Neighborhood guide · West
Fairview.
The county's west edge, where the price drops and the drive begins. A city of about 10,000 on Highway 100 at I-40, 19 miles from Franklin's square, named by a postmistress in 1937, incorporated in 1959, and handed 722 acres of terraced pines by three sisters in 1988. This guide is the whole city and the 37062 zip around it: the Highway 100 core between City Hall and Bowie Park, the Chester Road and Cumberland Drive subdivisions of the 1970s to 2000s, the Cox Pike and Bowie Park side where Lennar and Drees are building, the Horn Tavern and I-40 side, and the Fernvale end of Highway 96. What $370,000 buys and what $1.25 million buys, why the tax rate is the highest city rate in the county and went up 25 cents in June, which of 3,200 approved houses are actually closing, what happened at City Hall in March, why there is no emergency room yet and two on the way, and what 40 minutes to Nashville means at 7:15.
B-roll · coming soon
Neighborhood video. Ninety seconds of B-roll: the I-40 ramp at exit 182 at 6:50 on a weekday, Bowie Park's Perimeter Trail under the loblollies, the Saturday market in the chiropractor's lot across from Publix, Jingo Java's counter at 6, a Drees framing crew on Chester Road, the Yellow Jackets' Friday kickoff, and the Highway 100 curb crews at Crow Cut Road. No narration.
01 · The place
A timber town on a ridge that a post office named, three sisters replanted, and 19 developers are now building at once.
The county called it the First District and the settlers called it the Barrens, because the timber crews of the 1800s had cut the ridge bare. The post office was Christiana in 1858, Jingo from 1880 (the story is a homesick man's "by Jingo, I'm going home"), and Fairview from 1937, when postmistress Tella Mangrum moved it to the new Highway 100, the Nashville-to-Memphis road the state had just built along the ridge. The economy was timber, chairs, tomatoes, and moonshine; Cox Pike was a toll road until the county bought it in the 1920s; the "new" Highway 96 to Franklin came in the 1970s. The city incorporated on July 28, 1959 with a little over a thousand people, under the state's manager-commission charter it still uses. What made it more than a crossroads was Dr. Evangeline Bowie and her sisters Anna and Thelma, who bought the eroded land south of the highway in 1954, terraced it, dug five lakes, planted half a million loblolly pines, and on December 22, 1988 deeded 722 acres of it to the city. Bowie Nature Park is the reason Fairview has a center of gravity, and the reason the subdivision that wanted to borrow its name in 2022 was made to change it.
The Fairview of 2026 is the county's growth edge. The 2020 Census counted 9,357 people, up 21 percent in a decade; the estimates now say 10,000 to 10,800; and the city's own count of approved but unbuilt housing is about 3,200 units across 19 active developments, which its late city manager said would change the town more in five years than in the previous 50. The 336 sales in the year to March 2026 were 55 percent new construction, with a median build year of 2024, and the builder list reads DRB, Drees, Dream Finders, Meritage, CastleRock, Ole South, Pulte, Lennar, and Regent, whose 52-acre Town Center north of City Hall has its streets and utilities in and its first ten houses up. The $582,995 median is a third of Leiper's Fork's and two-thirds of Grassland's; a quarter of sales closed under $400,000. It is also the only city in the county where a townhouse sells for $300,000 and an acre with a 2025 Drees house sells for $1.25 million on the same road.
The price is a function of the distance and the road. Fairview is 19 miles from Franklin's square, 28 from downtown Nashville, and 37 minutes from work at the Census mean; Highway 100 is two lanes from Bowie Lake Road to I-840 and the state's estimate to widen it is $80 million, unfunded. The city's rate is the highest of the six in the county, $0.8404 after a 25-cent raise in June, on top of the county's $1.30. And 2026 has been a year at City Hall: the manager left in March over a hiring he reported himself, a retiring county mayor from Dickson took the job on an interim basis in April, an ethics investigation of one commissioner opened in June, and the winter storm that put 10,000 households in the dark in January left a $675,000 cleanup bill the federal government will not pay.
Who moves here
First-time buyers priced out of everything east of the Trace, who find that $370,000 is the median under $500,000 here and a townhouse at Cedarcrest or Adams Preserve is $300,000 to $363,000 with the lawn included. Move-up buyers who want 3,000 square feet on half an acre new for $750,000 to $800,000 at Richvale, Goodwin Farms, or Brush Creek, which would be $1.2 million in Franklin. West Nashville commuters, to Bellevue, Vanderbilt, and the I-40 corridor, for whom Fairview is 23 minutes to Highway 70 and Franklin is the wrong direction. Families who want a school cluster where they know the principal, a high school of 700 with a Reward School designation and a 25 ACT average, and a Friday football game the whole town attends. People who ride, hike, or fish, for whom Bowie's 17 miles of trail and five lakes are a mile from the house. And the retiree from Dickson or Bellevue who wants a Publix, a Walmart, a library, and a city, without Franklin's price.
What it is not
Close, cheap to tax, or finished. Every drive east starts with 15 minutes on a two-lane road; downtown Nashville is 40 minutes before the rush and Cool Springs is 33. The combined rate is $2.1404, more than Franklin's $1.566 and Nolensville's $1.64, and it moved twice in two years. There is no hospital and, until the two freestanding emergency rooms approved in May open, no ER; the nearest are 28 minutes in Dickson and 30 in Franklin. The sewer plant was built in 1990 for 0.46 million gallons a day, went under a moratorium in 2004, and has 3,200 houses coming. The grocery-and-strip downtown along Fairview Boulevard is a state highway with a curb-and-sidewalk project on it until fall. And the town is being built while you live in it: half the houses sold last year did not exist two years ago, and the Town Center's restaurants and offices are still a rendering.
02 · The pockets
Five sides of a ridge, sold by the road out of town.
Fairview is a ridge with Highway 100 along the top and subdivisions down the roads that leave it: Chester Road and Cumberland Drive to the south, Cox Pike and Bowie Lake Road to the west, Horn Tavern and Old Nashville toward I-40, and Highway 96 east to Fernvale. The decade column predicts the lot and the association; the last column is the year to March 2026. Every subdivision named below is inside the city unless the row says otherwise.
| Where, and when | What you find | Last 12 months | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Highway 100 core1938–2026 · City Hall to Bowie Park · Fairview Elementary | Fairview Boulevard from the Rec Complex west past City Hall, Publix, Kroger, and the library to the Bowie Park entrance; Cox Run Drive, Planters Road, the Town Center | The strip that is the downtown: Publix and Walmart across from City Hall, Kroger, Tractor Supply, the post office, the library, Jingo Java, the market on Saturdays in a parking lot, and the state's curb-gutter-sidewalk project on all of it until fall 2026. Behind it, Regent's 52-acre Town Center with 534 units approved and ten houses built; Lennar's Bowie Meadows, 43 houses on a quarter acre with a pool and a dog park; the Meadows at Fairview condos from 2002; Camp Marymount's 340 Catholic acres where Ernest Goes to Camp was shot; and two emergency rooms under construction. The only part of Fairview where anything is walkable, once the sidewalks are poured. | Bowie Meadows 8 · $660K median · $95 / mo; Meadows at Fairview condos 2 · $252,500 |
| Chester Road, and the south1975–2026 · the acre side · Westwood Elementary | Chester Road south from Highway 100 toward I-840: Rolling Acres, Chester Creek, Sharpes Run, Cherokee Hills, Kyles Creek Estates, the Reserves on Chester, and Stable Acres, Polston Place, and Kimbark Trail off Cox Pike | The widest spread in the guide on one road: Rolling Acres' 1979 ranches on half an acre at $304,000 and $105 a foot, Chester Creek's 1975-to-1995 houses on one to two acres at $412,000, Sharpes Run and Cherokee Hills from 2000 at $400,000, Kyles Creek at $755,000, and at the far end Drees' Reserves on Chester, 2025 houses of 3,700 to 5,200 square feet on 0.9 to 1.6 acres at $1.25 million, the top of the market and five miles from I-840. Stable Acres' Northcutt customs on an acre and Polston Place in between. | Reserves on Chester 7 · $1.25M; Kyles Creek 3 · $755K; Stable Acres 9 · $745K; Polston Place 6 · $652K; Chester Creek 5 · $412K; Sharpes Run 9 · $406K; Rolling Acres 4 · $304K |
| Cumberland Drive, and Crow Cut1977–2026 · the middle school's road · both elementaries | Cumberland Drive south from the new Highway 100 signal past Fairview Middle: Glenhaven, Fernvale Heights, McCormick Grove, Cumberland Estates; Crow Cut Road west of it | Glenhaven's 1977-to-1980 houses at $325,000 and Fernvale Heights' 1,200-square-foot 1990s starters at $337,500, the cheapest detached houses in the city; McCormick Grove's 1999-to-2007 customs on half an acre to two at $690,000; and Ole South's Cumberland Estates, 27 sales at $480,000, the volume subdivision of the under-$500,000 market since 2018, with $336 to $400 a year in dues. The intersection at the top, Cumberland and Crow Cut at Highway 100, is getting its first signal and school-zone flashers in the state's 2026 project, having been called the most dangerous corner in town for years. | Cumberland Estates 27 · $480K; McCormick Grove 12 · $690K; Fernvale Heights 4 · $337,500; Glenhaven 3 · $325K |
| Cox Pike, and the park side1995–2026 · where the builders are · Westwood Elementary | Cox Pike northwest from Highway 100, and Bowie Lake Road: Richvale, Wynwood Park, Woodridge, Braxton Bend, the Grove behind the park, Station 31 | The 2020s: Richvale, 23 sales at $786,000 from 2023 to 2026; Lennar's Wynwood Park, ten at $586,000 on under a third of an acre with the lawn and the trash in the $75 dues; Woodridge and Braxton Bend, the 1990s and 2000s streets at $470,000 to $530,000 that sell in two weeks; and the Grove, the 125 acres backing Bowie Park that was going to be called the Neighborhood at Bowie Park until the neighbors objected, cut from 240 houses to 169 with a 100-foot buffer to the park. Fire Station 31 and the park's front gate are on Bowie Lake Road. | Richvale 23 · $786K; Wynwood Park 10 · $586K; Woodridge 5 · $530K · 14 days; Braxton Bend 7 · $470K |
| Horn Tavern, Old Nashville, and the interstate side1991–2026 · the commuter's end · Fairview Elementary | Horn Tavern Road and Old Nashville Road north of Highway 100 toward I-40's exit 182, and Old Franklin Road toward I-840: Audubon Cove, Pepper Tree, Fairfield Court, Hatcher Heights, Goodwin Farms, Otter Creek, Kingwood, Clearview Meadows, Aden Woods, Castleberry Farm | The side that gets to the ramp fastest. Goodwin Farms, Dream Finders' 2025 houses on half an acre, 20 sales at $786,000; Otter Creek, Regent's 2020-to-2024 houses at $765,000; Kingwood's 2000s houses with the pool and tennis courts in $900 a year, at $499,500; Clearview Meadows' 1990s houses on an acre at the I-40 ramp, $388,000; Aden Woods and Castleberry Farm off Old Franklin Road toward I-840 at $685,000 to $770,000; and on Horn Tavern, Audubon Cove, Pepper Tree, Fairfield Court, and Drees' Hatcher Heights, 29 lots listing from $721,000 to $900,000 with nothing closed yet. The city plans to square the Horn Tavern intersection at Highway 96, signal it, and put a fire station on the corner, beside what it calls its largest subdivision ever. | Goodwin Farms 20 · $786K; Aden Woods 16 · $770K; Otter Creek 7 · $765K; Castleberry Farm 6 · $685K; Audubon Cove 3 · $620K; Kingwood 4 · $499,500; Clearview Meadows 4 · $388K; Hatcher Heights 0 closed, 7 active |
| Highway 96 east, and Fernvale1983–2026 · toward Franklin · Fairview or Hillsboro | Highway 96 from the Highway 100 junction east past Fernvale Road toward the Trace and Leiper's Fork: Fernvale Springs, Brush Creek, Belvoir, Orrinshire, Meadow Wood, and the Fernvale community | The Franklin-facing side, and the one where the school line moves. Brush Creek, DRB and CastleRock's 45 houses from 2025 at $755,000 on a third of an acre; Belvoir on Northwest Highway, CastleRock's acre lots at $1 million; Drees' Orrinshire at $1.1 million; Regent's Fernvale Springs townhouses at $393,000 with $175 to $225 a month; Meadow Wood's 1983-to-2016 houses on a third of an acre to two at $425,000. Past Fernvale Road the address is Fernvale, the elevation drops 200 feet, the zone is Hillsboro K-8 and Independence High, and the governor's family farm is on the road. The Trace's Highway 96 ramp stays open through the bridge closure; the detour east of it runs to Highway 100 and does not touch Fairview. | Orrinshire 15 · $1.1M; Belvoir 4 · $1.0M; Brush Creek 12 · $755K; Meadow Wood 11 · $425K; Fernvale Springs 3 · $393K |
| The county around it1998–2019 · outside the city line · $1.30, not $2.1404 | Sugar Camp Hollow Road, County Line Road, the far ends of Crow Cut and Chester Roads, and the ridges toward Hickman County | Lampley Earl's 1998-to-2000 houses on five to six acres at $614,000; DeLacy Pointe on County Line Road, one to two acres at $489,500, which is the Dickson County corner of the 37062 zip; and the farms and five-acre tracts the county zones at one house per five acres. Septic, a well or a district meter, the county's fire district, and the county rate alone, at the cost of the city's fire department, chipper, and police. Confirm the line by parcel; the city annexed three-acre and 53-acre tracts on Taylor Road and Old Cox Pike in 2025. | Lampley Earl 3 · $614K · 5–6 ac; DeLacy Pointe 7 · $489,500 |
Sources: MLS closed sales, trailing 12 months to March 2026, as compiled by nashvillehome.guru for Fairview and for each subdivision named (39 subdivision pages); the compiler's Fairview community guide for the builder list and the new-construction share; Main Street Media, Williamson Source, and Fox 17 on the Grove (2022), Barkeast (2024), and the Town Center (2021 to 2025); Business View Magazine (late 2025) on the 3,200 approved units, the Horn Tavern plan, and the Town Center's progress; TDOT on the Highway 100 project; the National Park Service on the Trace detour. Jurisdiction from Overpass point checks on the subdivision streets, September 8, 2026: Fairview city for Planters, Cox Run, Aubrey Ridge, Braxton Bend, Donald Wilson, Kimbark, Fairlawn, Penngrove, and Fernvale Road; county only for Sugar Camp Hollow and the far end of Crow Cut; Dickson County for County Line Road. Bands are for choosing a road; several cuts are two to five sales.
03 · Homes & market
What a house costs, and what you get for it.
Fairview closed 336 sales in the year to March 2026 at a $582,995 median, $244 a foot, a median 2,442 square feet on half an acre, and a median build year of 2024. That last number is the market: 186 sales, 55 percent, were built in 2023 or later at a $738,942 median, and the 72 houses built before 2000 sold at $386,500. The city's under-$500,000 market is the county's: 147 sales at a $370,000 median. Twenty-one days to contract, 97.5 percent of list, and 64 percent with an association at $78 a month. What you are buying is a new house on the county's cheapest land; what you are paying for is the road to it.
Sources: MLS closed sales, 12 months ending March 2026, as compiled by nashvillehome.guru in its Fairview community guide (336 sales) and its 37062 zip page (343, a slightly different window and polygon; $560,000 median), its under-$500,000 page (147), and its subdivision pages. The zip includes the Dickson County corner at County Line Road. Homes.com and Zillow polygons were not used. The compiler refreshes monthly; figures move.
| Tier | What you get | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| The townhouseAdams Preserve, Cedarcrest, Fernvale Springs, the Meadows | A 2025 Pulte or Meritage townhouse of 1,470 to 1,800 sq ft with the lawn in the $205-to-$260 dues, a Regent one on Fernvale Road, or a 2002 condo on Planters Road. Forty-seven attached sales in the zip at $347,240. The only new house in Williamson County at this price. | $250K–$400K |
| The 1970s to 1990s ranchRolling Acres, Glenhaven, Fernvale Heights, Chester Creek, Dogwood Hills, Sharpes Run | A 1,050-to-2,400-square-foot brick or vinyl ranch on half an acre to two, no association, a septic tank or a city tap, on Chester Road or Cumberland Drive. The 72 pre-2000 sales at $386,500; the cheapest detached house in the county with a Williamson County school. | $300K–$450K |
| The starter, newCumberland Estates, Wynwood Park, Audubon Cove, Kingwood, Braxton Bend | Ole South's Cumberland Estates at $480,000 on a sixth to half an acre, 27 sales; Lennar's Wynwood Park at $586,000 with lawn and trash in the dues; Audubon Cove and Pepper Tree on Horn Tavern; or a 2000s Kingwood house with the neighborhood pool. Where the $500,000 budget that buys a condo in Franklin buys 2,000 to 2,900 square feet. | $450K–$650K |
| The half acre, built 2025Richvale, Goodwin Farms, Brush Creek, Otter Creek, Aden Woods, Bowie Meadows | A 2,400-to-4,300-square-foot house by Dream Finders, DRB, CastleRock, Regent, or Meritage on a third to two-thirds of an acre, $60 to $150 a month, a pool in some. Ninety-six of the year's sales landed between $700,000 and $1 million, more than in any other band. | $650K–$900K |
| The acre, newReserves on Chester, Orrinshire, Belvoir, Stable Acres, Hatcher Heights | Drees and CastleRock on 0.5 to 1.6 acres, 3,100 to 5,200 square feet, $65 to $100 a month, the county's newest houses on its cheapest acres. Thirty-seven sales over $1 million, 11 percent of the year, nearly all of them built in 2025 and 2026. | $900K–$1.4M |
- The ridge ranchRolling Acres, Glenhaven, Dogwood Hills, Chester Creek: a 1975-to-1995 brick or vinyl ranch with a carport, a front-yard well head or a septic lid, on half an acre to two under oaks and loblollies. What Fairview was before the builders, and still 21 percent of the sales.
- The 2000s two-storyKingwood, McCormick Grove, Sharpes Run, Castleberry Farm, Braxton Bend: vinyl and brick colonials of 2,000 to 5,000 square feet, a bonus room, a two-car garage, on a third of an acre to two, with a pool at Kingwood and none elsewhere.
- The production houseCumberland Estates, Wynwood Park, Bowie Meadows, Richvale, Goodwin Farms, Brush Creek: Ole South, Lennar, Meritage, Dream Finders, DRB, and CastleRock from 2018 to 2026, board-and-batten and brick fronts, an open plan, a main-floor primary, 1,600 to 4,300 square feet on a sixth to two-thirds of an acre. Half the market.
- The townhouseAdams Preserve, Cedarcrest, Fernvale Springs: 2017-to-2026 attached houses of 1,470 to 1,800 square feet, a one-car garage, lawn care in the dues. Forty-seven of the zip's sales.
- The Drees acreReserves on Chester, Orrinshire, Hatcher Heights: 3,100 to 5,200 square feet on half an acre to 1.6, a three-car garage, a covered porch to the woods, from 2025. The top of the market at $237 to $332 a foot, which is Franklin's bottom.
- The five-acre houseLampley Earl, Chester Creek's big lots, Meadow Wood, the county ridges: a 1990s house on five or six acres with a barn, outside the city line, on the $1.30 rate. The last of the Barrens.
| Line item | Notes | 2026 rate or cost |
|---|---|---|
| Property tax, inside the city | Assessed at 25% of appraisal. The county's $1.30 plus the city's $0.8404, raised 25 cents on June 18, 2026 by a 4-1 vote, after being cut to $0.5904 in 2025 to hold revenue flat through the reappraisal. The highest city rate of the county's six; no special school district | $2.1404 per $100 |
| Property tax, outside the city | Lampley Earl, DeLacy Pointe (Dickson County's rate applies there), and the county ridges: the county alone | $1.30 per $100 |
| HOA dues | None in the 1970s-to-2000s streets; Cumberland Estates $336–$400 a year; Kingwood $900 with the pool; Richvale, Goodwin Farms, Wynwood Park, Bowie Meadows, Hatcher Heights $70–$95 a month; Brush Creek $74–$150; the townhouses $175–$260 a month with lawn care | $0–$3,120 / yr |
| Water | The Water Authority of Dickson County, which absorbed the city's water and sewer department in 2006; a perfect state sanitary survey in 2025. Outside the city, a district meter or a well | WADC rates |
| Sewer, or septic | The city's 1990 plant near Flat Rock Branch, run by WADC, 0.46 million gallons a day of design capacity, upgraded in 2020 for nutrient limits, under a moratorium from 2004 until the stream came off the state's impaired list. The acre lots on Chester Road and outside the city are septic, permitted by the county. Remaining capacity against 3,200 approved units: not published; ask the authority | WADC rates, or the tank |
| Garbage collection | The city does not collect it. A private hauler (Superior, Republic, Harpeth), or the county's Fairview Convenience Center behind the Rec Complex: weekdays 9 to 5, weekends 7 to 3 since July 2026, free, three cubic yards a day. The city runs a chipper and leaf service inside the line | Quoted by hauler, or your truck |
| Fire insurance | Fairview Fire Department, full-time since 2003, Station 31 on Bowie Lake Road with the county's two EMS staff in it and an unstaffed Station 32 on Highway 96 North; ISO Class 3 since April 1, 2018, the best rating in this series outside Franklin and Brentwood. Outside the city, the county district | Quoted by address |
| Impact fees and taxes on a new house | The city's building permit at $1.85 a square foot, the county's privilege tax at $2.00, and the county's education impact fee by size, $1,681 to $12,399. A 2,000-square-foot house: about $15,000, paid by the builder and priced into the house | $11,000–$24,000 |
| The storm bill | Winter Storm Fern, January 22 to 27, 2026, put 10,000-plus households in the dark and left the city a $675,000 cleanup obligation FEMA will not reimburse, due in 2029; the commission named it as a reason for the 25-cent raise | In the rate |
Worked example on the $582,995 median: assessed $145,749. County $1,895 plus city $1,225 = about $3,120 a year in property tax. The same house would pay about $1,895 on the county rate outside the line, about $2,280 inside Franklin outside the FSSD, about $2,390 in Nolensville, and about $2,930 in Spring Hill. A $370,000 Cumberland Estates house: assessed $92,500; about $1,980, plus $336 to $400 in dues. A $1.25 million Reserves on Chester house: assessed $312,500; about $6,690, plus about $1,000 in dues. Sources: Williamson County 2026 property tax rates and combined totals (Fairview $2.1404; county only $1.30; Franklin $1.566; Nolensville $1.64; Spring Hill $2.009); the Williamson Herald (June 25, 2026) and the Williamson Scene (June 2025) on the two votes; the city's utilities guide and residents' guide; wadc.us on the plant; the city's fire department page on ISO; tnimpactfees.com; the county's convenience-center page; the Herald (January 26, 2026) and TEMA on the storm; nashvillehome.guru on dues.
04 · The city, and its rules
A commission, a new code, a full sewer plant, and a year that tested all three.
Fairview is the only guide in the west with a city hall, and 2026 has shown what that means: a manager's departure, an interim from the next county, a tax vote, an ethics inquiry, a rewritten zoning code, two emergency rooms approved, and a state road project on the main street. As of September 2026:
| Question | The answer | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs itManager-commission, since 1959 | A mayor and four commissioners elected at large to staggered four-year terms, meeting the first and third Thursdays at 7 at City Hall, and a manager they hire: Mayor Lisa Anderson, Vice Mayor Chris McDonald, Commissioners Don Bufalini, Carolyn Roberts, and Wayne Hall; 51 employees; police and fire departments of its own. The next election is November 3, 2026. | Your zoning, your road, and your rate are decided by five people you can vote on in November. Go to a Thursday meeting before you buy. |
| The managerMarch 27 and April 16, 2026 | City Manager Tom Daugherty, a fourth-generation native and former finance director, reported to the state's Municipal Technical Advisory Service that he had hired a relative by marriage as a codes inspector in 2024, against the personnel policy. The commission accepted his departure 3-2 on March 27 after more than an hour of residents asking it not to, crediting him with stabilizing the books and securing about $2 million in storm recovery. On April 16 it hired Bob Rial, Dickson County's retiring four-term mayor and a 27-year banker, as interim manager at $13,100 a month, with a brief to recruit a permanent one. None had been named at press time. On June 18 the commission voted 4-0 to investigate a 38-page ethics complaint by the former city planner against Commissioner Bufalini, at $350 an hour. | The person who signs off on the 3,200 houses is temporary and the planner who wrote the code has left. Ask who is running planning before you ask what is planned. |
| The rateCut in 2025, raised in 2026 | June 2025: the city rate fell from $0.8765 to $0.5904, revenue-neutral after the county reappraisal, unanimous. June 18, 2026: the commission raised it 25 cents to $0.8404, 4-1, on a $13.8 million revenue estimate, a $4.5 million police budget, a $3 million fire budget, and the $675,000 storm bill; more than $1.2 million was cut before the vote. With the county's $1.30, the combined rate is $2.1404, the county's highest. | About $3,120 on the median house, $840 more than the same house inside Franklin. The city services are real; so is the bill. |
| The codeDevelopment Code, April 2, 2026 | The city replaced its zoning ordinance with a Development Code written with Town Planning & Urban Design Collaborative, adopted April 2, 2026, applying to approvals after that date; the legacy districts (RS-40, RS-20, R-20, RM-8, CG, the Town Center overlay) carry through on approved projects. The 2040 plan, Fairview Forward, adopted May 2, 2019, steers intensity to the interstate interchanges and the Town Center. The county's 2024 growth plan bars annexation outside the city's growth boundary; the city annexed 3 and 53 acres on Taylor Road and Old Cox Pike in 2025. | A new rulebook nobody has tested yet. The subdivisions in this guide were approved under the old one; the next ones will not be. |
| The pipeline3,200 units, 19 developments | Regent's Town Center: 52 acres north of City Hall, 534 units, 50,000 square feet of office and 32,000 of restaurant and retail, a town square, a greenway to Bowie Park, site work since March 2024, ten houses built, vertical commercial "expected" in fiscal 2026. Barkeast: 237 units on 37.5 acres south of Glenhaven Drive, tied 4-4 at the planning commission and passed on second reading September 5, 2024 over a crowd. The Grove: 169 houses on 125 acres behind the park, cut from 240 with a 100-foot buffer. Hatcher Heights, the Reserves, Orrinshire, Belvoir, Brush Creek, Wynwood Park, Bowie Meadows, Cedarcrest, Adams Preserve: closing now. | Whatever you buy will have a subdivision built next to it. Ask the planner which one, and whether the road in front of you is on a developer's turn-lane list. |
| The sewer plant0.46 MGD, built 1990 | The city built the plant in 1990 on 10 acres near Flat Rock Branch and handed it, with the water system, to the Water Authority of Dickson County in 2006. A 2004 sewer moratorium lifted after the authority's improvements and the stream came off the state's impaired list; a 2020 upgrade added nutrient removal. Design capacity is 0.46 million gallons a day. What is left of it against 3,200 approved units is not published. | Confirm a sewer allocation letter exists for any lot or new house you buy; a second moratorium is the one thing that would stop the pipeline. |
| The emergency roomsApproved May 27, 2026 | Fairview has never had one. The state's Health Facilities Commission approved two freestanding emergency departments on the same day: TriStar Horizon's $21 million, 11-room facility at 2273 Fairview Boulevard near the park entrance, which broke ground June 24, and Ascension Saint Thomas' $20.6 million, 10-room facility at Fairview Boulevard and Audubon Cove. The commission cited a population up 36 percent since 2010 and 30-to-45-minute drives to Dickson or Franklin. | The biggest change to daily life here in a decade, and neither has an opening date. Until then, Fast Pace and the drive. |
| The roadSR 100, two lanes, $80 million unfunded | TDOT's Fairview Boulevard project, let in May 2025 and under construction since September: curb and gutter, storm drains, five-foot sidewalks from the Rec Complex to Bowie Lake Road, left-turn lanes, and the town's first signal and school flashers at Cumberland Drive and Crow Cut Road, due fall 2026. The widening beyond that, Bowie Lake Road to I-840, carries a rough estimate of $80 million and is not in the state's ten-year plan; the city's answer is to make developers build turn lanes as frontage develops. The Horn Tavern and Highway 96 realignment, with a signal and a fire station, is the next city project. | Sidewalks on the main street by fall, and two lanes to the interstate for the foreseeable future. |
| Short-term rentalsDefined, grandfathered, not tabulated | The April 2026 code defines a short-term rental unit and grandfathers existing ones as legal nonconforming uses until sale, 30 months' non-use, or three violations, tracking the state's 2018 act. Which districts permit new ones is in the code's use table, which we did not parse; about 40 listings are active. Outside the city, the county's rule applies, which since 2017 lists no such use. | Read the use table for your district, or call the planning office, before you underwrite it. |
In one line
Fairview has what the rest of the west does not: a police department, a fire department with a Class 3 rating, a library, a park department, and a commission to complain to. It charges the county's highest city rate for them, and in 2026 the commission has been the news.
05 · Schools
A four-school cluster of its own, a Reward School at the top, and a $60 million elementary on the way.
Fairview is the one town in the west with a complete cluster inside it: two elementaries, a middle school, and a high school, all within three miles of City Hall, all at about two-thirds of capacity. Fairview High is a 2024-25 Reward School with 700 students and a 25 ACT average; Westwood is Niche's 60th elementary in the state. The district's five-year plan puts a $60 million elementary west of town in fall 2029 and rezones nothing here. The Fernvale end of Highway 96 zones Hillsboro K-8 and Independence.
| School | Grades | Neighborhoods | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fairview Elementary2640 Fairview Boulevard West · WCS | PK–5 | The Highway 100 core, Cox Run, the Horn Tavern and Old Nashville side, Cumberland Drive's north end; the compiler's $530,500 median zone | About 470 students; GreatSchools 7; Niche A-; a 2022–23 Reward School, not on the 2024–25 list; about 66 percent of capacity. Pre-K and after-school care on site. |
| Westwood Elementary7200 Tiger Trail · WCS | PK–5 | Chester Road, Cox Pike, the Reserves, Richvale, Stable Acres; the compiler's $655,000 median zone | About 540 to 560 students at 14 to 1; Niche A and 60th elementary in Tennessee; GreatSchools 7; 57 percent proficient in math and 50 in reading; about 66 percent of capacity. Not on the 2024–25 Reward list. No renovation on the district's plan. |
| Fairview Middle7200 Cumberland Drive · WCS | 6–8 | Every Fairview address | About 520 to 540 students at 12 or 13 to 1; Niche A and 32nd middle school in the state; the 1981 building; about 70 percent of capacity. The new Highway 100 signal at Cumberland Drive is for its drop-off line. |
| Fairview High2595 Fairview Boulevard · WCS | 9–12 | Every Fairview address | About 700 students at 13 or 14 to 1; a Reward School in 2022–23, 2023–24, and 2024–25; U.S. News' 41st in Tennessee, 44 percent AP participation, a 92-to-96 percent graduation rate, a 25 ACT average; career pathways in health science, agriculture, mechatronics, film, teaching, and construction; a 500-seat performing arts center from 2017; wrestling state champions in 2021. West High in 1956, Fairview since 1962; about 68 percent of capacity. |
| Hillsboro Elementary/Middle, and Independence HighLeiper's Fork and Thompson's Station · WCS | PK–12 | Fernvale and the Highway 96 addresses east of the city toward the Trace | The Leiper's Fork guide's cluster: a 2014 Blue Ribbon K-8 and 2024–25 Reward School with a $6.6 million renovation due fall 2028, then Independence, 20 minutes south. A Fairview address on Highway 96 does not guarantee Fairview's schools. |
| Elementary School WestSite not named · WCS, fall 2029 | K–5 | To be zoned | $60 million in the district's five-year plan, $3 million in 2025–26, $33.75 million in 2026–27, $23.25 million in 2027–28, listed as "Elementary School West (Fairview)" in the 37062 zip. It will redraw the two elementary zones when it opens; the district has not said how. |
Sources: the district's five-year capital plan (November 7, 2024) for the new elementary and the Hillsboro renovation; the state's 2024–25 Reward Schools list (November 21, 2025) and Williamson Source's 2022–23 and 2023–24 lists; GreatSchools, Niche, U.S. News, and Public School Review for enrollment, ratios, proficiency, and rankings; Wikipedia and the school's site on Fairview High's history and pathways; a county presentation summarized by Citizen Portal for the capacity percentages; nashvillehome.guru for the zone medians and the ACT figure. The elementary line runs between streets; confirm any address with the WCS zone finder.
- Grace Christian AcademyThe K–12 interdenominational school on Southall Road at Leiper's Fork, about 880 students at 15 to 1, opened 2009; the private school the west actually uses, 20 minutes by Highway 96.
- Battle Ground Academy & the Franklin schoolsBGA on Mack Hatcher, New Hope Academy, and Franklin Classical, 26 to 30 minutes east; a carpool, not a drop-off.
- The Bellevue and Highway 100 schoolsEnsworth's high school on Highway 100 at Warner Park is 25 minutes by I-40 and Highway 70; Harpeth Hall, MBA, and Franklin Road Academy 35 to 45 through Green Hills.
- In FairviewNone. There is no private school inside the city, which is part of why the cluster matters.
- The district's pre-KBoth elementaries are PK–5; WCS Voluntary Pre-K seats are by application each spring, for four-year-olds by August 15, with priority to families who qualify by income.
- First Baptist's weekday preschoolAt 7310 Overbey Road: six weeks to pre-K, Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday, 9 to 3, from the week after Labor Day.
- Pro-Kids, and the Rec ComplexPro-Kids Daycare on Fairview Boulevard for full days; the county's Rec Complex for childcare during a workout and the youth programs. No chain preschool in the city.
06 · Getting around
The drive, honestly timed.
Times are from City Hall on Fairview Boulevard on a weekday morning between 7 and 8:30. The Fernvale end of Highway 96 subtracts one to three minutes from everything east; Chester Road adds five and gets I-840 instead. Two ways out: Highway 96 east to Franklin, or Highway 96 north three miles to I-40 at exit 182 and east to Bellevue and Nashville. The Census puts the city's mean commute at 37 minutes, the longest in this series.
Mobility scores
The Highway 100 strip is walkable in the sense that Publix, City Hall, the library, and Jingo Java are within a mile of each other on a state highway that is getting its first sidewalks this year; the Town Center's square is a plan. Bowie Meadows and Cox Run can walk to the park gate. Nothing else is.
Bowie Park's 17 miles of trail take mountain bikes and the park lends bikes free; the Town Center's greenway will connect to them. The roads are ridge roads with no shoulder, and the Trace's Highway 96 ramp is 15 minutes by car with the bike on the rack.
None. WeGo's nearest stops and park-and-ride are in Bellevue, 23 minutes away.
Fairview's own roads are light; the pain is the merge at exit 182, I-40 from Bellevue to the split, and the Cumberland Drive corner until its signal goes live. Highway 100 is two lanes from the park to I-840 with an $80 million widening nobody has funded. The mean commute is 37 minutes because most of it is somewhere else.
07 · Daily life
Where the week actually happens.
- Uncle Lenny's Country Cafe1710 Fairview Boulevard, in the room that was the Country Cafe for 20 years until the Manleys retired at the end of 2023; reopened September 2024 with the meat-and-three and the breakfast the town had been missing.
- The Thompsons Kitchen1800 Fairview Boulevard, Southern, since January 2021 in the old Harvest space; the Sunday-lunch room.
- Dos Margaritas, and Cano'sDos Margaritas at 2239 Fairview Boulevard; Cano's Fresh Mexican Grill on City Center Way beside City Hall, and its taqueria at the I-40 exit. Fairview's Mexican is its best category.
- Whiskey Fire BBQ, and Jefferson'sThe barbecue trailer on Northwest Highway, Thursday to Saturday until 7; Jefferson's wings and oysters on the boulevard for the game.
- The donutsFairview Fresh Deli Donuts at 2203 Fairview Boulevard, from 4:30 in the morning Tuesday to Saturday; the line before the I-40 line.
- Leiper's Fork, and Main StreetFox & Locke's Thursday open mic is 23 minutes east; downtown Franklin's rooms 25. The Town Center's 17,000 square feet of restaurant is not built. We track the shows nightly.
- Jingo Java207 Highway 96, named for the town's 1880 post office: weekdays 6 to 6, Saturday 6 to 3, closed Sunday. The one room in Fairview where the commission, the coaches, and the builders overlap.
- The Saturday marketThe Farmers & Makers Market in the chiropractor's lot at 2199 Fairview Boulevard, across from Publix, Saturdays 9 to noon in season; coffee and the week's produce.
- No chainFirst District Coffee on the boulevard closed; there is no Starbucks or Dunkin' in the city. Bellevue's is 23 minutes.
- The Coffee AtlasTwenty Franklin shops, ranked by the community, 25 minutes east.
- Three groceriesPublix at Bowie Commons on City Center Way, Kroger at 2080 Fairview Boulevard, and the Walmart Supercenter on Hopgood Road, 6 to 11; more supermarkets than Leiper's Fork and Grassland combined, which is most of the argument for the rate.
- The boulevardTractor Supply at 2320, the post office at 1890 (weekdays 8:30 to 4, Saturday to noon), three Dollar Generals, Fifth Third, the county health clinic at 2629, Fairview Animal Clinic at 1597, and the sidewalk crews.
- The convenience centerThe county's Fairview center behind the Rec Complex at 2714 Fairview Boulevard: trash, brush, recycling, oil, e-waste, and Goodwill, weekdays 9 to 5 and weekends 7 to 3. The city does not collect trash; it does run the chipper.
- The libraryFairview Public Library at 2240 Fairview Boulevard, a county branch, Monday to Thursday 9 to 7, Friday and Saturday to 5; story time, tween nights, the crafts table. The west's only branch with hours like that.
- City Hall7100 City Center Way: permits, codes, the court clerk, the police department, and the commission on the first and third Thursdays. We cover Franklin's City Hall; Fairview's is the one in this guide.
- Storefronts we've profiledLocal businesses, one at a time.
- Bowie Nature Park7211 Bowie Lake Road: 722 acres the Bowie sisters terraced, planted, and gave the city in 1988; 17 miles of trail for feet, hooves, and mountain bikes, five lakes, the treehouse playground, the nature center (weekdays 8 to 4), free bike checkout, a 2008 conservation easement, and no admission. Open 5 in the morning to 10 at night. The reason to live here that is not a price.
- The Fairview Recreation ComplexThe county's center at 2714 Fairview Boulevard: gym, a wellness floor of 55 machines, group fitness and cycling studios, the senior lounge, childcare, a six-lane outdoor pool in season, football and soccer fields, a playground and a trail; weekdays from 5.
- Veterans Memorial Park, and the ball parkThe five-acre lake park on Black Pine Road off Highway 96, with the June fishing rodeo and a grand opening for its veterans' wall on September 26, 2026; the youth ball park at 214 Highway 96; the Historical Village on Westview Drive with the 1938 Triangle School and the 1858 Jingo post office.
- The Trace, and Timberland ParkThe Natchez Trace Parkway's Highway 96 ramp is 15 minutes east and stays open through the bridge closure; the county's Timberland Park at milepost 437 is 20. Garrison Creek and the Highland Rim trail past it.
- Montgomery Bell, and the HarpethMontgomery Bell State Park's 3,782 acres at Burns, 26 minutes west by I-40; the Narrows of the Harpeth at Kingston Springs for the canoe. The two state parks the east side of the county drives an hour for.
- The lakesBowie's five, Evergreen Lake at the veterans' park, and the ponds on every second farm: fishing licenses, not boat ramps. Camp Marymount's 340 acres on the boulevard, a Catholic summer camp since 1946.
- Fast Pace HealthThe walk-in clinic at 2377 Fairview Boulevard, weekdays 7 in the morning to 10 at night, Saturday 8 to 6, Sunday 1 to 5. The only urgent care in the city, and until the ERs open, the first stop.
- The two emergency rooms, comingTriStar's at 2273 Fairview Boulevard by the park entrance, under construction since June; Ascension Saint Thomas' at Audubon Cove, approved the same day in May. No opening dates. Until then, TriStar Horizon in Dickson is 28 minutes and Williamson Medical in Franklin 30, free-flow.
- The county clinicWilliamson County Health Department's Fairview clinic at 2629 Fairview Boulevard, immunizations, WIC, TennCare, and a sliding scale; Vanderbilt's walk-in clinic in Bellevue for the rest.
- The gymThe Rec Complex, at county-resident rates, with the pool in summer; Bowie's trails for everything else.
- Working from homeA county-grant fiber expansion reached parts of the city; the ridges and hollows are their own problem, and the January storm took the power out for days on the west side. Ask the neighbors which line reaches the address, and whether they own a generator.
- The seniorsThe Rec Complex's senior lounge: bingo the first Monday, yarn on Thursdays, game day Fridays; no standalone senior center.
08 · The year
What the town does together.
Fairview runs its own calendar, most of it in the park and at City Hall, and it is the west's fullest. The city's dates, and the two county ones that pull it east:
- SaturdaysThe Farmers & Makers Market9 to noon in the lot at 2199 Fairview Boulevard across from Publix, in season, weather permitting; moved there in December 2023.
- MarchThe Easter egg huntThe city's hunt at the ball park on Highway 96, 10 in the morning the Saturday before Easter; March 28 in 2026.
- JuneThe fishing rodeoAt Veterans Memorial Park's lake on Black Pine Road, the first Saturday of June; June 6 in 2026.
- JulyThe Third of JulyThe city's fireworks at City Hall on July 3, the 15th in 2026, gates at 2, a headliner at dusk, fireworks at 9:30, free; the 2024 edition drew about 28,000, nearly three times the town.
- AugustThe county fair, and kickoffThe Williamson County Fair at the Ag Expo Park in Franklin, August 7 to 15 in 2026; the Yellow Jackets' opener the third Friday, a 21-7 win over East Hickman this year.
- SeptemberNature Fest, and Release the HoundsNature Fest at Bowie Park the third Saturday, September 19 in 2026, 9 to 4: 70 vendors, hayrides, the petting zoo, the plein-air contest, free. Release the Hounds, the dog-friendly free music festival in the park, September 12. The veterans' wall's grand opening September 26.
- OctoberTrunk or TreatAt Bowie Park the last Saturday, 4 to 6, with a movie after; the churches' festivals the weekends around it.
- DecemberThe Christmas paradeThe first Saturday of December at 10, from Westwood Elementary down Fairview Boulevard; "Hard Candy Christmas" is the 2026 theme, December 5. The FCE Christmas Marketplace at Westview Methodist the weekend before Thanksgiving; Leiper's Fork's parade the second Saturday, 23 minutes east.
09 · Trade-offs
The case for, and the case against.
What you gain
- The price. A $582,995 median, a $370,000 median under $500,000, a new townhouse at $300,000, and a new house on an acre at $1.25 million that would be $2.5 million in Franklin. The only Williamson County school zone a first-time buyer can afford new.
- The park. Seven hundred twenty-two acres, five lakes, and 17 miles of trail, free, a mile from most of the city, under a conservation easement so it stays that way.
- A whole town. Three groceries, a Walmart, a library with evening hours, a rec center with a pool, a police department, a Class 3 fire department, a high school everyone goes to on Friday, a Third of July that draws 28,000, and a commission that meets twice a month. The west's other guides have none of that.
- The west side of Nashville. Twenty-three minutes to Bellevue and 40 to downtown by I-40, on the side of town where Franklin is the long way around; Dickson and Montgomery Bell 26 to 28 the other way.
- New everything. Half the houses sold last year were built since 2023, two emergency rooms are under way, the main street is getting sidewalks and a signal, and a $60 million elementary opens in 2029.
What you give up
- The drive. Nineteen miles to Franklin's square, 28 to Nashville, a 37-minute mean commute, no bus, and two lanes to the interstate with an $80 million widening that is not in the state's plan.
- The rate. $2.1404 combined, the county's highest city rate, up 25 cents in June a year after it was cut; about $840 a year more than the same house inside Franklin, and $1,225 more than across the city line.
- The hospital. None, and no emergency room until the two approved in May open; the nearest is 28 minutes on an empty road.
- The year at City Hall. A manager gone in March, an interim from Dickson, an ethics inquiry, a code nobody has tested, and an election in November, with 3,200 houses in the pipeline and a 1990 sewer plant under all of them.
- The construction. The town is being built around you: 19 active developments, a Town Center that is streets and ten houses, and a subdivision behind the park that the neighbors fought to shrink. What you see on the drive in is not what will be there in five years.
The verdict
Buy the price and the park, and underwrite the road and the rate. A Cumberland Estates or Wynwood Park house if the reason is a new house under $600,000 and the job is in Bellevue or west Nashville; a Chester Road or Cumberland Drive ranch if it is an acre under $450,000 and you can live with 1979; Richvale, Goodwin Farms, or the Reserves if it is 3,000 square feet new for what Franklin charges for 1,800. Whatever the reason, get the sewer allocation letter on any new house, confirm the elementary zone and ask the district how the 2029 school will redraw it, drive I-40 at 7:15 on a Tuesday, read the June 18 budget vote, and go to a Thursday commission meeting before you sign, because in Fairview the commission is the neighborhood.
10 · Map
Where it sits.
The northwest corner of Williamson County, a mile south of the Davidson County line and a mile east of Dickson County's, on the ridge that Highway 100 follows from Nashville toward Centerville. Highway 96 comes in from Franklin on the east and leaves north to I-40's exit 182; I-840 begins at I-40 to the west. Bowie Park is the south side of the city; City Hall, Publix, and the Town Center are at the center; Chester Road and Cumberland Drive run south, Cox Pike northwest, Horn Tavern and Old Nashville north toward the interstate.
11 · Questions
What people ask before they move here.
Is Fairview really that much cheaper than Franklin?
Yes, by a third to a half, and it is the only place in the county where that is true of a new house. Fairview's 336 sales in the year to March 2026 closed at a $582,995 median and $244 a foot, against $935,000 in the 37069 zip north of Franklin, $1.98 million in Leiper's Fork, and about $790,000 for the city of Franklin as a whole. A quarter of Fairview's sales were under $400,000, 147 closed under $500,000 at a $370,000 median, and a new Pulte or Meritage townhouse is $300,000 to $363,000. Half the houses sold were built since 2023, at a $738,942 median, which is what a 2005 house costs in Franklin. The price is the distance: 19 miles to Franklin's square, 28 to downtown Nashville, and the county's highest city tax rate on top of it.
What is the property tax?
$2.1404 per $100 of assessed value for tax year 2026 inside the city: the county's $1.30 plus the city's $0.8404. The city cut its rate from $0.8765 to $0.5904 in June 2025 to hold revenue flat through the county's reappraisal, then raised it 25 cents on June 18, 2026 by a 4-1 vote, citing a $13.8 million revenue estimate, a $4.5 million police budget, a $3 million fire budget, and a $675,000 storm-cleanup bill FEMA will not reimburse. Assessment is 25 percent of appraisal, so the $582,995 median house pays about $3,120 a year; a $370,000 Cumberland Estates house about $1,980; a $1.25 million Reserves on Chester house about $6,690. The same median house would pay about $1,895 on the county rate alone outside the city line, about $2,280 inside Franklin outside its special school district, about $2,390 in Nolensville, and about $2,930 in Spring Hill. Fairview's is the highest city rate of the county's six.
Which schools?
Fairview Elementary on Fairview Boulevard or Westwood Elementary on Tiger Trail, depending on the street; then Fairview Middle on Cumberland Drive and Fairview High on Fairview Boulevard, all Williamson County Schools and all within three miles of City Hall. Fairview High has about 700 students at 13 or 14 to 1, a Reward School designation in each of the last three years, U.S. News' 41st ranking in Tennessee, 44 percent AP participation, a 25 ACT average, six career pathways, and a wrestling state title in 2021. Westwood is Niche's 60th elementary in the state and Fairview Middle its 32nd middle school; all four sit at about two-thirds of capacity. The district's five-year plan puts a $60 million elementary school west of town, listed for the 37062 zip, in fall 2029, which will redraw the two elementary zones in a way the district has not announced, and a $6.6 million Hillsboro K-8 renovation in 2028; no rezoning of the Fairview cluster is on it. The Fernvale end of Highway 96 zones Hillsboro K-8 and Independence High. Confirm any address with the WCS zone finder.
Is there a hospital, or an emergency room?
Not yet, and two are on the way. Fairview has never had an emergency room; the nearest hospitals are TriStar Horizon in Dickson, 28 minutes free-flow, and Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, 30, which the state's commission described as 30-to-45-minute drives. On May 27, 2026 the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission approved two freestanding emergency departments for the city: TriStar's $21 million, 11-treatment-room facility with a trauma bay, lab, and imaging at 2273 Fairview Boulevard near the Bowie Park entrance, which broke ground June 24, and Ascension Saint Thomas' $20.6 million, 11,345-square-foot facility with ten treatment rooms at Fairview Boulevard and Audubon Cove. Neither had an opening date at press time. Fast Pace Health at 2377 Fairview Boulevard is the walk-in clinic, weekdays 7 to 10, and the county health department has a clinic at 2629.
What is going on at City Hall?
A change of management, a tax vote, and an inquiry, all in one year. City Manager Tom Daugherty, a fourth-generation native and the city's former finance director, reported to the state's Municipal Technical Advisory Service that he had hired a relative by marriage as a codes inspector in 2024, against the personnel policy, and the commission accepted his departure 3-2 on March 27, 2026 after more than an hour of public comment urging it to keep him. On April 16 it unanimously hired Bob Rial, Dickson County's retiring four-term mayor, as interim manager at $13,100 a month, with a brief to recruit a permanent one; none had been named in September. On June 18 the commission raised the city rate 25 cents, 4-1, and voted 4-0 to hire an attorney at $350 an hour to investigate a 38-page ethics complaint the former city planner filed against Commissioner Don Bufalini over financial disclosures and campaigning; Bufalini called it bullying. The city's new development code took effect April 2, the planner who wrote it has left, and the next election is November 3, 2026. The commission meets the first and third Thursdays at 7; the meetings are on the city's site.
How is the commute?
Fairview is the far end of every drive, and which drive matters. Downtown Franklin is 25 minutes free-flow and 19 miles by Highway 96; Cool Springs and Williamson Medical 30 to 33; downtown Nashville and Vanderbilt 40 minutes and 28 miles by Highway 96 north to I-40 at exit 182 and east; Bellevue 23; the airport 52; Dickson 28 the other way. Add 10 to 20 minutes for a weekday morning, and the MLS compiler's own figure for the Nashville run is 30 to 40 minutes normally and 40 to 55 in the rush. The Census puts the city's mean commute at 37 minutes, the longest in this series. There is no bus and no park-and-ride; WeGo's nearest is Bellevue. Highway 100 is two lanes from Bowie Lake Road to I-840, the state's rough estimate to widen it is $80 million and it is not in the ten-year plan, and the city's answer is to make developers build turn lanes. The Trace's Highway 96 ramp stays open through the bridge closure; the detour runs east of it toward Highway 100 and does not touch Fairview's roads.
How does it compare to Leiper's Fork, Thompson's Station, and Franklin's south side?
Different products at three prices. Leiper's Fork, 23 minutes east on the same Highway 96, is the county's most expensive land at a $1.98 million median and six acres, on the $1.30 county rate, with no grocery, no ER, and no city; Fairview is a third of the price with all three. Thompson's Station, on I-65 south of Franklin, is the county's other new-construction town at a $1.403 rate, with the same production builders and a shorter drive to Cool Springs but a longer one to Nashville's west side. Berry Farms and south Franklin sell the same builders' newer houses at Franklin's prices, on Franklin's $1.566, ten minutes from Cool Springs. Fairview is for the buyer whose job is in west Nashville or Dickson, whose budget is under $800,000, and who wants a park and a town rather than a town center. The Leiper's Fork guide is live; Thompson's Station and Berry Farms have their own.
12 · Compare
If you like Fairview, also look at.
Leiper's Fork & the rural west.
Twenty-three minutes east on the same road: six acres, the Trace, no city, and three times the price on the county rate alone.
The expensive westThompson's Station.
The county's other new-construction town: the same builders on I-65, a $1.403 rate, and Cool Springs in 20 minutes.
The other growth townBerry Farms & South Franklin.
The same production builders at Franklin's prices, inside Franklin, ten minutes from Cool Springs, with a town center that is built.
What the drive buysSources & method
- Sales, medians, ranges, price per square foot, days to contract, sale-to-list ratios, lot and house sizes, build years, builders, dues, zone medians, and tiers: MLS closed sales as compiled by nashvillehome.guru in its Fairview community guide (336 sales, 12 months ending March 2026), its 37062 zip page (343 sales, a slightly different window, $560,000 median, including the Dickson County corner at County Line Road), its under-$500,000 page (147), and 39 subdivision pages (the Reserves on Chester, Orrinshire, Belvoir, Goodwin Farms, Richvale, Aden Woods, Otter Creek, Kyles Creek, Brush Creek, Stable Acres, Heartland Reserve, McCormick Grove, Castleberry Farm, Bowie Meadows, Polston Place, Audubon Cove, Lampley Earl, Pepper Tree, Wynwood Park, Woodridge, Kingwood, DeLacy Pointe, Cumberland Estates, Braxton Bend, Meadow Wood, Chester Creek, Dogwood Hills, Fairfield Court, Sharpes Run, Cherokee Hills, Fernvale Springs, Clearview Meadows, Cedarcrest, Fernvale Heights, Glenhaven, Rolling Acres, Adams Preserve, the Meadows at Fairview, Hatcher Heights). Several cuts are two to five sales. Homes.com and Zillow polygons were not used. The Census Bureau's 2024 five-year estimates for the $390,200 median value, the 37.1-minute mean commute, and the 10,009 population.
- City facts and history: the city's general-data, contacts, fire, police, utilities, residents', parks, and library pages; Fairview Forward, the 2040 comprehensive plan (adopted May 2, 2019) for the First District, the Barrens, Christiana, Jingo, the 1937 renaming, Highway 100, Cox Pike, and the 1959 incorporation; the Historical Marker Database on the Jingo marker; the Municipal Technical Advisory Service's city directory; Wikipedia on the area, the 2020 Census (9,357), Camp Marymount, and Fairview High; the Williamson Scene's Fairview guide (May 2019); Business View Magazine (late 2025) on the 3,200 units, 19 developments, the Town Center, the Horn Tavern plan, fiber, and the employers; bowiepark.org, the Friends of Bowie Nature Park, and Visit Franklin on the Bowie sisters, the 1954 purchase, the December 22, 1988 deed, the 2003 nature center, the 2008 easement, the 722 acres, and the 17 miles of trail.
- City Hall in 2026: the city's Resolution 17-26 and Citizen Portal on the March 27 vote (Citizen Portal's byline misdates it to 2024); the Williamson Herald (April 22, 2026) on the interim manager, his pay, and the public comment; the Herald (June 25, 2026) on the June 18 tax vote, the budget figures, the storm obligation, and the ethics investigation; the Williamson Scene (June 25, 2025) on the FY2026 rate cut; the Herald (January 26, 2026) and TEMA on Winter Storm Fern; the city's Development Code (adopted April 2, 2026) and its 2025 board packets on Barkeast (Ordinance 2024-14, September 5, 2024), the Taylor Road and Old Cox Pike annexations, and the Crow Cut Road rezoning; Main Street Media (September 2021, March 2024, June 2024, August and September 2024) on the Town Center and Barkeast; Williamson Source (February and June 2022) on the Grove; Fox 17 (August 2024 and November 2025) on Barkeast and the county growth plan.
- Tax rates and fees: Williamson County 2026 property tax rates and combined totals (Fairview $2.1404: county $1.30, city $0.8404; county only $1.30; Franklin $1.566; Nolensville $1.64; Spring Hill $2.009) and its 2025 rate sheet for the history ($0.8765 through 2024, $0.5904 in 2025); tnimpactfees.com for the city permit fee, the county privilege tax, and the education impact fee; TACIR's growth-fees report on the city's 1987 and 1998 private acts.
- Utilities and services: wadc.us on the 2006 consolidation, the plant's 1990 construction, 0.46 MGD capacity, the 2004 moratorium, the 2020 upgrade, and the 2025 survey; the city's fire department page on the 1990 founding, the 2003 full-time service, Stations 31 and 32, and ISO Class 3 from April 1, 2018; the city's utilities guide on MTE, Piedmont, and the private haulers; the county's convenience-center page (hours from July 6, 2026); NewsChannel 5 (May 27, 2026), WSMV (February 27, 2026), the Herald (June 24, 2026), and Hoodline (July 1, 2026) on the two emergency rooms, their costs, rooms, sites, the state's approval, and the groundbreaking; Fast Pace Health's location page; the county health department's clinic page; the city's Development Code on short-term rentals (Section 7-603) and AirDNA's listing count via search.
- Schools: the district's five-year capital plan (November 7, 2024) for Elementary School West ($60 million, fall 2029) and the Hillsboro K-8 renovation ($6.6 million, fall 2028); ConstructConnect's listing of the school in 37062; the state's 2024–25 Reward Schools attachment (November 21, 2025) and Williamson Source's 2022–23 and 2023–24 lists; GreatSchools, Niche, U.S. News, Public School Review, and NCES for enrollment, ratios, proficiency, and rankings; Wikipedia and fvhs.wcs.edu on Fairview High's founding, the 2017 arts center, the 2021 wrestling title, and the CTE pathways; MaxPreps on the 2025 and 2026 football results; Citizen Portal's summary of a county presentation for the capacity percentages; wcs.edu on Voluntary Pre-K; First Baptist Fairview's preschool page; Niche and Yelp on Grace Christian Academy.
- Roads and commute: TDOT's Fairview Boulevard (SR 100) project page and its August 2025 and July 2026 newsletters on the limits, the sidewalks, the signal, the contractor, and the fall 2026 completion; Main Street Media (May 8 and October 2, 2024) on the $80 million widening estimate, the ten-year plan, and the Cumberland Drive intersection; the National Park Service (April 10, 2026) on the Double Arch Bridge closure and the Highway 96 ramp; Wikipedia on SR 96, I-840, and the bridge; the Census Bureau on the mean commute; nashvillehome.guru's community guide for its own rush-hour figures; WeGo's park-and-ride page. OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM) free-flow times from City Hall and from Highway 96 at Old Nashville Highway, run September 8, 2026, with a weekday 7 to 8:30 a.m. allowance from Google Maps typical traffic. Jurisdiction from Overpass point checks on 16 subdivision streets against the OSM city boundary, September 8, 2026.
- Daily life and events: Williamson Source (January 2024) on the Country Cafe's closing and (January 2021) on the Thompsons Kitchen; Main Street Media on Uncle Lenny's (2024), the market's move (December 2023), the senior programs, and Nature Fest (2024); each restaurant's, Jingo Java's, and the donut shop's own pages; Publix, Kroger, Walmart, Tractor Supply, and the post office listings; the city's library page; Williamson County Parks on the Rec Complex; bowiepark.org's September 2026 events flyer for Nature Fest (September 19), the veterans' wall opening (September 26), and the park's hours; Fox 17 (August 17, 2026) on Release the Hounds; Nashville Parent (June 29, 2026) and Williamson Source (January 1, 2025) on the Third of July and its 28,000; the city's events pages on the fishing rodeo (June 6, 2026) and the Christmas parade (December 5, 2026); FranklinIs on the Historical Village, Veterans Memorial Park, and the FCE marketplace; Williamson Source on the 2026 county fair dates; Wikipedia and tnstateparks.com on Montgomery Bell and Harpeth River State Park.
- Photographs: Fairview City Hall (February 2014) by Skye Marthaler, CC BY-SA 3.0; a farm in Fairview by Codyfunderburg, CC BY-SA 3.0; the patio at Fairview High School (September 2017) by SBaker43, CC BY-SA 4.0; all via Wikimedia Commons, cropped to 4:3.