The resident and neighborhood test belongs in the plan

A split-zoning plan should feel like one place, not two unrelated projects. Test walking routes, street and emergency access, parking spillover, drainage, utilities, trash, lighting, trees, privacy, outdoor space, and the relationship between more intensive forms and nearby homes. Smaller homes can add housing choice and share infrastructure. Poor phasing can shift water, traffic, maintenance, noise, or parking problems to residents and neighbors. The durable plan gives residents reliable services and useful space while leaving enough income and contingency for the owner to maintain it well.

What to verify before choosing the plan

Collect the November 12 agenda and later action, Council bill, adopted zoning map, survey, deeds, plats, easements, restrictions, title exceptions, utility and drainage records, overlays, access comments, and any concept. Ask Metro to confirm the final zoning boundaries, building forms, lot and frontage rules, parking, access, fire review, stormwater, utility capacity, subdivision, permits, and phasing. Price the current R8 single-family or two-family case first. Compare RN1 single-family, triplex, and quadplex options and RL1 forms only where written rules and a fitted plan support them. Urban Planning Pros can organize the zoning, site, infrastructure, cost, and sell-versus-hold comparison through a Development Feasibility Study. Use Review My Property below to start with the actual land. Information was checked November 9, 2026.

Source note

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