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Latest articles and guides
Every walkthrough, explainer, guide, atlas and report, newest first. The sections gather the same pieces by what they are about.
October 2026.
What opened and closed in Franklin in 2026
Every restaurant, bar, coffee shop and store that opened, closed or was announced at a Franklin address this year, month by month, with the date and where we read it.
Franklin's 2027 city election
The mayor and four at-large seats, every deadline from petitions to election day, how the four aldermen voted on the board's 44 split votes, and every race since 2011.
What Franklin approved from July to September 2026
Every rezoning, plan, plat, annexation and surety the Planning Commission and the board voted on from July to September: plans with 512 homes, 98 house lots platted, and the 15 votes that drew a no, by name.
Day trips from Franklin
Eight Saturdays from the Public Square and back, four of four hours and four of eight, each timed against its stops' Saturday hours and the sunset.
A checklist for moving to Franklin
Twelve steps in the order they fall due: what to check before signing, what to start the week you move, and the 30-day clock on a license, plates and a voter registration.
Tennessee state parks by drive time from Franklin
All 69 parks on the state's list, timed from the Public Square: the seven inside an hour, the trails, water and beds at each, and the ones with the most room by the state's own counts.
Is Franklin a good place to live?
What residents say in the city's own survey, then the figures for cost, schools, crime, health, jobs, commuting, weather and the river, each beside the state's, and which households carry the costs.
Fairview
The county's affordable west edge: a $583K median with half the sales built since 2023, a 722-acre park, its own school cluster and city hall, the county's highest city rate, and 40 minutes to Nashville on I-40.
Franklin
The town the rest of the county is measured against. What a house costs by tier, the county-city-FSSD tax stack with a worked example, two school districts and four high schools, the honestly timed I-65 commute, the six character areas, the 2026 festival calendar, and the trade-offs nobody selling a house will mention.
Spring Hill
One city on two counties: a $550K median that is $715K on the Williamson side and $490K on the Maury side, two school districts, two tax rates, the GM plant and its 5,000 jobs, and a state consent order deciding who gets a sewer tap.
Franklin's population and growth
The count at every census since 1870, the Census Bureau's 2025 estimate, why the state, the city and the ZIP codes give different numbers, and where the 2010s' 21,000 newcomers went.
How the Williamson County Commission works
The 24 commissioners and their 12 districts, which two answer to your address, the $921.9 million budget and the tax rate they set in June, how a resolution passes with 13 votes, and how each of them voted in 2026.
How rezoning works in Franklin
Who files, what the Planning Commission decides, the board's three readings and the one public hearing, the two rezonings with hearings on November 10, and what the state's review deadlines change from January 1.
Franklin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen
Who the mayor and eight aldermen are, which of them your ward elects, how an ordinance becomes law in two or three readings, and how often the board split in 2026.
Trash and recycling pickup in Franklin
Which day the city picks up at your address, what goes in the cart and the blue bin, how brush, leaves and a sofa get hauled away, and what changes on a holiday week.
How to read your Franklin water bill
The four lines on a City of Franklin utility bill, who sets each one, what January's increases add, and what the city will and will not adjust when a bill comes in high.
How Williamson County school zones work
Two districts, the lines between their schools, who moves those lines, and why the zip code on a listing does not settle which school a house is zoned for. With every zoned high school's enrollment and open seats.
Downtown and historic Franklin
The 1799 grid and five National Register districts: Hincheyville, Lewisburg Avenue, Adams Street, Natchez Street. What 1828-to-2026 homes cost, the overlay rules, FSSD schools, floods, festivals, parking.
How Williamson County property tax works
How the Assessor's value becomes a bill, the 2026 rate in every town in the county, an estimator, the calendar from appraisal to due date, and what to do if the value looks wrong.
September 2026.
The best golf courses near Franklin
Twenty golf courses around Franklin and Nashville in two lists of ten, the private clubs and the courses anyone can book, with green fees and the signature hole at each.
Tornadoes and severe weather in Williamson County
Every tornado confirmed here since 1960, why eighteen of the twenty-six came between six at night and six in the morning, and the storms that have killed people in this county.
Snakes in Williamson County
The twenty species verified in Williamson County, ranked by how often anyone sees them, and the two that are venomous.
The best parks and greenways in Franklin
Twenty parks scored on trails, nature, play, facilities and quiet, with the acreage and the trail mileage on the front of every card.
The 2027 deadline for Franklin plan reviews
From January 1, Franklin has 60 business days to act on a development application, two chances to ask for changes, and a refund bill if it then says no. Miss the deadline and the project approves itself. What the law says, how fast the city actually moves, and the calendar problem between here and the new year.
Franklin's new City Hall
Franklin is spending north of $100 million to rebuild an entire block behind the Public Square. The steel topped out in June. What goes inside, what each piece costs, and when it opens.
Columbia
The county seat, and the cheapest median in the series: $385K, a rate that just reset to $1.9758, a courthouse square that came back, school zones that ignore the mailing address, and a $520M bet on the Duck River paid for out of the water bill.
Thompson's Station
The county's other growth town: a $690K median with 43% of sales new, Williamson schools at the lowest town rate in the county ($1.403), a sewer plant that decides who builds, and 16 minutes to Franklin's square on a two-lane road.
Grassland
The unincorporated village on Hillsboro Road with its own K-8 cluster, a 76-acre ball park, acre lots under 1960s houses, a Franklin address without Franklin tax, and three kinds of sewer to ask about.
Leiper's Fork and the rural west
The village, the Natchez Trace, and the farms along Southall, Pinewood, and Bear Creek. A six-acre median lot, easements that run forever, soil that decides whether a lot is a lot, and a market that sells by phone.
Arrington and College Grove
Kings' Chapel, the Grove, Troubadour, Hardeman Springs, and the five-acre farms between them. No town, no city tax, three club gates, and I-840 instead of a main road.
Brentwood
One-acre minimum lots, its own school cluster, and the shortest Nashville commute in the county. The Concord Road and Franklin Road sides, compared.
Brentwood's gated and club communities
Governors Club, Annandale, Witherspoon, and the golf-course neighborhoods. Membership structures, gate logistics, and the resale picture.
Franklin's gated communities
Laurelbrooke, Legends Ridge, Temple Hills and its Reserve, Avalon, and the acreage off Old Hillsboro Road. The 2026 market from $690K townhomes to an $11.8 million hilltop, the only staffed gate in Franklin, what the club costs, why most of it pays no city tax, and why half the listings never sell.
Nolensville
The fastest-growing town in the state. A 1797 crossroads, a wave of 2010s subdivisions, one road under construction until 2036, and a $700,000 discount to Brentwood that no longer includes the tax bill.
Berry Farms and south Franklin
Boyle's town center at exit 61 and the subdivisions that grew up around it since 2012: Lockwood Glen, Stream Valley, Waters Edge, Simmons Ridge, and the Goose Creek side. The 2026 market, the Independence-or-Page split, the I-840 ramp, and what is still being built.
Cool Springs and east Franklin
The employment and retail corridor and the housing hung off it on both sides of I-65: Cool Springs East, Forrest Crossing, the Mallory Lane condos, and Cottonwood. The 2026 market, the FSSD tax line, Centennial versus Ravenwood, and what the Galleria rebuild means.
Fieldstone Farms
Franklin's largest finished subdivision: 2,137 houses from 1989 to 2001 on a lawyer's old summer farm, two pools, a swim team, a Publix and an elementary inside the fence, and the best price per square foot in the city. The 2026 market, the $60 HOA, and the 30-year-house budget.
Sullivan Farms, Founders Pointe and Hillsboro Road
The established ring inside the loop road: Founders Pointe, Chestnut Bend, Carlisle, and the 1970s ranches on Hillsboro Road and 96 West; Willowsprings and Boyd Mill on Downs; Sullivan Farms south of the square. Five minutes to Main Street, four high schools, and the FSSD line street by street.
McKay's Mill, Ladd Park and Liberty Pike
Two big family subdivisions ten years apart: McKay's Mill around its village center and Publix, finished in 2014, and Ladd Park along two miles of the Harpeth, still building. The 2026 market, the Clovercroft-or-Creekside school paths, ten miles of greenway, and the Liberty Pike rebuild.
Westhaven
The master-planned town-within-a-town: alleys, porches, a Kroger and a stage in the town center, five pools, a golf course, and an association that runs it like a municipality. The 2026 market, the real HOA math, the surprising school zones.
June 2026.
The best coffee shops in Franklin
Twenty coffee shops across Franklin, Brentwood and Spring Hill, ranked by readers and scored on coffee, food, seating, vibe and work.
What Franklin approved in the Harlin development
Franklin annexed 311 acres and cleared a village of up to 242 homes, 5 to 3. What got approved, what neighbors won on traffic, and why the road fix they want most is still a 2032 project.
Common ticks in the United States
Identification, removal, regional risk, and the symptoms worth a same-day call.
May 2026.
Franklin's 2026 housing market
A plain-English walkthrough of the national picture, the Middle Tennessee story, and what Franklin's $850K median actually means for buyers and sellers right now.
Franklin's proposed 2027 budget
An interactive, side-by-side comparison of the proposed FY 2027 budget against FY 2026. Where the money comes from, where it goes, and what changed line by line.