What Franklin approved from July to September 2026

01The short version

From July 1 to September 30, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved development plans with 512 homes and adopted four zoning ordinances, and the Planning Commission approved final plats creating 98 house lots. All 512 homes are in four plans the board approved on August 11: Bassett's 230 apartments on the Goose Creek Bypass, the Franklin Housing Authority's rebuilding of Iris Place and Denson Place with 144 and 97 homes, and Poplars Reserve, 41 single-family lots on 22.78 acres off Clovercroft Road that the city annexed from the county on August 25. The housing authority's two plans replace 71 units standing on their sites, so the four add 441 homes to what is there now.

Two more plans had the commission's recommendation and were waiting on the board when the quarter ended. Harpeth Village is 187 multifamily homes and 75,000 square feet of nonresidential space on Franklin Road; Branch Creek Crossing puts 40 condominiums where an office building was approved. Both rezonings passed first reading on October 13, 7 to 0, and their hearings are on November 10.

The construction guarantees show what is still being built. The commission acted on 36 surety items in 25 developments: it extended 35 guarantees on work not yet finished and released five after the city accepted the work.

Fifteen of the quarter's land-use votes drew a no, 13 of them at the board. Patrick Baggett voted no on 11 of those 13, nine of them on Poplars Reserve.

08The rules

On September 24 the commission recommended the zoning ordinance's annual update, 8 to 0, after amending it four times: gas stations keep pitched roofs outside the light industrial district, data centers must be half a mile from a residential lot rather than the quarter mile staff proposed, screened shipping containers may stand in side yards, and the farm at 4488 Peytonsville Road stays out of the hillside overlay. The update also writes in the city's procedures for the state's review deadlines, which begin on January 1, 2027; the shot clock explains them. The board's readings are set for October 27, November 24 and December 8.

The commission also recommended Ordinance 2026-22, which loosens the glazing and metal rules for commercial recreation buildings and is a separate ordinance because state law requires building materials to be regulated through a separate approval.

09Coming in the fourth quarter

From the October 22 agendas and packets, the commission's draft minutes of September 24 and the city's public hearings page as the rezoning explainer read it on October 19. No agenda yet sets the third readings for Harpeth Village and Branch Creek Crossing; on the usual calendar they would come two weeks after the hearing.

The workshops are the earliest public look at a project. Of the five development concepts shown at the quarter's three, Westhaven's surety change and Branch Creek Crossing reached the commission at its next meeting, Huffines Ridge and Iron Horse are on its October 22 agenda, and the applicant for a hotel in the Riverview house at 151 Franklin Road withdrew its plan amendment before the commission's September 24 meeting.

10The spreadsheet

Every row behind this page is in a spreadsheet: 92 actions, each with its meeting, the agenda's whole title, what the body did, the vote and every name, the acres, the district and the lots, and links to the meeting and the minutes. A second sheet has the nine projects with records. It comes with a PDF of this edition that adds an appendix of every action, for brokerages, builders, title companies, lenders and anyone else who tracks what Franklin approves. Its columns:

date

The meeting's date.

body

The Planning Commission or the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

item

The item's number on that meeting's agenda.

kind

Rezoning, annexation, plan of services, development plan, final or preliminary plat, site plan, surety, vested rights, developer agreement, zoning ordinance text or development policy.

project

The development, as the agenda names it.

tracker_page

The project's page on our development tracker, with every board's history.

measure

The ordinance, resolution or contract number.

agenda_title

The item's whole title on the agenda: acres, districts, location, lots.

consent_agenda

Whether it passed in one vote with the rest of the consent agenda.

reading

First, second or third reading, for an ordinance or annexation.

outcome

What the body did: recommended, approved, passed a reading, adopted, deferred, denied.

final

Whether this was the last vote it needs.

vote

The deciding motion's count, ayes first.

ayes

Who voted yes, by name.

noes

Who voted no.

recused

Who stepped aside.

abstained

Who abstained.

motion

The motion as the minutes word it.

modifications_voted

How many modifications of development standards were voted separately.

split_motions

How many of the item's motions drew a no.

acres

The acreage in the title.

pd_district

The planned district a rezoning asks for.

homes_per_acre

The district's homes to the acre.

nonresidential_sqft_allowed

The district's nonresidential square feet.

residential_lots

House lots a plat creates.

commercial_lots

Commercial lots a plat creates.

open_space_lots

Open space lots a plat creates.

sureties_extended

Performance or maintenance agreements extended: work not yet finished.

sureties_released

Agreements released after the city accepted the work.

maintenance_established

One-year maintenance agreements that follow a release.

minutes_status

Signed, approved draft or draft minutes.

meeting_page

The meeting on the city's portal, with its video.

minutes_file

The minutes we read (for a draft, the agenda packet that prints them).

Ask for the spreadsheet

11How this report is made

From the same meeting records as the people pages: every motion in the minutes of the commission's three meetings and the board's five in the quarter, with the names. The commission's minutes give each vote as a count and name only those voting no, abstaining or stepping aside, so its yes votes are the members present who are not named otherwise. Acres, districts and lots are read from the agenda titles, which print them. Homes, square feet and applicants come from the commission's minutes or the staff report, and each project's sources are in its record. An item's main motion decides it, after any modifications and amendments, and a third reading on the board's consent agenda is a final vote.

The commission's September 24 meeting is from its draft minutes, which it is to approve on October 22, and the board's September 22 minutes are an approved draft. Not covered: the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Historic Zoning Commission, building permits, and the county's planning commission, which decides land outside the city. A fact found wrong is corrected here with a dated note.