Presentation period for today, November the fourth, twenty twenty-five.

And starting off, we do have a resolution recognizing Carol Etherington Fossick by Councilmember Nash.

This is a resolution RS twenty twenty-five dash fifteen eighty-nine recognizing Carol Etherington Fossig, founder of the Metropolitan National Police Department's Victim Intervention Program, and the fiftieth anniversary of the program.

Council Member Nash, you are recognized.

Now in its thirty-first year, season continues to follow Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa traditions.

Now in its 31st year, season continues to follow Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa traditions and whereas since 2017, the program has also created an altar at the Chico Dia de Dia de los Muertas event, memorializing Hispanic homicider victims.

The photographs displayed on an altar have grown from seven to more than 50.

And whereas through the ensuing years, the program has been recognized by the U.S.

Department of Justice and the International Association Chiefs of Police and Okay.

Whereas in 2016, VIP merged with the domestic balance division counseling services under the leadership of Heidi Bennett, and is now called the Family Intervention Program.

And whereas now in its fifth uh 50th year, fifth 50th year, the program continues counseling and advocacy for victims and crime and training for police recruits, graduate students, other professionals, and the community at large under the leadership of Kim Page.

And whereas it is fitting and proper for the Metropolitan Council to recognize the family intervention program and its founder, Carol Aetherton Fossick, for their efforts to provide immediate free and professional counseling services to anyone who endures trauma as a result of a crime.

And and now, therefore it be resolved by the councils, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davison County.

The Metropolitan Council hereby goes on record as recognizing and celebrating founder Caroling Etherington Fossick and the 50th anniversary of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department's victim intervention program.

And the Metropolitan Office is directed to prepare a copy of this resolution to be presented to Carol Etherington Fossick.

And the resolution shall take effect from and after its adoption, the welfare of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davison County requiring it.

I know you have many things to do, so I'll make this very brief.

But it is quite an honor for me and for all of the people who were a part of making victim intervention a reality in this city 50 years ago, and especially Mayor Fulton and Joe Casey and a whole host of other people.

And it keeps going on because of the counselors, some of whom are here, uh, because of Amy Griffith, who did an extraordinary job of leading and Chief Drake is here, which is quite an honor to have him with us.

I just think that um it was really remarkable for Nashville to buy into and for the police officers back then to buy into the concept of bringing in a civilian person to work with victims, but they did it and they did it so wonderfully well.

So I want to thank you all for everything that you do, and I want to um thank Bob Nash for bringing this to your attention and may the victim intervention program continue to work with the many, many people who need it desperately.

And thank you to you.

Thank you so very much, Councilmember Nash.

And as they are taking photos, we will go ahead.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

My apologies, Chief Drake.

You're recognized.

I'm so sorry.

Hey, uh, good evening, everyone.

I just want to say uh we're really thankful for a victim intervention program and uh FIP program and all that they've done for victims in our city.

Uh, even with sexual assault in the nation, the national reporting is 28 to 32 percent, and here it's right around 72 percent with a victim-centered approach, and all of that started with Miss Etherton.

And so just want to say thank you, congratulations on this honor, and we truly appreciate you being recognized.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chief Drake, and again, my apologies.

I did not see walking up.

Um, as we open up for the announcement period, I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on the unceded land of the Cherokee Shiny and UC people and remind you all that no one is illegal on stolen land built by stolen labor.

Colleagues, we have several volunteer opportunities over the next two weeks.

Uh, we do have opportunities organized by council member Vowe to volunteer with the store, and I have organized opportunities with Second Harvest Food Bank and the branch.

You will see a sign-up sheet passed around tonight so that you can sign up to volunteer uh if interested.

We also know that uh in the midst of uh everything that's happening with um the lack of access to SNAP benefits, many of our constituents are in need of um food resources.

Um, so there are several resources uh that are being shared out.

I will open up the announcement period to give council members the opportunity to do their announcements, and then as we close out, I will share out um any additional food opportunities that may not have been mentioned.

So with that, I will open it up to our colleagues.

If anyone would like to be recognized first in the queue is Councilmember Gay, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, Speaker Pro Tem.

Um I also uh want to say thank you for distributing um this wonderful flyer that's on council members' desks.

Um it's beyond the bridge, a solution to homelessness.

It's a snap a screening and panel discussion um for those in the community.

Um, come over to District 24.

We're really excited to have you at Otter Creek Church.

Um, and that's gonna be this Thursday, November 6th, 6 p.m.

And um a big shout out to um uh some of our neighborhood associations throughout the the district um for such a wonderful um spooky trick-or-treat, but also um so much fun.

So thanks for taking care of all the kiddos out there and the parents um and guardians um this past this past week and weekend.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Gadd.

Is there anyone else that would like to be recognized?

Councilmember Ewing, you're recognized.

Thank you, Pro Tem.

Um, since we're mentioning food resources, I wanted to mention something that is local in West Nashville.

Uh the Bellevue Community Food Bank is open every Tuesday night from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

for food distribution uh for donations and administrative or volunteer inquiries.

The office hours are weekdays from 8:30 to 4:30.

And you can go to St.

George's Episcopal Church website for more information.

Thank you so very much.

Next up, we have Councilmember Eastlick.

You're recognized.

Thank you very much.

I have a um Metro Council meet the council person meeting next Thursday, November 13th from 5 to 7 at the Old Hickory Social Marketplace, right there on Old Hickory Boulevard in the heart of Old Hickory.

We'd love to have all the constituents come out.

I'll be talking about what's going on in the district and what we're doing tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Eastley.

Councilmember Vaux, you're recognized.

Thank you so much, Pro Tim.

Um we have a lot going on in District 17, and I do want to take a moment to thank all of the neighborhood associations that hosted a Halloween family-friendly events.

Um, and so I just wanted to thank um everyone in Edge Hill.

They had their sixth annual Edge Hill Halloween polar bear parade um in 12 South, also had their sixth annual um 12 South Parade and Trick-or-treating.

Um, and to Chestnut Hill who had their first trick-or-treat trail.

So thank you to all the neighborhood leaders.

I know it took so many hours to coordinate and organize um for your communities.

And uh seeing all the kids' faces and running out of candy is always a good sign of a good night.

Um, we've got two community meetings that I want to make sure that um those in District 17 are aware of on Monday, next Monday, um, November 10th.

Um, this is for Edge Hill residents.

We are having a virtual community meeting uh on a proposed rezone at 1007 15th Avenue South.

Um, there is a Zoom link.

I shared it on my socials, and then I will also be putting it in my newsletter.

Um, but of course, anyone can just email me and I'll make sure that you get that.

And then on Thursday, November 13th, um, in Napier for all my Napier residents, we're gonna be having a community meeting at the Claiborne Family of Faith Worship Center, and we will be talking about um uh tree plantings and um you know what that will look like and really want to get the community involved.

So please come out and you can be a tree captain and learn about that.

So please come out and do that.

And of course, um, I just want to thank um all the businesses in District 17 that are stepping up during this time um with um you know our community members who are not getting their SNAP benefits.

Uh, I've seen so many small businesses like in Garcia and Sons and El Forno stepping up and wanting to provide um, you know, meals for anyone who needs it, um, and then also a pay it forward.

So if you are doing that, please let me know so I can shout it out.

Um, but I'm so appreciative.

And to all the organizations that have been doing the groundwork um well before uh but well before November 1st.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Vaux.

Next up is Councilmember Lee.

You are recognized.

Thank you so very much.

I just wanted to announce um Thursday, which is the sixth, we're having a virtual community meeting.

Um, this is not about um any of the rezoning or any of the developments, but this is a chance for community members to ask specific questions.

We're gonna have the different uh divisions of Metro there.

So if you have questions about your taxes, about traffic calming, uh about what's building going up, or you have some particular areas um that you want patrolled a little more, those type things.

Well, the people will be there for you to directly talk to and ask um those questions.

So please, it's a virtual meeting.

It is Thursday, it starts at six o'clock.

Um, if you're in the um mailing list, then you got an email about it.

Uh, if you still need information on how to get on, then you may email me or the council office.

Uh, it should be a very good meeting and very informative.

I hope you can join.

Thank you, Councilmember Lee.

Next up is Councilmember Huffman.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Pro Tim.

Want to invite the public to a community discussion that Councilmember Evans and I will be co-hosting uh around a corridor design overlay uh for parts of both of our districts.

Uh that is going to be Tuesday, November the 11th from 6 to 7 30 at the Hermitage Police Precinct.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next up, Councilmember Toons, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Pro Tim.

Just wanted to remind uh district two residents that we will have our monthly community meeting on Monday, November the 24th at 6 30 at the North Precinct in the community room.

There will also be a Zoom option.

Um look at my newsletter as well as Facebook, or you can reach out to me to get that link again.

That is Monday, November the 14th.

Uh November 14th.

Monday, November 24th at 6 30 p.m.

at the North Precinct, and also stay tuned for details on the annual turkey and food drive.

Thank you, Councilmember Toons.

Councilmember Sapulvita, you are recognized.

Thank you, Pro Tem.

Um I just wanted to say go Dodgers.

Um, hope everyone no, no, no.

I that was specifically for uh councilmember uh Koopin and Councilmember Benedict.

I know that they're big Dodgers fans, and you know the best team did win this this year.

And uh, but I also wanted to let everyone know that we are trying to fix our little libraries.

So we do need to fix two of them.

They are located at two of the bus stops.

So if anyone wants to donate, um please do that.

You can just reach out to me and uh we'll take care of that.

But we're trying to fix those as soon as possible.

Uh thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Sopova.

The colleagues are there.

Uh any other colleagues looking to be recognized.

All right, seeing none, I'll go ahead and share some of those uh food resources that were discussed earlier.

Um, if any Nashville needs any assistance, you can call 211, which is a helpline.

Also, thank you to MMPS for making food boxes available for MMPS students, upcoming opportunities.

Um, on Tuesdays, there's a food pantry at Tusculum Elementary School from 8 to 11 and again from 1 to 3.

Um, November the 11th, there will be a food pantry from 9 to 10 30 a.m.

at Mount View Elementary School.

November 18th, there will be a pre-Thanksgiving break distribution from 12 to 2 at Hickman Elementary School.

November 20th, a pre-Thanksgiving break distribution from 9 to 11 at Antioch High School.

November 20th, there will be a Thanksgiving break distribution from 11 to 1 at Alex Green Elementary School, and November the 21st, a pre-Thanksgiving break distribution from 11 to 1 at Maplewood High School.

Um, there are also opportunities if you go to Nashville.gov slash food.

There are um resources that are listed there, and thank you so much to our Metro Social Services who sent out information.

They posted on social media.

I won't share all of those opportunities because there are um a multitude of opportunities there, but you can uh go on Metro Social Services social media sites to um look for opportunities to either get help or to give help.

And lastly, uh on yesterday we did have a meeting with uh WIGO and choose how you move, and there was a lot of conversation about the journey pass.

I did want to make sure that people knew that uh we go has now extended hours and new sign-up locations as well as a simplified registration process for SNAP recipients.

Um so there are upcoming Journey Pass registration events starting as early as tomorrow.

Um, and that information is also available on social media.

Uh colleagues, we will be taking a photo.

So we will um are they ready for the photo now?

We are going to stand at your desk if you could, and we are getting ready to take that photo.

So if we can have all of our colleagues to please stand at your desk, we are getting ready to take that photo, and with that, the announcement period is now adjourned.

Tuesday.

Today is Tuesday, November fourth, twenty twenty-five.

This is the twentieth meeting of twenty twenty-five, and the forty-ninth regular meeting of the current term of the Metropolitan Council of Nashville in Davidson County.

Almighty God, we thank you for the privilege of gathering this evening in service to the people of Nashville.

As neighbors and leaders, we come together with a shared purpose to build a community that is strong, compassionate, and united.

As I stand here with my family, I'm reminded that every discussion in this chamber shapes the future that my daughters will grow up in and the future of every child in our city.

May we never forget that our decisions tonight reach far beyond policy.

They touch people's lives.

Lord grant wisdom, patience, and humility to all who lead and serve.

Help us to listen with respect to debate with grace and to seek solutions that protect and uplift every family from affordable homes and safe neighborhoods to the well-being of those who serve our community each day.

When we differ, remind us that what unites us, the love of this city and its people, is far greater than what divides us.

May this meeting be guided by fairness, compassion, and a shared commitment to the common good.

Bless this council, bless our families, and bless the city we are privileged to serve.

In your holy name we pray, amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States AFA.

Liberty, essentially for all you may all be seated, please, and thank you, uh, Captain Proctor.

Welcome, Council members and members of the community.

We appreciate you joining us this evening.

Looking ahead, Tuesday, November the 11th is Veterans Day, and the council office and most Metro government offices will be closed.

The Metro Council will be participating in Nashville Veterans Day Parade on Broadway at 11 a.m.

Uh we are grateful for the service of Nashville's veterans and that of their families.

Roughly six percent of the U.S.

population are veterans.

And like us, they took a solemn oath to defend the Constitution.

Council members will be receiving an email invitation shortly from the council office in the veterans caucus of the council, and we hope that members of the community will make plans to honor Nashville's veterans in ways big and small in the coming week.

Members will have received two memos from me via email and on your desks regarding uh vacancy on the contract and compliance board, um, and the other regarding a vacancy on the Human Relations Commission.

Nominations will be taken at the November 18th Council meeting, and elections will be conducted at the Tuesday, December 16th Council meeting.

For the members and the community's awareness, as you seek nominees and folks consider serving, uh, it is the responsibility of the Human Relations Commission to resolve complaints and carry out educational programs related to discrimination in the following areas.

Employment, including recruiting, hiring, firing, promotion, referral, and compensation, housing, including advertising, sales, renting, negotiating for sale or rent, financing or insuring, financial services and commercial transactions, including banking, lending, collection, advising, investment management, or brokerage services, the provision of public accommodations, the provision of city activities and services and educational programs and opportunities.

Please note that the Metro Human Relations Commission has been celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025 and will have its second annual free Friendsgiving event on the evening of November 20th at the Nashville Farmers Market.

Regarding the Contract Compliance Board, which was more recently established by Metro Code, uh, and its function is in part to meet, evaluate, and monitor compliance with existing construction contracts related to construction activities on projects by the Metro government, study best practices on public construction work sites, and provide recommendations concerning improvements in work site safety on Metro Government construction works sites, make recommendations to the Department of Finance for policies and practices regarding construction contracts, and accept and investigate complaints related to existing construction contracts, wherein the Metro government is a party and related to the relevant construction sites.

Again, nominations for both these boards and commissions will be taken from the council at the next council meeting.

All right.

Without objection, we will suspend the calling of the role and ask the clerk to please record the names of the members present throughout the meeting.

Is there a motion for approval of the minutes of the meeting of October 21st, 2025?

Okay, there is a motion.

It is properly seconded without objection.

And seeing no one seeking to be recognized for a change to the minutes.

All right.

The minutes of the meeting of October 21st are approved.

Mr.

Clerk, are there any messages from the mayor?

There is a message from the mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Go ahead.

Vice Mayor and members of council.

Tonight, approximately one in 10 Nashville households is questioning how they'll pay for food this month because of the federal shutdown, an avoidable crisis created by a failure of leadership at the federal level.

While the federal administration continues to sow confusion about releasing some of the SNAP dollars reserved for emergencies like this, benefits we as taxpayers paid for, Congress authorized, and courts have ordered released.

We're working to rally a coalition of metro departments, nonprofits, and private citizens to help our neighbors put food on the table during a crisis.

Unfortunately, this is a familiar place.

Time and again, this federal government has retreated from obligations to vulnerable Americans.

The mega bill passed by Congress several months ago already enacted historic cuts to SNAP, eliminating 300 million meals in Tennessee over the next decade.

In just the last six months, since April 1st, 2025, Second Harvest Food Bank has lost access to 30% of food received through USD programs, equivalent to 700,000 pounds of fresh produce produce, protein, and dairy lost each quarter.

The federal government has made all of these drastic cuts as food prices have increased 25% in Tennessee over the last five years.

It's almost as if the federal government has been shutting down for months.

Our city has stepped up to fill the gap, but local government cannot make up for all these lost benefits.

Even when joined by local philanthropy, local faith communities and local business partners.

Even so, Second Harvest Food Bank, their 600 plus partners and thousands of generous donors are in this with us.

We joined Second Harvest on Thursday to launch the Hunger Can't Wait campaign.

The realoc out the reallocating resources to increase food distributions, strengthen partnerships, and ramp up emergency food box builds across both the Nashville and Smyrna distribution centers.

Currently, Second Harvest is distributing approximately 2,000 boxes of food per week, demonstrating the level of need in our community.

To make it easy for people to access local benefits, we created an online resource at Nashville.gov slash food where people can find a list of resources for Nashville's and Nashvilleans in need.

Metro Social Services has activated their food crisis response plan and will host a food pop-up in North Nashville this Saturday at 8 a.m.

at the Greater St.

John Missionary Baptist Church.

Their case managers are also doing welfare checks to clients who are elderly, disabled, and homebound, are distributing of food assistance cards to families and are giving out quick meals.

Where we can, we're expanding programs like our fresh bucks offering at the Nashville Farmers Market.

Thanks to a grant recently approved by Metro Council.

People people who receive SNAP can show their EBT card with a recent receipt to get every dollar spent on fresh food matched, doubling their purchasing power power for fresh produce.

We know transportation is the second highest household cost and choose how you move overwhelmingly supported by this body and in every district you represent, allows us for the first time ever to offer fare-free access to transit users who need access the most through a new program called Journey Pass.

Journey Pass registration times and dates are on the resource page at the top of all Nashville.gov pages.

This is a time for us to help one another too.

And there's one thing I know for sure about Nashvilleans, it's that during times of crisis, we're here for one another.

Whether through a pandemic, floods, tornadoes, or a bombing, we've shown time after time when our neighbors are in need, we step up.

At all of our all of our police precincts, libraries, and several metro metro buildings, including here at the historic metro courthouse, we have bins for people to drop off food donations for second harvest.

And you can always support second harvest financially at second harvest midtn.org.

When you give whether through money, time or food, we work with our partners to leverage every resource to move nutritious mills where they're needed most.

While we face a federal government that isn't working, I want to share my appreciation to the many Metro Council members who've reached out, partnered, and stepped up to help our community.

Hunger can't wait, and working together with our community partners, we can help reduce the impact of the crisis.

All my best, Mayor Freddie O'Connell.

All right.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Clerk, and uh thank you as well to Mayor O'Connell.

I know that the council appreciates all the Metro departments and community stakeholders that are stepping up at this time.

Um Pro Tim Porterfield, I know shared during announcements uh that she has organized uh volunteer opportunities for the council um at second harvest, and that uh chairbo has arranged a volunteer opportunity at the nonprofit the store in her district, and I know we will all continue uh to meet uh this moment as a city again.

That's Nashville.gov forward slash food for the entirety of those resources.

All right.

Um we are continuing right into our agenda now, section E, appointees and nominees.

This portion of the agenda shares all persons who are scheduled to appear before the rules, confirmations, and public elections committee for an interview this evening.

Referrals back to the committee will be by rule as part of the council's two meeting process for elections and confirmations.

No votes will be taken by the body in this section of the agenda, other than for deferrals.

Chair Cash.

Your committee report, please, regarding the folks uh interviewed.

Uh my apologies.

No worries.

The full the folks interviewed today.

Yes, sir.

And it's section E, appointees and nominees, just the inner interviewees, very briefly.

All right.

Uh the for the um general sessions judge division six.

Uh we interviewed uh Michael uh Michael Robinson, voted seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Uh Mark Andrew Cole, six in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Um Jody Bell, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Leroy Ellis, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting, and David Jones, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

And then for um the Metro Board of Health, the appointment of Jeff Stovalt, Jeffrey Stoval for term expiring July 9th, 2026.

Uh we voted seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

For the uh Metropolitan Development Housing Agency, we um voted uh for the appointment of David Lawrence for term expiring November 5th, 2030.

Seven in favor, zero against zero not voting for metro planning.

We have uh a term expiring March 31st, 2026.

We voted for Arya Dang.

Seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

And then uh for the stormwater management commission uh for a term expiring October 31st, 2029.

We voted seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Stormwater, uh we voted for the reappointment of Jay Fulmer for term expiring October 31st, 2029, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

All right.

Um now moving into Section F confirmations, Chair Cash, you are recognized again for your committee report on the appointees that are in the second step of your committee's two meeting process, and then please a consolidated motion for the confirmation of those persons, or first for a deferral motion if there are any.

Go ahead, sir.

For the chart, we have five for the charter revision commission.

Um the reappointment of Hal Harden for term expiring September 4th, 2029, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Uh Susan Short Jones for term expiring September 4th, 2029, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Uh appointment of Tom Lee for a term expiring September 4th, 2029, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting, and the reappointment of Jim Murphy for a term expiring September 4th, 2029, seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

And then lastly, the reappointment of Joy Sims for a term expiring September 4th, 2029.

Seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

And I move approval of all the um nominees.

Okay.

Um there is a motion uh to confirm these five appointees um in a consolidated motion.

It is properly seconded.

Uh, does any member wish to remove an item from this consolidated motion for purposes of an individual abstention or no vote?

All right, hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Uh any abstentions.

Okay.

Um, all right.

Uh with that, um, to our confirmed appointees.

Uh if you chose to return to the council chamber this evening, which was not required, but is much appreciated.

Uh, do please stand as I call your name.

Uh council has confirmed uh to the charter revision uh commission.

Um Mr.

Hal Hardin.

Uh Ms.

Susan Short Jones, Mr.

Tom Lee, uh, Mr.

And Ms.

Joy Sims.

And if you would remain standing for the both of you, we want to thank you very much for your willingness to serve and continue to serve.

Thank you.

And for those who are watching from home and not present, we appreciate their willingness to serve and congratulate them as well.

All right.

Next is Section G of our agenda, nominations.

This is section uh uh our item G1, Transportation Licensing Commission.

Nominations, uh members will have received my October 20th memo regarding this vacancy and call for nominations.

Um we are taking nominations to fill one vacancy on the commission for a term expiring on October the 20th in 2027.

Um this election is to be conducted at the December 4th meeting.

Um, if members have nominations, um, if they would please join the queue.

All right, uh Ms.

Benedict, you're recognized.

Thank you, madam president.

Uh nominee commissioner Carrie Rogers.

Okay.

Um Councilmember Benedict has nominated uh current commissioner uh Carrie Rogers.

Are there any additional uh nominations from the council for the Transportation Licensing Commission?

Seeing none with that, the nominations are closed.

Um, and we have one uh nominee, Mr.

Carrie Rogers.

All right.

Next um is agenda section H, our public comment period.

Members of the public uh who are Tennessee residents wishing to speak uh for public comment may sign up at the table outside the council chamber from 5 until 6 p.m.

on the day of a council meeting.

Public comment is limited to 20 minutes total at council meetings, and each speaker is allowed up to two minutes to speak.

Uh person speaking on agenda items must be prioritized to comply with state law, and um all uh folks uh speaking must present proof of Tennessee residency.

All right, um, with that, I will open the public mic.

And um uh first for public comment, and I will go ahead and call maybe one or two subsequent folks and ask that you go ahead and kind of come forward near the podium um so we can proceed uh swiftly.

First is Carter Barnett um speaking on agenda item 49.

This is RS 2025 uh 1617 in support.

Uh following Mr.

Barnett uh will be Mr.

Lacey and uh Mr.

Hall.

Uh go ahead, Mr.

Barnett.

You're recognized.

Thank you.

Uh hello, my name is Carter Burnett, and I'm a resident of District 34.

Uh, I want to thank Councilmember Evans along with several other council members for sponsoring RSM, um RS 2025 1617, uh, which highlights a specific plan of action for Metro in response to SNAP benefits being cut off due due to the federal government shutdown.

Uh, this combined with the mayor's plan and the generosity of nonprofits, businesses, and everyday Nashvilleans uh should help make sure our city is fed during this uncertain time.

I'm also in support of the amendment, which encourages we go to suspend fairs, uh, which would further help residents.

Uh additionally, so I'm not speaking twice tonight.

Uh in regards to the zoning bills be all 2025 through 1005, 06, 07, and 08, uh, are steps in the right direction in making Nashville affordable for all, uh, while also protecting the context of specific neighborhood identity.

Um, as someone who is often one of the younger people in the room at government and neighborhood meetings, um, I have hope that these bills will help younger Nashvilleans find housing that is affordable that it's affordable and will be able to stay in our beautiful city instead of being priced out.

Um Halloween has come and gone.

The fear mongering surrounding increasing density needs to stop.

Um, I urge passage of these bills to help support uh Nashville and Young and Old.

Uh, thank you.

Thank you.

Next um is Mike Lacey um speaking on agenda item 26, uh that is resolution 2025 1594 in opposition after uh Mr.

Lacey again will be Mr.

Hall, and then uh Daniel Wotcherinski uh will be after that.

Uh go ahead, Mr.

Lacey.

You're recognized.

Hi, thank you.

I'm confused why we're doing another bid so quickly.

Why of all times in our city we're prioritizing uh funneling money into opaque pools that undefined advisory boards are in charge of with all of the urgency, why this is where we're spending our energy.

I I think we all everyone here has a lot of cleaning up to do with bids.

Um, since the last time we were discussing one, and thank you for bringing this back up to our attention, Councilmember Koopin.

Since the last time we were discussing it, you all have not remedied the fact that over 21 years, 60 million dollars was passed through to the district management corporation and then to the national downtown partnership, which chose to pay its CEO now checks watch 485,000 a year, right?

And now of all time, we're interested in not even holding an election with the people in that district, but unilaterally deciding to create an indefinite pool of funding that will be overseen by we don't know who.

We don't know if it's gonna go to the national downtown partnership, right?

What's let's clean up the downtown parking garage.

Let's figure out how you could have a security vendor that doesn't get cited 62 times for illegally wearing police uniforms off duty, the same police force, which is rounding up our neighbors, the off-duty Tennessee highway patrol people.

That's what we're spending our energy with now.

You know how many like fires, literal ones at Strubble House in your district I've had to tell you about in your trying to create more opaque pools of money.

Have I not just brought up how these unaccountable pools of money are problematic?

I yield my time.

All right, there is no time uh to yield.

Uh, Mr.

Hall, you are next, sir.

You're speaking on agenda item 49, resolution 2025 1617 in support.

Go ahead.

Hi, I'm in specifically in support of the amendment on this bill.

It calls for the administration and we go to spend suspend fare collection.

We have the funds, we have the know-how.

We are choosing barriers.

This is an emergency.

60,000 Nashvilleans are without their food stamps, and they've been without their food stamps for days.

They spent last month's weeks ago, and we're choosing to increase barriers.

I'm so glad.

I I love the journey pass.

I'm so excited for the journey pass.

I was excited when it was included in the transportation improvement program.

I was excited when that program passed that that would be one of the first items implemented.

And they said it was gonna be implemented already, and that's okay.

I'm glad they're gonna do it right.

But increasing enrollment through the journey pass is not the way to meet the moment.

Nashville's need access to the food banks, they need access to work, and they're gonna have to choose between paying their bills this week.

Are they gonna have to choose between getting to work this week?

Are they gonna be able to afford to go to the food banks that we're spreading out throughout this county?

I'm so glad that we are as a community meeting the moment in so many ways, but for the first time, we have access to over a hundred million dollars that we can dedicate to leaving costs on the most vulnerable Nashvilleans, and we're choosing not to.

Let's not add more barriers to care for our people.

The federal government is enforcing starvation on our people, and we can save them four dollars a day.

We can save them a meal.

That's 28 a week.

We can give money back to our people, and we're choosing to make it harder.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, next is Daniel Rotrinsky uh speaking on agenda item 30, uh RS 2025-1598 in opposition.

Um, after uh Daniel will be Mivan Verden and Kelly Chang, if you would go ahead and come forward.

Uh go ahead, sir.

You're recognized.

Hi, my name is Daniel.

I'm an Uber driver and an organizer with the Tennessee Drivers Union, which which represents hundreds of drivers in Middle Tennessee.

I'm standing here today to reject the 100,000 contract that is supposed to go towards Uber from the city to pay for Metro workers' transportation costs.

The Metropolitan Finance team estimated that about 22,500 would be saved if the contract goes through.

This is all because the city wants to be able to use gig worker wages instead of employee wages, because they would rather be robbing drivers than paying a fair wage.

This 22,500 in savings only comes from the cost of labor at the expense of Uber drivers in Nashville and Tennessee.

The question here is to choose the labor of employees or to choose the labor of a gig worker.

With the impact of Uber legislation across the country to expand gig work, companies have 30% less labor costs.

When we talk about money, we forget about what it means.

The 20% that disappears when the city chooses to go with gig work is the destruction and robbery of our lives.

Tennessean Uber and Lyft drivers working 12-hour days, seven days a week to survive.

We're at the risk of eviction.

Many living out of their cars and fighting to feed their families.

Tennesseans who just had their food stamps cut.

Do not participate in this effort by the state to destroy the lives of workers, with almost a million of us losing our food stamps in the state.

Do not bloody your hands with this disgusting company and exacerbate the hunger crisis we are currently facing.

Over a year ago, we met with some of you in this room to discuss some of the basic needs of Uber and Lyft drivers.

There was a new pilot program for rideshare pickup zones downtown.

We applaud that, but we'd like to see the full implementation of rideshare pickup zones.

So we want you to stand against this disgusting contract with Uber and stand with the workers of the city.

Don't throw government employees or government contractors under the board.

Next is Maivan uh Verden speaking regarding Family Safety Center and the resources provided to those victims.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Before you start my time, uh I was wondering if uh my name is on there twice for the two different topics or just the one topic right now.

Um you have two minutes to speak on whatever you would like.

Okay, um, I do have two different, completely different topics.

That's fine.

You can combine them into those two minutes.

I will not be able to.

So does that need to be on a different day?

Yes, you need to choose one.

Okay, so um, I guess the one you said is the one that I am speaking on today.

All right, I would like to also before you start my time.

I do have a diagnosed stutter.

So I was wondering um if um it was uh, you know, I'm gonna try to do like a breathing technique.

Thank you.

I will this is timed for effectiveness and productivity for just two minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I am a victim of domestic violence, and your system has failed me and my child.

The police were called several times to my home since my daughter was born in 2020 until present day.

The police failed to make an arrest when evidence of crime was present with police pictures taken, body cam footage, and even a clear confession from the abuser, as written in the narrative of the officers, and every single time there was no arrest made.

The day they finally arrested him was the day it left me with a permanent diagnosis impacting and limiting my everyday life and leaving me on FMLA.

And this does not include all diagnoses.

Both my daughter and I had have as a result of his abuse.

The police offered me a slap in the face.

The slap in the face was your family safety center.

I was offered a place to stay.

I said, no, thank you.

I have a place to stay.

Your core system offered interview clothes for a job.

I said, no, thank you.

I already have a job, and I have a ton of suits.

I thrifted for little to nothing.

I was offered a therapist for free.

I said, thank you, also.

But I actually currently seeing a therapist I could never replace.

I was offered an advocate and a restraining order.

I was too scared to take that action against my husband.

And especially while my daughter would be left alone with a man of his stature, and said simply that is also not very helpful in my situation.

My goal is for peace, since I'm not in your position, especially fearing danger for my child.

Um, the police came and offered me everything but what the police are here for, the crime.

And then they left.

The slap in the face that your family safety center offers, a restraining order in a court that does not recognize crime.

It is a soft on-crime approach.

It is a way for your police department to completely negate doing their job instead of working together with the family safety center.

Each department is just juggling the responsibility onto the next.

And instead, what ends up happening is no one gets anything done.

It's like we never grew up.

It's a school project all over again.

And the person who ends up doing all the work is the victim.

And that is all.

Thank you.

All right.

Next, uh, Kelly Cheng, and uh after Kelly will be Mary Byrd and then Wesley Smith.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Hey, L.

Um.

Oh, I apologize.

Uh Kelly, you're speaking on agenda item 49.

That is RS 2025, 1617 in support.

Go ahead.

They would have gotten it quickly.

Um, yeah, I'm here in support of um Councilmember Evans resolution, and just as importantly, the amendment attached to that.

Um I think a lot of you are used to me being up here yelling, and um we are in a crisis.

This is a state of emergency.

Um today is November 4th.

People have already been hungry for days.

And I think there is maybe not a full understanding of how bad things already were in this city before SNAP benefits were cut.

We are not asking Metro to replace SNAP benefits.

We are asking Metro to do the bare minimum to take care of our people.

All of you in here, some of you I I dislike, some of you I disagree with.

But I do think that all almost all of you, if not all of you, ran for office to help people.

And what good is it to sit in these chairs and to for the mayor to sit in his chair and for Wigo executives and Chime executives to sit in their chairs if we will not meet an absolute crisis.

The low next Tuesday night is 24 degrees.

I know this because I lead winter canvassing for open table.

I'm speaking here on my personal behalf.

I do this type of organizing in my free time.

I collect money for people's rent and food in my free time.

My phone is full of people begging me for help.

If people can't get to food banks, they don't get food.

If people use the money that they used to get from SNAP, if they use that out of their personal money for food, they can't keep their electricity on when it's 24 degrees next week.

We're talking about people in housing freezing to death, to be clear.

We are talking about people losing everything they have while we sit here and talk about red tape.

Bag the fare boxes.

We do it for Titans games, we do it for soccer games.

We did it for the transit referendum.

We can do it.

Chime can reimburse it, or we go can do it out of the goodness of their heart.

But it is incumbent upon all of you to use your political and social capital.

To pressure for this, people's lives on it.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you.

Next is uh Mary Byrd, uh, followed by Wesley Smith and then Andrew Um O'Keefe.

Um go ahead, Ms.

Byrd.

Um, you're speaking regarding audits and support.

Yes, I am a supportive audits.

I live in District 35, and I've been concerned with transparency for most of the departments in Metro for the last five years.

I started with Metro Parks because I didn't think that they were as transparent as they should be.

And now I have found after five years that there is not a way for one of us as a citizen, a taxpaying citizen, to actually get a itemized list of how the budget money is spent because once a director gets their budget money, they're pretty much able to do with it what they want to.

So in my eyes, every every purchase has a receipt, and those receipts should go on a spreadsheet, and the public should be able to see those receipts and know where the money went.

Another item I want to talk about is General Services District versus Urban Services District in District 35.

Most of us are general services districts.

Our taxes have gone up exponentially in the 30 years that I have lived in District 35.

The services that I receive have not gone up.

So I dropped them.

Then they said, we're gonna go back and look.

You've never had an adjustment.

We're only gonna charge you 30.

To me, that is just so dishonest that they're trying to take people to the cleaners, and they they they don't even give you a reasonable amount of money.

So we went with somebody else.

I want to talk about the urban core that has been overbuilt so much that the basin of Nashville is sinking, that the parking lot at the NE NES has crumbled.

They're having to redo the parking lot.

We can't get the parking lot open over at the public library, and we are paying taxes for services that we do not get in the general services district.

And I think when you talk about zoning and you don't do not provide services, I have a problem here.

Thank you.

All right, um, next is Wesley Smith speaking on agenda item 49, RS 2025, uh 1617 in support.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yes, I'm here in support of Councilmember Evans' resolution and specifically the amendment there to suspend uh fares on Weigo in this in this crisis that we are in.

And I want to sincerely thank Councilmember Evans for her attention to the crisis and many uh many of you.

Um like others have as a member of the advisory committee on transportation elected by this body.

I've followed the rollout of Journey Pass closely.

I'm very excited about Journey Pass.

And as we know, it is in a soft launch phase right now.

It is not set up to enroll eligible riders at scale until January.

And while I appreciate the efforts made in the last 24 hours to add events, we simply cannot with in-person events meet the need of the 60,000 people that have been cut from their SNAP benefits.

We've enrolled 2500 since October 8th.

That gap is too big, and a handful of events are not going to get us there.

I was a huge supporter of the transit referendum.

I still am, but we have to admit that it was a regressive tax, and we have the most regressive sales tax in the entire country.

Everyone is paying into that.

And in a in a crisis like this, we have to respond by suspending fares, helping people in the the most direct way that we can as Metro save those four dollars a day.

So there is a growing coalition of organizations asking that we go do this as soon as possible through their until their uh next board meeting, which is November 20th.

Uh we go on average collects about 150,000 a week in fare revenue.

So we are talking for two weeks at about 300,000.

Uh again, with the money we brought in, I ask, please support this.

Please support council member Evans amendment.

Uh this is something we have to do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next is um Andrew O'Kiki and followed by Courtney Stettler.

Um, both have requested to speak on Avalo Airlines and uh the ICE partnership opposed to those two things.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Good evening, council.

Uh of course, my name is Andrew O'Giki, currently reside in council or district 19.

I want to talk about something that really affects the people in our city, um, the Bell Airlines partnership with ICE.

I know not everyone may see this issue the same way.

Um, but for me and many who call this city home, it matters.

Uh when a company operating at our airport carrying out deportation flights, it doesn't just happen somewhere far away.

It happens here in front of us in our backyards.

It creates fear in our neighborhoods.

Families start to worry, kids wonder if someone they love is going to show up the next day.

Uh that kind of fear keeps away the trust um that our city has, the same trust that keeps Nashville together.

I'm asking council to encourage the airport authority to take a hard look at this partnership and make sure our public spaces reflect the values Nashville is known for, compassion, and community.

Our city, other cities like New Haven, Connecticut have already taken steps to distance themselves from this airline and these flights involved.

And I'm I'm hoping and I honestly believe that Nashville can do the same.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next is Courtney Settler.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Hi.

Yes, I'm Courtney, and I'm here today to ask that City Council commits to standing against ICE and standing against Avelo Airlines.

Avello is an airline that partners with the Trump administration to deport people illegally kidnapped by masked men.

In this city, we have seen Ice raids that have terrorized our communities.

And I know that you have heard about it before here in this very hall.

Our state representatives have taken the opportunity to use our state troopers to encourage this criminal behavior to gain goodwill from the Trump administration.

Avello is a part of this process.

We as a community want you to condemn what ICE and Avello are doing and refuse to aid in a bid this process using this city's resources.

You have the power to do that.

Use your power.

Do your part to protect the people of Nashville.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes uh public comments.

Next is agenda item I, rules of procedure.

Um, we take up these proposals uh from council members as we do uh legislation.

Uh item I one is regarding an amendment to the rules of procedure, rule number 12.

The sponsors are Johnston Horton, Wiener, Evans, Hancock, Ruffle, Huffman, Webb, Spain, Rutherford, Allen, Venton, Eastlake, Greg, and Coopin.

Uh Councilmember Johnson, you're recognized.

Thank you.

Um, we ran out of time in rules, um, and we've got a lot of people here that are here for another agenda agenda item.

So out of respect for that, I wanted to move a one meeting deferral with a re-referral back to the rules committee.

All right.

Um, there is a motion uh to defer uh one meeting um with a re-referral um back to uh the rules committee.

I changed it up on you, Margaret.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um uh right, and so if you defer one meeting, it's effectively re-referred.

It doesn't, that doesn't have to be a part of that motion.

I heard a second.

Is there any discussion on the motion to defer uh this rule of procedures consideration?

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Any voting no or abstaining?

All right.

This will be back on the agenda um at the uh November 18th uh meeting.

Okay.

Um next, we are moving into our uh public hearings portion um of the evening.

Um section J is a single resolution on public hearing, and then immediately after that, we will be in section K regarding bills and ordinances on public hearing.

Um but for both those sections of the agenda, Spanish interpretation services are provided for all Metro Council public hearings.

Council Office Team Member Karina Valdez is here as the interpreter.

Ms.

Valdez, will you please share how you can help?

Los services interpretación in español isarali disponibles in laudiencia pública.

Gracias, we appreciate you.

Um for those wishing to speak this evening as part of public hearings.

Please do state your name, but it is not required for you to provide your exact address if you do not wish to do so.

You may want to tell us in what neighborhood or area you live, your connection to an agenda item or project, or who your council member is.

Okay.

All right.

So now going uh in order here with section J, uh, a resolution on public hearing.

This is agenda item one, RS 2025-1591, sponsor vo, a resolution exempting Gordo's taqueria located at uh 515 B, Merit Av from the minimum distance requirements for obtaining a beer permit pursuant to section 7.08.090E of the Metro Code.

Um, Ms.

Vowe, uh you are recognized.

Um, first for your committee report, please, ma'am, and then I think we can go to the public hearing.

Uh do you want to request a uh committee report?

Okay.

Um uh chair of government operations and regulations, uh Ms.

Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

We voted approval seven in favor, zero against zero not voting.

Okay.

All right.

Um now it's back to you uh to open the public hearing.

Great.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Can um I move to open the public hearing.

Okay, I declare the public hearing open uh for council member uh vo's resolution 1591.

Uh would all members of the public hear in support of this resolution, please raise your hand.

Okay.

Would all members of the public hear in opposition to this resolution, please raise your hand.

All right, Ms.

Vowe, seeing no one here either in support or opposition uh to this resolution.

Um I will declare the public hearing closed and it's back to you for a motion.

Thank you.

Uh I move to approve.

Right.

Is there a second?

Okay, there's a motion to approve this resolution.

You've heard the committee report.

Um, is there any discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any voting no or abstaining?

All right.

Um, you have adopted this resolution.

All right, now on to section K bills on public hearing.

Um again, uh Spanish interpretation services are available.

Um I know that there are a lot of folks here um uh to speak um on a variety of items.

Um uh uh Ms.

Hayes Shacklet is there by the door and is our uh very kind uh council office staff member.

Um I would ask as we uh cue up um for these items that we make sure for fire safety reasons that we are um not blocking the door in ingress and egress for public hearings.

Everyone who wishes to speak will get a turn to speak um and just ask that everybody um uh please uh remain uh cordial as we uh proceed with this.

Okay, so first uh item is agenda item two.

Um this is ordinance BL 2025-1005.

Uh sponsors Gamble, Parker, Benedict, and Horton.

Um zero zero five is an ordinance to amend Title 17 of the Metro Code of Laws, the zoning ordinance of the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County relative to the creation of two new zoning districts called residential neighborhood, RN and Residential Limited, R L, all of which is more particularly described here in.

Councilmember Gamble, uh sponsor, you are recognized.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I'd like to move to open the public hearing.

All right.

Um I declare the public hearing open uh for council member gambles ordinance one zero five five.

Uh would all members of the public here in support of this uh uh bill, please raise your hand.

Okay.

Would all members of the public here in opposition to this bill, please raise your hand?

Okay.

Um members in support of the bill um per our practice will speak first.

And we would ask uh that those wishing to speak in support, um, please do uh begin a cue.

Again, mindful, please not to block ingress and egress.

All right, um uh you are recognized, sir.

Go ahead.

Hi, man and hall.

Um live in Nashville.

Uh so this just creates two new zoning districts.

Please support this.

We don't need to have a fight over creating a new zoning district, all things that we can currently do in Nashville, but just gives more options to make it easier to make it fit into neighborhoods better.

Oh no.

I yeah, I just I'm glad that y'all passed, y'all got the H and I study to be done last year.

They've done the housing aspects.

We're just creating a new housing item.

I'm appreciative that people are concerned about an infrastructure because that is important, but this will not like come on, guys.

Let's just let's just pass this.

Let's get this over with.

I'm gonna enjoy sitting here for a long long time listening to people, many reasons why we shouldn't create two different types of zoning districts.

Yeah, we need more.

This is, I mean, also this is about transit.

I was just talking about transit.

We need more density to make transit work.

It's hand in hand.

We need more options to allow people to have access to public transit.

We need more options for people to get around the city and live near transit, and this allows for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, go ahead, you're recognized.

Hello, I'm Janine Miller, and I am with Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, and I'm co-chair of the Affordable Housing Task Force.

Uh, we support this bill.

And I'm really, I'll just tell my story.

I live in Antioch, Tennessee, and I just think it would be fabulous if there were more dense neighborhoods.

Uh, so that there were other options instead of putting everyone in Antioch.

Um, seriously, though.

Uh a good friend of mine, Joan Kite was secretary for the Affordable Housing Task Force, and she did pass away.

Um, but after experiencing two traumatic brain injuries, and she walked with a cane.

She was delighted to have an affordable home that was one story.

One of the things she often talked about was how she could have never lived in a tall skinny or a two-story home because it would have been inaccessible for her.

Much of the new housing being built does seem to be inaccessible.

Another thing she often shared was that she lived in the food desert.

She lived um off of Cleveland near Dickerson Road.

And the problem was density.

So I think what we consider the needs of people who want to age in place, uh perhaps downsize, they need an affordable home.

The availability of fresh food that in a walkable neighborhood, it does make sense.

There are um strategies, there are policies in place so that there is a public participation, and it's the no one will be forced to uh rezone their property.

So we are standing in favor of this bill and hope that it passes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Uh hello, my name is Claire Hennigan.

I live in Council District 5.

Um, and there are too many faces, so I don't know where you are, Sean, but you're in here, I'm sure.

Um, yeah.

Um, anyway.

Um he's here.

He's just with uh Nashville Organized for Action Hope.

Yeah, you led me astray over there.

Uh I'm with Nashville Organized for Action Hope as well, uh, the Affordable Housing Task Force.

And um, I also uh had the pleasure of knowing Joan Kite and wanted to tell a story about uh recently I went to clean out her things so that we could mail them to her family.

Um, and she was my neighbor.

I lived a street away from her on Joseph.

Um, and I just saw I was driving I had to go to Bellmead to collect the things and all that, and I saw the like Saver Nashville neighborhood signs, and my heart just ached because these signs were in houses that had no neighbors really.

They were, you know, so far back from the street, they had no sidewalk.

Uh, there was like people walking their dogs in the bike lane and stuff.

And I just I you know, name one neighbor, I guess.

You know what I mean?

I was like, this is not this can't be real.

We're not creating neighborhoods if we're not using the density that we are.

We have such a huge population boom.

If we're not creating density to accommodate that boom, we're just gonna keep kicking the can down the down the road.

Um Joan fought for this.

Uh Joan fought to have the housing that she had, and then she fought to uh for other Nashvilleans to have that same housing.

And I think that her legacy matters to a lot of you.

I think that housing matters to a lot of you, and I hope you will consider that we can do both this, and then we can do the infrastructure.

It it can all happen at once.

It's great.

You guys have so much power to do that.

So uh please, please, please vote yes on this.

If not for Joan Kite, then for the neighborhoods that we could create.

Go ahead, you reckon asked.

Thank you, ma'am.

Uh, my name is Robin Lovett Owen.

I am a Lutheran pastor.

I live in Councilman Nash's district in Paragon Mills, and I'm here to speak in favor of this bill.

My spouse and I are both from Nashville, and then when it came time for us to buy a house, we really struggle to fit one that would fit our budget as a pastor and a social worker.

Um it was really sad to be from this place and feeling as if there wasn't a place for us here.

We would have been really thrilled to find a town home, a house on a cottage, something like that, something smaller that is naturally more affordable.

Increasing housing options with this ordinance will help us increase the diversity of kinds of houses that are available because right now we mostly just have single family homes, and market pressures make those larger and more expensive and out of reach for most families looking to buy their first home right now.

Conversations about zoning can get really heated and really emotional, so I think it's important that we remember what we are actually talking about, which is just to add two zones to our existing hundred plus zones here in the city.

No one is going to be forced to be rezoned, and anyone who wants to have these zones will have to go through the established arduous process of doing that.

So if anything, this is a very measured, careful, even lowercase C conservative bill as a way to increase the diversity of our housing stock.

Our families are not all the same, and so we need a diversity of housing that reflects that.

The most important way that we can improve the quality of life of our citizens, especially those that Jesus would call the least of these, is by making sure that people can all afford a place to live.

Thank you.

Go ahead, your beckon asked.

Yes, hi, good evening.

Uh happy evening, uh, council people.

Uh I'm Tom Negri.

I'm a community facilitator for lack of a better word or two.

Um I'm here on behalf of housing for all of us.

If you work here, you should be able to live here.

Uh not for nothing.

I'm I'm pleased uh to see that uh there's a lot of constituents here.

I think I might be outnumbered.

Uh but with that said, I'm here uh to speak in favor and urge you to support BL 2025 105 through 2025 108.

It's time we lay the foundation for how and it's only a foundation.

All right, there's more work that has to be done here.

We've been talking about this issue for 20 well, 25 years I've been here.

Um, and we need to lay the foundation for this to happen here in our community.

With that said, again, if you work here, you should be able to live here.

Uh many people over the past few years, including a good friend of many of us, Abi Poster has worked on this in an attempt to make headway in increasing the number of affordable homes with limited success.

It's time for all of our elected officials to tackle this challenge, despite what is being said on social media, like next door.

Love that site.

I've had the opportunity to attend a few community meetings.

I wouldn't have your job for anything.

Yeah, they're quite, yeah, they're nice.

Uh with that said, I hope you have a happy evening.

Thank you.

Next.

Go ahead.

I'm Mike Hodge.

I'm in John Rutherford's district.

And I'm with the Affordable Housing Task Force of NOAA, Nashville organized for Action and Hope.

We're asking that you approve this bill, which creates two new zoning options residential neighborhood and residential limited.

The bill simply creates these options.

You've heard us say that before.

It does not rezone any property.

For over 30 years, I worked with neighborhood groups across Nashville, partly for the United Methodist Church and partly for the neighborhoods resource center.

I was helping residents to protect their communities and take action on local issues.

I understand why people are wary of zoning changes.

But this bill actually gives neighborhoods more control, not less.

Nashville's explosive growth has brought oversized apartments, massive homes, and the lovely tall and skinnies that we all hate.

They don't fit into the character of any neighborhood.

RN and RL zoning types would help prevent that, setting limits on building size, height, and setbacks.

And they're aimed at transportation corridors, not in the middle of neighborhoods.

Right now, our zoning code makes it hard to build anything except extremes, giant houses or big multifamily buildings.

Cities across the country are recognizing the need for middle housing, homes that working people can afford.

Our own city plans, Nashville Next, the Affordable Housing Task Force Report, and the Unified Housing Strategy, all of these call for zoning reform like this.

It's not the whole solution, but it is a key step toward making housing more affordable for teachers, firefighters, and service workers who keep this city running.

Again, no property is being rezoned by this bill.

Any future zoning changes would still go through public notice, hearings, and the full council review.

So I'm asking you, please vote yes on this bill 1005 to give Nashville's neighborhoods more control, more choices, and a fair chance to stay livable for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Good evening, Metro Council.

My name is Nick Cavan, and I'm currently a Vanderbilt graduate student here.

I've lived in Middle Tennessee all my life, and I'm here tonight as a part of NOAA's Affordable Housing Task Force in strong support of bills 1005 and 1007, because I've seen firsthand how hard it is for working and middle class families in the city to be able to stay here.

I've lived in the Belmont Hillsboro neighborhood for over seven years and have watched as smaller homes around me have been demolished to make room for massive single-family complexes and tall and skinnies.

The old duplexes and triplexes, which used to be ubiquitous in my neighborhood, are becoming more and more sparse and are currently illegal to build due to changes in zoning over the past 60 years.

You're here tonight about how the proposed bills will lead to the destruction of neighborhoods.

But it's in fact our current zoning laws which are resulting in the destruction of our neighborhoods as we know them.

They won't survive the status quo.

These proposed zoning updates are small but important steps.

They make it easier to build the kind of housing we're missing for folks like me, townhomes, duplexes, or small dows behind a home.

These are options regular folks can afford.

These bills don't rezone anyone's property or result in an increased property taxes, but simply allow the possibility to make our neighborhoods more inviting or livable for folks such as myself.

This is about keeping Nashville livable for the people who work here, not just those for who all can already can afford to live here.

I urge you to pass these bills so that the generation behind me and the generation I'm in can afford to stay here for our next generation of Nashvilleans.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Brittany Tabor.

I live in District 17, uh, proud resident of Terry Vows District.

Um, so my husband and I bought a house in a beautiful neighborhood where everyone knows each other.

Um because we all spend time on our front porches in our front yards, and we chat with our neighbors as we walk by.

Uh, we even got invited to a potluck before we even moved in.

Uh, saying it's charming is putting it lightly.

It's the kind of dream community I didn't think existed anymore.

Uh so I understand when people say that they don't want the character of their neighborhood to change.

But our idyllic neighborhood is a mix of single family houses, big and small, duplexes and daddues.

It's full of everyone from young families to retirees, artists, professionals, and professors.

This legislation doesn't allow for anything drastic, like a high-rise apartment in a single family neighborhood.

This legislation just gives Nashville's the option to build more neighborhoods like ours.

Please vote yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Anton Christensen Galina, and I'm also here with Noah.

Thanks to you all and the support of the NOAA congregations.

I'm also a commissioner on the Barnes Fund.

So this bill simply gives you a tool that you can use to let new families into Nashville in a really controlled way.

Like these are existing typologies.

This is the kind of housing these neighborhoods are like what we were building in the 20s, 30s, 40s.

Um, and my neighborhood already has duplexes and dadus, and I love the setbacks and the front porch culture.

This bill gives you the tool to be able to continue to build these neighborhoods.

I realize that some people are panicked, but you guys would be silly not to give yourselves the tool.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

My name is Tom Gormley.

I'm a excuse me, a resident of Green Hills.

I'm here with many of my neighbors here in red to adamantly oppose this bill.

Um we feel I've been to all of these.

This is the time for people speaking in support.

Oh, that's okay.

Um, absolutely.

After my quality, uh all those um uh uh in opposition will be heard.

Um at present, we are on those speaking in support.

Um go ahead, sir.

My name is Irwin Vennick, and I live in Council District 24.

A generation ago, Nashville decided it was important to create zoning overlays to protect its historic neighborhoods.

My neighborhood was one of those that took advantage of the conservation overlay tool.

The conservation overlay tool established design guidelines, which have been applied to construction in my neighborhood.

Consistent with those design guidelines, new construction also allows for detached accessory dwelling units that can accommodate increased density.

Metro Nashville faces a new challenge today.

Nashville is a growing city which cannot house its existing and new residents.

Many families who work in Nashville cannot afford to live in Nashville.

They drive from other counties, making our traffic even worse.

Nashville needs to build 90,000 new housing units over the next 10 years in order to provide workforce housing to its residents.

It is for this reason that I urge you to support BL 2025-1005, which creates two new zoning options residential neighborhood and residential limited.

This bill simply creates these options and does not apply them to any property.

This bill is not the sole answer to our need for housing.

However, it is part of an overall plan that needs to be implemented by this council and this administration.

Available land for new residential construction is at a premium.

There are presently no zoning districts in Nashville that can easily accommodate construction of triplexes, quadruplexes, town and town homes to increase density without allowing large out-of-scale buildings.

RN and RL zoning will help develop contextual housing for near needed services and transit corridors.

Urge your support.

Hi, my name is Taylor John.

I live in District 24 and work in music licensing.

I honestly didn't know anything about zoning laws until today, but I did plenty of research and I forced myself to come here tonight after a long day of work simply because I'm worried that we're going to miss yet another opportunity to make Nashville more livable for the vast majority of Nashvilleans, simply because of some misinformation in the general public's misunderstanding of these bills.

Today I learned that these bills were written and rewritten with a lot of community input, which is always a good thing.

And most importantly, I learned that these zoning changes will unlock affordability options that will help working class and middle class people stay in Nashville.

Now, if you're not in favor of helping Nashville and stay in Nashville, that's a whole other debate.

But assuming we're on the same page with that, we I ask that you vote with your values and pass these reforms so we can actually move forward in the housing affordability cause.

Um, as someone who rents in Nashville and has been here almost 10 years, I you know would love to see Nashville become more affordable.

I have a lot of friends in the music industry who want to be here because music is here in Nashville, and that's a special thing, and they can't afford to stay here long term, or they're gonna have to be pushed further and further out of the city.

So I um it would mean a lot to see some progress be made on this front.

It's a very simple change.

Um, and again, it's not forcing any changes on anyone.

Um, and I don't think there's really much of a question here.

So thank you for your time.

Have a great night.

Thank you.

Next, go ahead, sir.

All right, my name is Eddie Latimer.

I'm District Five, and I am speaking on behalf of the Alliance for an Affordable Nashville, which is a conglomeration of all the four nonprofits that build affordable housing for the workforce.

Um I I just want you to support this bill.

The RN and the RL zonings just simply creates options.

It does not assign any of these zoning to property.

It is just the open doors to explore can we use this tool in this neighborhood to create more workforce housing, which we're in desperate need of.

That's all it does.

Um zoning codes currently make it very difficult to build anything beside high end stuff.

It's just easiest.

The Metro Planning Department recently completed a thing called the United Housing Strategy, which came up with 43 recommendations.

This was a bunch of out of towners that came in and studied us.

They found that Nashville's needs.

By the way, this thing is overseen by a committee that was created by the mayor's office, the chamber of commerce, and the community foundation.

These are agencies you can access, go and talk to at any time you want to.

But they support this because it gives us options.

It creates new opportunities.

This bill, and what they came up with in the study or on this issue is all they said was we need to adjust metro zoning policies to increase housing production.

It doesn't say how or when, but we have to create that.

But we're looking at one way to create that.

That's all we're doing.

And we do we spend a half a million dollars of the city money.

Give us a chance.

Thank you.

Go ahead, sir.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor, members of the council.

My name is Pete Western, live on Shelby Avenue in the fighting sixth district.

Uh, good to be with you all this evening.

I appreciate the opportunity to uh make a few make a few comments.

Um I've been in a lot of conversations around housing over the last gosh, a long number of years.

And the most important question that's come up over the last couple of years is simply could you afford to buy your home if you had to buy it today?

And for a lot of people, the answer is no.

In fact, for a lot of people, the longer that you've been in your home, the more likely it is that your answer to that question is no.

And a large part of what's driving that has been the increase in land values that we've seen throughout our county.

And with the restrictions on what we can build, all what we see is that housing keeps getting more expensive because the land value.

So it gets bigger.

The square footage of homes gets bigger.

And we're at the point now where there is hardly any real housing that's available for people with uh 80% to even you know, probably 140% of your area median income.

You know, I look up my story, and some of you are familiar with my story, but I came here for college, came back after grad school, and thought this is a place I want to be.

And I was lucky because in 2005, I could afford a home in East Nashville for 117,000.

Granted, it was on the wrong side of Shelby back then.

You can laugh if you want to.

Um that same home sold three years ago for 500,000.

My kids ask me, why can't our teachers afford to live in our neighborhood?

And I say, this is their salary.

This is the amount that it costs to buy a starter home in the community.

For a lot of folks.

We know who these are.

These are our teachers, our firefighters, our policemen, or people who work at our restaurants or hotels.

There's no place for them.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

My name is Anton Jackson, and I am a resident of District 3 and also a member of the Alliance for Affordable Nashville.

I'm here to support the zoning bills before you.

As you all know, these proposals won't solve the entirety of affordable housing here in the city.

But they do represent a meaningful progress toward making our city more livable and affordable for everyone.

I want to be clear about what these bills do and what they don't do.

They don't eliminate single family zoning.

They don't automatically rezone anyone's property.

What they do is add more tools to the proverbial toolkit and remove barriers that have made housing increasingly unaffordable.

The two new zoning districts simply add choices to our existing menu of over a hundred zoning classifications.

No property gets automatically rezoled.

So what's at stake?

Nashville employers need to know their employees will find housing here.

Our teachers, nurses, service workers, metro employees, and young families are simply priced out.

While these bills won't create deeply affordable housing, market forces alone can't do that.

This is a first step, not the final answer.

But if we don't take this step, prices will continue to increase.

Nashville will become a city only for the wealthy.

I urge you to vote yes on these bills.

Let's modernize our code.

Give Nashville the housing choices is desperately needs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Uh good evening, uh, council members.

My name is Eric Koch.

I'm here on behalf of the Civic Design Center.

Our mission is to advocate for civic design visions and actionable change in communities to improve the quality of life for all.

Uh, through the planning department's housing and infrastructure study, we found that Nashville needs to create 90,000 new homes in the next decade just to meet demand.

Reaching that goal requires thoughtful updates to our zoning policies that will allow for more missing middle housing.

These are the kinds of homes that fill the gaps between single-family homes and large apartment buildings.

These examples include duplex cottage court, multi-unit homes and that fit comfortably within existing neighborhoods.

The type of infill development encouraged by bills 1005 and 1007 in particular, would allow new homes and detached accessory dwelling units to become um to be context sensitive, designed at human scale and appropriate to the character of each neighborhood.

On behalf of the Civic Design Center, I urge you to continue advancing these policies to promote missing middle housing uh through NFL and more livable and equitable Nashville Pro.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Sherry Stenson.

I'm live, I'm here as a as a resident of District 10, and I I think many of you know me.

I have worked with Habitat for Humanity for 15 years, and I'm also a license realtor and have been uh since 2015.

So I sell everything for a million dollar houses down.

So I think I have a very good sense of the market here in Nashville.

And everybody here who has already commented on a lot of the do's and don'ts of this.

I'm here in support of this, and I feel like this is a very measured and careful approach to the changes that the city needs to make.

We haven't made meaningful changes to our zoning since 1998, and look how our city has changed.

So I wanted to take my time and just tell you a really personal story about this.

Um, to put a face to what we're all talking about.

My nephew moved here from uh Oregon last year.

He's an engineer.

He's been an engineer for 10 years, and he moved in and he said, Sherry, I'm gonna make 120,000 working for this engineering firm in Nashville.

Will you help me find the house?

And I had to say, you cannot afford a house with that salary.

And that was a really tough moment for me to say that to him.

And that was absolutely the truth.

He ended up with his wife and his son moving in with my daughter with my sister, his mother, and lived there for a year because he could not afford a house here in Nashville.

He has since left and moved to South Carolina because he couldn't afford to stay here.

My son, who is a second-year engineer, I said, why don't you come back to Nashville and work?

And he said, I cannot afford to live in the city unless I live with you and I love you, but that's not my plan as a 25-year-old.

Completely get that.

So I am here to say we desperately need to start looking at making Nashville a city for everybody.

We want workforce like that.

We want a city for everybody.

And if we don't do something meaningful, and if we can't do something this simple, then I'm gonna really worry about what kind of city we have that's quality for all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

You're recognized.

Hi, my name is Kelsey Ozan Wilson.

I live in Donaldson in District 15.

Um, I work in affordable housing development.

So every single day I see the impact of Nashville's housing crisis on our neighbors and on our communities.

As you've heard, Nashville desperately needs a lot more housing inventory and not just the kinds of affordable subsidized and income restricted housing that we often talk about, but housing across the board, every type, every income level, every corner of the county.

In recent decades, we've been building a kind of binary of single family detached homes that are very expensive because of the land cost assigned to one unit, and multifamily housing that's very expensive because it's a higher degree of construction.

So these two zoning districts would create opportunities for housing typologies that get the best of both worlds.

We get to spread that land count land cost out over multiple units, but keep it within a residential construction type that's more cost effective to build.

When I first moved to Nashville on a nonprofit salary, I was able to find a room in a three-bedroom condo in a quadplex, about two blocks from Five Points, two blocks from my office.

So I could walk to work and the grocery store and the library and the post office.

And without that quadplex, I would never have had the opportunity to access that neighborhood and all the opportunities that it afforded.

That neighborhood, coincidentally, has a lot of examples of great missing middle housing, cottage courts and um and manor homes and accessory units.

And unfortunately, those are largely unable to be built under our current zoning.

Um I would urge you all to take this incremental step and add these new tools to our toolbox so that communities that do want to say yes to more neighbors have the opportunity to do so.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Hey, good evening, everybody.

I'm Carter Swayze.

I live in Richland West End with my wife and son.

We love our neighborhood.

There are a lot of friendly neighbors.

There are sidewalks, that's a rarity here in Nashville.

Um, and they're beautiful historic homes.

But it's also a place that's out of reach uh for most families, and we're only there because of help from my wife's parents, my in-laws.

When I walk with my son, I don't see many kids.

A lot of my neighbors are older and understandably want to protect the value they've spent a lifetime building.

I respect that, but we can keep what's what's special about our streets while making room for more people to share it.

I'm an affordable housing developer as well, so I'm able to see the whole puzzle here.

And these reforms don't fix everything, uh, but they do help limited sites go further and allow for small, sensible housing options.

Um because of our historic neighborhood, it's really expensive to renovate homes.

I'm in this predicament right now, and unless I'm able to add a renter to my uh home, I won't be able to afford to renovate it.

So I want to say this clearly as well.

Renters are good neighbors, they're teachers, nurses, young families, and more renters means more homes on or more lights on in the evening, more small businesses supportive, and more kids riding bikes.

That's not losing neighborhood character, that's keeping it alive.

Um, my neighborhood association, I imagine some of my neighbors are here tonight, a lot of friends.

Um they are all opposed.

I live there too, but I believe that strong neighborhoods are defined by not who bought decades ago, but who are to who are to come next.

I want my son to grow up with kids to play with, not a neighborhood that becomes quiet instead of vibrant simply because nobody can afford to live there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please, is there anyone else wishing to speak in support?

Okay.

Go ahead.

My name is John Hugh Odie DeForth.

Uh, I live in District 21.

How's it going, Brandon?

Um I'm a I'm a real estate broker with my grandfather's company, OD's real estate agency, and it may surprise you to see me up here considering I work in the real estate agents industry.

But before I was a real estate agent, before I was a broker before I ever went to college, I was a Nashville.

I've lived here ever since I was a small child.

My grandfather built, you know, what he was able to build working in Nashville and doing what he needs to do.

So if anyone understands, you know, property value being a wanting to, you know, keep what your family built, it's me.

But over the last several years, we have built what is it, my professional opinion, an absolutely unsustainable idea of the market in this city.

And I don't even necessarily like the idea of higher density zoning, or like the idea of a lot of people moving into the city that I grew up in dentrifying the areas that I've always lived in my whole life.

You can literally see the divide on Rosa Parks Boulevard between the project complexes and these tall and skinnies that were built over a church.

I don't necessarily even like the idea of higher zoning, to be completely honest with you.

But something has to be done if we're going to keep moving people in, if we're going to keep everyone happy, because at this point we seem determined to, you know, keep absorbing new members, and I can understand that, but something has to be done in the long term in order to keep this sustainable.

Like we can't keep putting this these, we can't keep putting all this land in bits and pieces all throughout the neighborhood, scattered everywhere in the hands of short-term investors.

I've gotten calls from different companies and stuff like that that have bought property down here, and they're calling us to manage it because they're not even here to see what's going on.

Something has to get done in the long term.

And I'm not really here because I like the idea of it, but because I understand that people are gonna keep moving here, the infrastructure is gonna have to get built, and something has to be done to keep something sustainable for everyone for both natives and the people that are moving in.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Hey y'all, my name is Diamond Bill.

Um, it's good to see some of y'all faces tonight.

Um, I'm here as a young professional and an advocate for affordable housing.

Um, options for young adults and families.

I work full-time.

I contribute to my community, and yet, like so many other people, I still struggle to find a home here that I can actually afford.

This is why I strongly support BL2025 1005.

Creating two new zoning districts isn't just a policy change, it's a step forward towards balance.

It gives our city the flexibility to encourage mixed housing types and affordability while still maintaining neighborhood character, while still maintaining the neighborhood character.

This bill means more opportunities for young people to stay, work, and grow here instead of being priced out.

It means families can build roots and our city can remain diverse and thriving.

We often hear that there are two Nashville's, one for the wealthy and one for the rest of us.

Which Nashville are y'all gonna stand up for?

I do want to point out that um I went to college.

I'm not on no government assistance, I do not get food stamps, no wick, no welfare, no nothing.

Um, and I still cannot afford to stay here.

I work a good job, I get paid decently, and I still can't afford to work here.

So any any live here, so anything that's helping the community to boost that up to make us all feel like we included here and we belong, I'm for it, and I hope that y'all are too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Thanks everyone.

My name is Josh Haston, live in District Six.

Thank you for your hard work.

I know this is a tough position to be in.

Um just want to remind folks, not necessarily what these bills do, but what you nice us as a city, what we do and don't like.

A lot of times, you hear I hate traffic, I hate taxes, I hate inflation, I hate tall skinnies, I hate ugly buildings.

This is a solution to that by helping stabilize by providing more options that you could prevent uh some of those things.

If you're displacing people by moving them out of the county, your traffic will get worse.

If you're only building single families, your taxes will get higher, not lower.

If you're trying to avoid inflation, you need people that are working in businesses and jobs that are affordable, so you don't have to jack up the prices to make your business sustainable.

You want sustainable looking buildings that fit the neighborhood character, this bill does that.

Also want to remind you.

What we love as Nashville's.

We love restaurants.

We had three new uh national startup restaurants.

We love retail, we love trees, we love neighborhoods, we love walkability, we love small businesses.

We love local businesses, we love good health care.

Who do we think lives and does those jobs?

It's people that are living in the types of housing that this bill would provide.

Uh so I hope and I pray that you guys remember the folks that these bills are for.

It's a huge, huge portion of our city, of the people that voted for you that are gonna continue to vote for you.

So please vote in support of these bills.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Uh, good evening, council members.

My name is Steve Vinnick.

Uh, I live in Council District 7 in my Benedict.

were four it's a huge huge portion of our city of the people that voted for you that are gonna continue to vote for you so please vote in support of these bills thank you thank you go ahead you're recognized uh good evening council members my name is Steve Vinnick uh I live in council district seven Emily Benedict um so I think the real question tonight because I want to save our national neighborhoods too um the question is who are we saving them for save our national neighborhoods who is our there are we saving them for those who already own homes who bought before prices skyrocketed or are we saving them for teachers firefighters social workers nonprofit professionals who are trying to help um the community but um I make below median income for this area um are we keeping the ladder of housing opportunity open or are we pulling it up behind us um this bill helps to close that gap it doesn't rezone anything it simply adds two new options let's be real like these options are never going to apply to the people that are here speaking against it okay because they're going to be able to mobilize and prevent it from being applied to their neighborhood so we're talking about just applying having new options for everyone in Nashville um and um the people that don't want it they're not gonna have it um so this is just a tool um if you look around this room and really look the people who aren't here tonight are the very ones that this would help they're the nurses and the teachers and the firefighters um also there's there's the sense that this is not part of the unified housing strategy I've seen this posted this is two um two strategies two actions from the it's action 13 and 14 from the uh unified housing strategy this isn't the whole solution we need structural reform but this is an important part of it so let's make Nashville's neighborhoods um open for everyone thank you go ahead you're recognized hi Wesley Smith I live off Centennial Boulevard in West Nashville sorry to double dip I'll be quick um I live in a large multifamily apartment across from what is now single family zoning recently changed the the missing middle in our in Nashville is quite evident through my front window and and I love our great neighborhoods too and I just want to remind folks that our great neighborhoods were not built under single family zoning that didn't exist in Nashville as a designation until 1984 it wasn't put out widely until 1988 1998 excuse me the year before I was born so we have not preserved our neighborhoods we've frozen them in time we've not allowed incremental development that's what built our great neighborhoods in the first place this is a great first step in that direction and our generation is simply asking for the same opportunities that were provided our parents and our grandparents I hope you will support these bills tonight thank you very much thank you go ahead Michelle Flynn hey clay cap um so I wasn't gonna speak but I do want to put a put a little picture around this which is I live in East Nashville moved in in the year of the tornado and um you know when I moved in there were houses that had outside um a lot of houses that had outside stairs so people were living when people talk about like the historic neighborhood that it was no a single family all single family it was not it was quite mixed and even today my neighbor there's rental in the front and the back across the street a little bit over there's a duplex everybody lives fine gets along there are no issues but what I want to bring to your attention is this you are making steps forward to create more opportunities for more diverse housing that we desperately need you may or may not know but I was on the staff of the National Conflict Resolution Center.

I mediate once a week in civil court I sat today and I cannot I lost count of the number of people and they looked just like you all I'm not talking of very low income people certainly some of them were there but they're working people who are being put out of their housing many of them apartments so there's not enough apartments for people to live in the ones that are being built a lot of them are out of availability for folks and they're being hit by this economic market and now losing their SNAP benefits it's a serious issue out here.

They're all losing their housing they're going to be unhoused and on the streets it's gonna cost us all lots more money.

Are you here to speak in support?

Uh uh.

Yes.

Who is go ahead?

Uh recognition.

Hi, my name is Bethany Fancher.

Um, I live in District 7, Emily Benedict.

Um, and I'm speaking in strong support for the zoning reform bills.

Um, I was lucky enough to buy a house years ago, a decade ago, um, at the very tail end of when I would have been able to afford it myself.

I'm self-employed.

Um, and at one point I went to the zoning to talk about if I could build another structure, another home on my property.

My my neighborhood is a pocket of houses that have larger yards.

It used to be a farm, and I guess when it was broken up into properties, people got one acres.

I have one acre.

Um, and I do have plenty of space to build something, and I found out that I could not do that.

Um, because of the zoning.

And I would like to provide somebody with a home that couldn't afford it now.

Like I would have, I would not be able to afford now myself.

That's all.

Thank you.

Um, we continue in support.

Go ahead.

Good evening.

Hello, my lovely friends.

Um, just a reminder the people who are missing from the conversation tonight, our union members.

Because they are unable to be here, they're either taking care of their children, getting them ready for tomorrow for school, or working our second shift.

Our 911 dispatchers, lunch ladies, metro park workers, and on employees, the people who make this city work.

A lot of my friends, myself included, make a living wage, but are often priced out of a city where I was born and raised.

Um, born in Edge Hill, which they now call 12 South.

Um, completely has changed.

And I just want you to know that we do have um metro workers who cannot afford to live here.

And everybody's like, oh, go work for Metro, the wages and the benefits, blah, blah, blah.

And they're sleeping in their cars.

They have a gym membership, they take a shower there, they work a short shift at Starbucks, go shower, and then go teach our children.

So while we're having these conversations about who belongs here and who doesn't in my neighborhood, um, I just want you to be mindful that they're more of us that need places to live than the people who already have places to live.

So I don't want to belabor this conversation because I I never talk my whole time.

That's that's unheard of, but um there are people who are struggling to pay rent.

We have no rent caps in Tennessee.

John can charge me five thousand dollars a month to live in a house on Leashe, where I knew people who used to smoke crack in those houses.

That ain't worth $5,000.

But that's what he can charge me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

I'm Adam Nicholson.

I live in District 30, and I could just mirror what was said a moment ago.

Growing up here in West Nashville, I was really lucky to buy a house in West Nashville and Sylvan Park with my brothers back in 2005.

Smartest thing we ever did.

But as we get to be older, kind of silly for all of this middle-aged men to own one little house together.

So we sold that house, and we would have loved to stay in West West Nashville, the community we were all grew up in and wanted to stay in.

But not being able to keep up with the inventory that Nashville next next, which we all participated in, happy to do that ambitious process.

It didn't keep up with the housing stock that we probably all should have built back then.

So also very fortunate to take the profit of that wise purchase back in 2005 and invest in other neighborhoods in this beautiful city.

I'm on the south side now.

Really fortunate to be there in Glencliffe.

I love that neighborhood.

Love the community there, but I just want to support these solutions so could build more housing.

If we had these solutions back when we sold that house, maybe we would have held on to it.

Maybe we could have done something more creative with that place, and possibly some of us could have had some version of a mother-in-law suite there, a dad do there's those things we could have possibly done to stay there or move somewhere else in that neighborhood.

But now that street, 90% of this of the houses there have been torn down, replaced by the most gaudy ostentatious mansions you've ever seen in your life.

Just something that shouldn't be there, totally out of character.

And that's all you can do.

You buy these little worthers houses, a little ranch house, but it's only zone right now to be another single house.

And so somebody comes in to make a profit, they buy a 50,000 house from 1980, sell it, they got to spend another 500 grand to make a profit.

Now it's a multi-million dollar mansion thing when it could have been so much more for people.

So just please support these solutions that can help people survive in this city and you know suspend Ferris Frontal We go because uh that's gonna be a great thing we could do, possibly.

Thank you.

Um is anyone else uh seeking to be recognized to speak in support of uh ordinance one zero zero five.

All right, seeing none, we will now move to those wishing to speak in opposition to this ordinance.

And again, I would ask you please um as you line up to do so orderly.

Um please defer uh to our staff member, Miss Rosie Hayes as it relates to your lineup and not blocking ingress and egress um from the main door.

All right, sir.

Welcome back.

Uh we're on opposition now.

You're recognized.

Thank you.

I'm sorry I'm not gonna do that.

A little excited.

So Tom Gormley, Green Hills, excuse me.

Um, I've been to several of the meetings, the planning missions that we met with Brenda and talked to her, and the stories we're getting from planning are kind of thinly veiled, but they don't really, if you dig down, in my opinion, makes sense.

This idea that we're not rezoning anything is not true.

We're changing adding these classifications, which is gonna open the front door for the developers to come into neighborhoods and start building more tall skinnies, apartments, and just ruin the neighborhoods.

There's a poor little house on Woodmont, 1950s was probably affordable house.

They tore the one down beside it.

They built two giant tall skinnies.

I mean, it blocks the sun for these people.

So this idea that they said the plenty of people said it doesn't hurt the neighborhood, it hurts the neighborhood.

The idea that it's gonna excuse me, be affordable housing is not true.

They're building tall skinnies that go for a million and a half dollars.

It makes no sense.

I mean, we should be partnering with people like Habitat.

I'm also a member of Habitat.

We're building houses for 300,000 up in North Nashville, where the land's reasonably priced, where people can have a nice little house and not be crowded in.

You should see the pictures of the nations from 2014 to 2025.

All the trees are gone, all it is is a bunch of rows of houses.

It looks like military barracks.

I don't know how it's not a fire code problem.

So the idea that it's gonna build affordable housing is not true.

It hasn't successfully done that.

You got tall skinnies that are empty in Green Hills.

Um, there's more houses on the market right now than there's been for years.

There's over 5,000 houses on the market.

The apartment place places are given away two or three months free went, free rent.

I'm gonna completely run out of time.

Uh so I'm totally opposed, and you see all my neighbors are too.

And if you heard who was clapping when they spoke war, there weren't any of the uh go ahead.

You're recognized.

Hey, folks, we're we're not gonna clap in between everybody speaking, okay?

It'll slow us down.

Go ahead, sir.

Madam Vice Mayor, members of the council.

My name is Bill Tate, and I've been a resident of Green Hills near Woodmont Boulevard for 42 and a half years.

My neighborhood has had uh block parties.

I know everybody on my street.

I know the names of most of the dogs on my street.

Everybody comes to our neighborhood for Halloween to get candy because it's a great place to live.

I'm kind of sad at the people that spoke in opposition who just come right out and say that they are opposed to single family houses.

That is amazing.

That almost seems anti-American and is such a abandonment of our society from as little as 40 years ago.

So our street has been there for 80 years.

It's been it it was Nashville's first airport runway.

So it's still there, it's still vibrant.

And it is so naive to think that you're gonna take a house in this single family neighborhood and tear it down and put multifamily residents on it and it to become uh uh affordable housing.

That's crazy.

It's gonna they're gonna be half a million million dollar units on on these lots.

This is a developer bill.

This is not this is not for please.

Let's not have clapping.

Thank you.

I know we've had it intermittently throughout the evening, but it's really helpful if we can just not do that.

Go ahead.

Madam Vice Mayor, uh, it makes no sense to damage longtime Nashville residents and homeowners to mo to promote and benefit developers and people who've not even moved to Nashville yet.

It's this whole idea helping all these folks, but you're damaging people who've lived here, me 42 and a half years in the same place.

All righty.

Thank you.

Um, Mr.

Hall, I'm gonna ask you to keep that sign down, please.

Um, anybody holding up signs, you know, the the intent is not to uh or the hoax, um, the ask is you're not blocking anyone around you.

Um, and uh with that, um we'll continue.

Go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Ms.

Henderson.

My name is Doug Jayner.

I live in Jason Spain's district 35.

For the record, there was clapping going on when people in support you did not admonish them.

But I just want to say to the folks here tonight, expecting our city planning department to solve our affordable housing issues in Nashville.

You're expecting the arsonist to put out the fire.

All these tall skinny houses, all these multimillion dollar houses were approved by the same planning commission that's promising to fix your walls tonight.

Second, as a resident of Bellevue, I'm requesting that all community-wide zoning matters be deferred until we have a community meeting in Bellevue.

We had a meeting in Bellevue, but we did not have a community meeting in Bellevue.

The meeting in Bellevue, the residents were not allowed to speak.

When residents did speak, they were told to sit down and shut up.

At subsequent meetings, the residents were allowed to speak.

We residents in the Bellevue meeting were treated differently by the Planning Commission as far as subsequent meetings were held, and I believe because of that, we possibly have legal cause of action against the planning commission.

I'm asking that to be rectified by holding, deferring and holding a planning a meeting in Bellevue where the residents are allowed to speak.

Lastly, I want to talk about our city council member who also sits on the planning commission, Roland Horton.

Here is a guy who was elected with 10% of his district's registered voters.

He got 1,500 votes in a district that has 15,000 voters.

He got 10% of the district voters.

Moreover, 80% of his funds from his campaign contribution came from outside of his district.

40% came from out of state.

Imagine that.

All right.

Okay.

Speak to the bill's um merits or why you disagree with it.

Thank you.

Please continue.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Danielle Lafernier.

I live in District 25.

I'm here tonight to respectfully ask that you defer adoption of the new RN and RL zoning classifications until the policies, criteria, and infrastructure planning are complete.

These designations are being promoted as tools in the toolbox to diversify housing and address Nashville's projected 91,000 unit shortage.

But that framing skips an important truth.

Tools without rules create risk.

We've seen this before in 2010 and again in 2015, so-called missing middle 1.0 policies, HPRs, infill, the Nashville next general plan produced record numbers of for cell homes, but led to a net loss of 27,000 affordable homes while driving up land costs and property taxes.

Now with missing middle 2.0, we're being asked to approve new zoning designations without an updated community character manual, without clear standards for approval or denial, and without completed infrastructure or transportation studies.

That's not progress.

It's deja vu.

If rezonings are approved without clear legal and planning criteria, we risk litigation, neighborhood disruption, and accelerated displacement, all under the banner of housing choice.

We're told that councilmanic courtesy will protect neighborhoods.

But once an ordinance ordinance is introduced, it's nearly guaranteed to pass.

More than 95% of rezoning bills pass council, the vast majority unanimously.

That's not real accountability.

Neighborhoods deserve policies built on transparency, not tradition.

The bottom line tools need rules.

Before creating new zoning categories, Metro must update its policies, finish the infrastructure study, and establish a framework that ensures real affordability, not just more density and higher prices.

Nashville doesn't need faster zoning.

It needs smarter zoning, growth that's equitable, data driven, and supported by infrastructure that actually approval that actually works.

Please defer these proposals until those safeguards are in place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Mine is about the infrastructure.

And again, uh, we're not against development.

We're in favor of smart development.

And um our infrastructure is not in place.

Um a year or so ago, I had a neighbor that had fallen called 911 and was put on hold and told on 911 for the emergency with their face down that my call would be ordered answered and the order was received.

That's unacceptable.

Um, our NES lights are continuing to flicker off and on several times a week.

This is not acceptable.

Convenience centers, when you load up your trash because I'm outside of the zone where we um get trash services, you take it to the dump and you get there and it is full.

That is infrastructure.

Emergency services.

While our police, our firefighters, our EMTs are working their hardest.

They are not they're not adequately paid, and that we do not have enough of them to fill if we continue to continue zoning the way that we are.

Schools, we built brand new schools, and a former school teacher I am, uh, and we're already at capacity, or even or busting at the seams and gonna have to start putting in those portables again.

And we know with the tornadoes and the activity in the area, how safe those are.

Codes department.

You call codes because something is going on in your neighborhood that would have never happened 26 years ago, and they are unable to respond.

They have to say, call non-emergency police.

This is the infrastructure that we are lacking, and we're just asking that this be deferred until an infrastructure study can be completed so that we can do this sensibly.

Again, we're not against development.

We're for sensible development.

And that's it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh go ahead, you're reckoning us.

Hello, I'm Michael Lewis, live in District 34.

Uh, lifelong Nashville and except for a little time away when I served in the U.S.

Army, including in a couple places like Iraq and Korea.

Uh, came back to a completely different city than I left.

Um in a lot of good ways and a lot of bad ways.

You know, one of the things that I really hope all of you focus on, every single one of you in here is this.

I think we live in a time when a lot of people question whether or not our elected officials truly represent the will of their voters.

I think those of you who have been to uh who have been a part of listening sessions have heard that overwhelming opposition.

And I would really before and above anything else, listen to your constituents, represent your constituents.

You've heard from a lot of advocacy groups.

Some of them have good agendas, some of them have agendas that may be mixed, but what they don't have is the best interests of your constituents in mind.

I ask each and every one of you to truly listen and represent your constituents in carrying out your duties on this council and with this bill.

I'm just gonna say a couple of other things.

You know, uh it's tempting to say that only developers win.

I I know that not only developers win, they're gonna win with this bill.

They certainly will.

There's people who need affordable housing.

This doesn't solve that.

This doesn't take a targeted approach that really truly addresses the issue.

It leads to a scattershot approach, and what you're gonna see is some places where it works, and a lot of places where it really doesn't work, and creates a lot more of that expensive luxury housing that doesn't address the need.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Thank you.

I'm Chris Remke.

Um, I live in District 20.

Uh, as most of you know, uh uh uh work with developers and advising them on where to find their opportunities.

In this conversation, there's a big hungry bear that's affecting this and not addressed in policies that should be.

I'm the person that tells the hungry bear where to eat, but what the hungry bear wants is your affordable housing, and that's why you're not affording it.

So I'm gonna run through a real quick review of what the math looks like.

Research by local academics at TSU showed that cash-funded investor speculation by major development funds creates a market buyer pressure that inflates home values.

And Nashville, that inflation totally attributed to that phenomenon alone with these institutional cash buyers is a property increase of 25%.

That 25% means everybody here's home, the average home now is worth $97,000 more than if they weren't here.

So as these hungry bears move along, they they are now coming into Davidson County.

They're here, they've been here.

Uh they're primarily currently focused in Antioch Madison.

What this ultimately amounts to is $700 a month for every resident goes to pay in for that section of that 25%.

So investor funds go after starter homes.

That is their plan.

That is the residential tree.

And so they're consuming your your they're consuming all of your affordable stock.

So once you go through that, you go, what's the harm of providing this tool?

The Swiss Army knife of building types.

Well, the bear wants the biggest building type in that unit.

You need to understand how the bear is going to consume the highest end of that.

That's what that property becomes valued at.

That's what it's worth.

So please stop this inflation engine.

Understand that's not creating affordability.

We need tax relief for seniors.

We don't want to follow the Darwin rule.

Please follow these policies.

Land values based on potential buyer beware.

Thank you.

Next, you're recognized.

Hello, I'm Antonette Olison, and I am here in support of affordable housing.

I'm on your side, dude.

I'm on your side.

I was with tears in my eyes hearing all these people needing affordable housing.

We don't have it.

It's terrible.

This pastor, oh my gosh.

That's why I'm against these bills.

Because even Gregory Claxton, the head of housing and infrastructure study said this is not going to create affordable housing.

This is not for affordable housing.

That's what he said.

And that is not what happens.

And then here's the talking points of Metro says these bills do not change anyone's zoning.

And Metro is not taking away single family zoning.

But the current RNRL and Daddo bills on the table in execution, allow developers, your neighbor, whoever happens to be the council person at that time, six years from now, to build density next to any property in this city, which means essentially it would take away single family housing.

So there's um what we're not looking at is this is not going to stop houses housing prices from rising.

It's not gonna stop the tall skinnies.

It's displacing right now our lowest residents, um, our most struggling residents.

And there are thousands of homes on the market.

There are hundreds of homes.

I just pulled up one starting at 105,000.

There are many in the 200,000 dollar range.

I'm a realtor, and who said they couldn't find someone home.

If you want to find a home, call me.

I'll find you one because they're all over the place.

They're sitting on the market, they're not selling.

Wait until the infrastructure steady is in.

Please.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Thank you.

Rebecca Lowe, District 35.

It's so nice to see everybody paying attention.

It's not always the case, and it's really nice to see here tonight.

Of course, my phone goes away right when I start talking.

Uh I'm actually here tonight to ask the council to please defer the second rating vote on these zoning bills.

And um, 20 years ago this week, I uh I decided to make Nashville my home simply for a quality of life.

I put my stuff in storage and I saved up for about a year and a half, and then I made a down payment on a little house here.

And since then I've been involved in my community.

Uh, I've uh been involved in elections and and community activism, and I've also been learning about these zoning bills.

And contrary to the comments about misinformation, uh, we do not misunderstand the bills.

For instance, one thing that you've already heard about uh in the last few speakers is the infrastructure.

Um told us this just at a meeting last Thursday that uh they do not have the results from uh an infrastructure study, and they do not have a predicted date as to when they will get that.

So, but I'm not here to try to school you on uh the bills.

I'm simply here to speak up to this council and ask you to please hear me as your constituent because I feel over the last decade my voice and the voices of some of my neighbors uh are being ignored more and more often.

Uh these zoning bills have given way to a lot of concerns, obviously.

And are you hearing our concerns is our question?

It was really disheartening to see uh the neighbors from the nations come here and beg and grovel and plead with you to defer their their bill so that they could have a seat at the table, and we are simply asking that.

We don't think it's going to hurt anything by putting uh a few days between these votes and giving us a chance to try to put up some guardrails and protect our homes and our neighborhoods.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh go ahead, you're recognized.

Thank you.

My name is Quinn Vikerson, and I've had quite a few conversations with Mr.

Glaxon about the RN and RL zoning.

Initially, their rhetoric was that these would be only applicable along the so-called transit corridors.

And that made sense.

By September, all of a sudden, the rhetoric changed, and RNRL all of a sudden became applicable just about anywhere.

No matter how complicated the process may be, it does open the possibility that dense multi-unit residents will be built and areas that do not have access to public transportation.

Guaranteed to increase traffic density.

It does open the possibility that dense multi-unit and residencies will be built.

But the destruction of tree canopy and airs and lots of hills that would be a danger for landslides.

Foolishness and danger is possible.

And if it can happen, it will happen.

That's Murphy's Law.

You know that.

And I have talked to our council person, Mrs.

Hewing, and I've listened to other councilpersons promising that if anything unreasonable would come their way, they would not approve it.

But these are empty promises.

These are just words that are non-binding.

So I urge you, if there's anything unreasonable that you can think of, please codify it into an amendment so that the bills that are up here would have thoughtful city planning, but it's completely lacking it.

And while I have a few more seconds left, I'd like to say thank you, Root Nashville, for the smart things you do for the city.

And I thank you all for your attention.

Thank you.

We all love Root Nashville too.

All right, you're recognized.

Hi, my name is uh Bob Miller, and I live have lived in uh Charlotte Park area, District 20 for the last 10 years.

My wife and I bought back 10 years ago.

Um, there's really not much I can say that my neighbors have already said opposing this bill.

I guess this is the first time I've ever spoken to a group like this.

And I often, you know, on the way out here, I thought, well, if I get up there and talk, do they really care?

I mean, each one of you, you have constituents who voted for you.

But do you somebody mention this?

Do you really listen to your constituents, or are you just gonna already have a preconceived decision on this bill?

Is this all use useless?

Everybody coming up here talking, or are you really gonna listen and know that building these houses and rezoning and passing this bill, it will not lower housing costs.

If anyone thinks so, you're living in fantasy land.

It's not gonna happen.

This model, it won't work.

There are there's already there's already condos out there.

There's already townhouse communities from Bellevue all the way through into Nashville.

And why mix up and disturb neighborhoods that are already there?

I do understand some of the concerns, and I know there's a housing issue.

However, there's houses out there.

The builders are coming in from out of state, and they're driving the costs up.

Another gentleman mentioned it's cash only.

I'm a realtor.

2020.

I mean, I was putting bids in on houses for my clients that were literally 40, 50, 60,000 over asking.

And these are not, this is because builders are coming in, tearing a house down and building two, and it's just repeating itself.

So I say you have to vote no.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Hello, council members.

My name is Paul Pleeman.

I'm a combat veteran, Nashville native, and live in District Three.

Before we talk about adding more housing, we need to talk about infrastructure.

Our roads, stormwater systems, electrical grid, emergency services, and schools are already overcapacity.

Growth without investment in the basics will only make flooding, traffic, blackouts, crime, and overcrowding worse.

And Nashville doesn't necessarily need new uh more new housing.

We need to fill the thousands of vacant homes and rentals already sitting empty instead of adding to an oversaturated market.

These zoning bills are being sold as modernization, but they're really about money and influence, not community.

Developers gain flexibility, the city gains tax revenue, and the people who live here lose control of their neighborhoods.

Even the affordable housing narrative has shifted.

Now it's called attainable housing.

That's not progress, it's marketing.

Affordable has standards and oversight.

Attainable means whatever benefits developers.

And even the so-called affordable homes miss the mark.

They're designed for higher earners, not the families struggling to stay in this city.

Yes, there have been hearings, but participation has been low.

Not because people don't care, but because most residents don't even know these sweeping changes exist.

Together, these bills create a citywide zoning overhaul, denser, faster, and out of character with less public input.

They shrink setbacks, reduce parking, and shift approval power to staff instead of citizens who live with the consequences.

Nashville needs leadership that listens, leadership that values transparency, balance, and trust.

People move here because it feels like a community, not a commodity.

Don't trade that away.

Please vote no on these zoning bills and send them back for real public engagement.

Nashville's neighborhoods deserve a voice in their own future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Go ahead, you recognize.

Hi, my name is Todd Horn.

I'm from District 3.

As a general contractor and a real estate investor, it is saddening to see what our building department allows to be built and to be lived in.

I have seen stuff that I would tear down to rebuild properly.

And as an ethical contractor, I pride myself to do the right thing.

I asked this committee to do the right thing, vote this down, voted no.

It's amazing that people think that in 10 years we only need 90,000 homes.

We'll be lucky if we don't need 150,000 homes to accommodate everybody.

Nashville won't house that.

We'll be looking at Lebanon, Antioch, White House, to help facilitate all the needs that we need.

It's not just Nashville.

We have to branch out and allow other areas to accommodate the needs that we need.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you reconnect.

Hi, thank you for having me tonight, Council.

I'm so thrilled to be here.

Um, I'm here to oppose bills 2025 1005 through 1008.

It's my understanding that these rezoning bills are proposed to give you one more tool in the toolbox to achieve higher density through whatever today's definition of affordability is.

All of this without a single improvement made to our infrastructure, not a thought to our safety, and without even a single impact study done.

More density is what you want.

That is not what the vast majority of the people who live here want.

Just because we own our homes doesn't mean we don't also struggle.

It definitely doesn't mean we're rich, and it for sure doesn't mean we don't also work hard.

As elected officials, you are supposed to set your personal interests aside and represent the people who already live here.

It is not your job to tell us what we want or make decisions based on what you think is best.

You are not our parent.

Listen to your constituents and please do the right things tonight.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next, go ahead.

You recognize the Alan Dooley.

I'm a resident of District 23.

I'm an architect who's designed homes, duplexes, and multifamily projects, applying the evolving building codes and zoning in Nashville over 45-year career.

With current erosion of democracy at the national level, our city council should not be gained by developers to a road democracy at the local level by rushing through the RN and RL bills.

We bought a condo in one bedroom and lived there for several years, saving money, raising our children in a small home where children could walk to visit their great-grandmother in retirement housing, who in turn could walk to visit her husband in a neighboring nursing home.

Twenty years ago, I let my expertise to form a neighborhood association to deal with a 12-story high rise in the midst of our single family neighborhood.

Our board worked with planning and a developer through an SP to allow 54 townhome units, which required sidewalks between units and on the street, limits to construction traffic, and high stormwater retention.

We'll take this planning process away from neighbors and give the power to corporate fund managers far away from Nashville.

These potentially smaller but numerous buildings will not require stormwater retention, worsening our flooding problems.

For over 20 years, we've begged Metro for sidewalk access between our housing, two schools, one community center, a church and a park.

These develop these RNRLs will not help that either.

I'm certainly not a Timby.

Take this in your backyard.

Thank you for considering.

Next, please.

Council members, thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Um I'm uh Wayne Underhill, District 23.

Thank you, Tom.

Appreciate his efforts.

Um I agree we've got an affordability crisis.

When my wife and I moved to our home in Westmead some years ago, more than I'd like to think about.

It was a fixer upper.

There are very few, not as many fixer uppers on the market now as there were when we moved in.

But it made it affordable.

What has deprived us of fixer uppers is the developers that have swept into these neighborhoods, torn down those affordable houses, and then built homes that were two and three and four times the value of that existing property.

Now the developers are chomping it at their lips going, boy, I we want this bill to be passed.

Well, it's not going to make affordable housing.

If we leave it up to developers, and if we give them that liberty to build what they want to build, they're going to continue to build large expensive properties.

Our water, our sewer, our roads, it took us an hour to drive down here this afternoon.

Our traffic is clogged.

For us to have further density is not fair.

It's not, it doesn't make a livable neighborhood for us.

And finally, tree protections.

The planning commission assured us that all tree protections would be enforced.

Well, folks, there are none.

None.

There are none.

We're experiencing developers that are clear-cutting lots.

So let's protect our environment.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Not my first rodeo here.

Out of respect for you, I'm not going to reiterate everything everybody else has said, with which I agree.

I was so moved by some of the speeches, and yes, we have an affordable housing problem, and we need a solution.

Are that answer?

I know we know our zoning won't change.

So if you write us any more, please don't tell us that.

But your design tool that is going to be in place will make it possible for a councilman to request rezoning.

And we don't really see quadplexes, cottage courts, and townhomes as less dense.

We were so moved.

We know there's a problem.

We'll work with you, but this needs work, and we're asking you for time to get it right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Um, thank you.

My name is Patsy Harvey.

I live in District 23.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

The mayor's memorable election slogan was let's build a Nashville that works for Nashville's.

So what happened?

Nashville is a special place because of the people, communities, and neighborhoods.

Nashvilleans did not ask for a blanket change to the zoning code.

They ask for more affordable housing.

These are not the same.

If you need evidence that changes to zoning without community engagement is a problem, look at districts 20 and 16.

Unhappy constituents to the point they have created opposition groups.

No one wants this.

It ceases to be Nashville when we allow an expensive out-of-state consultant to determine our priorities without true community engagement.

No infrastructure study yet, and data that somehow mysteriously measures people who might live here someday without considering the people who actually live here as just as important.

This is the mayor's own election message.

Nashville Next won awards and included 18,000 participants over a three-year time period.

According to Metro Planning website, today the current plan had engagement from only 600 people at 17 meetings.

And that was not even asking for input.

They were primarily marketing meetings for missing middle.

Your own colleague, Tanya Hancock, wrote the following statement in her latest newsletter.

It is unprecedented unprecedented to create intense zoning codes that would be applied everywhere rather than wait for planning to make a recommendation on what neighborhood policies would best be suited for these zoning codes.

Please vote no or defer to do more work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Folks, remember me asking you not to clap at length in between every time.

At this point, there's a lot more clapping happen now.

Let's keep proceeding.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

You're recognized.

My name is Melissa Lockhart.

I'm from District 23.

And I would I'm gonna change the beginning of my statement that it is deeply disappointing to see that the opponents of the zoning bill are silenced when they clap while supporters are allowed to do the same without.

Fairness and consistency are foundation of public trust, which one side is permitted to express support and the other is reprimanded for the same behavior.

It creates a perception of bias and undermines the integrity of this process.

Every citizen, regardless of their position, deserves equal treatment and respect in this chamber.

Today I'm speaking in opposition of the zoning categories, R N and R L because they allow density that will fundamentally change the character and livability of our neighborhoods.

This area, these areas were designed for single family homes with space, safety, and stability in mind.

Increasing density means more traffic on streets.

Never meant for it.

More cars parked along the curbs and great pressure on already limited schools, parks, and public services.

This kind of overbuilding doesn't strengthen communities, it erodes them.

When too many units are packed into small lots, we lose trees, green space, and a sense of privacy that makes residential neighborhoods feel like home.

Nashville's growth shouldn't come at an expense to families and long-term residents who built these communities.

I urge the council to protect the integrity of our neighborhoods and reject a zoning changes that promote unnecessary density.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Good evening.

Thank you for uh giving me the time to speak with everyone tonight.

My name is Chance Jones, and I reside in District 24.

I've lived in numerous cities across our country to include growing up in Alabama.

I've also lived in Washington, D.C.

in the San Francisco Bay Area.

People want to move to our neighborhood that we live in now because it's a neighborhood with a yard for kids to play, and it has easy access to the downtown area.

Parking has not yet become too much of an issue in our area like it is in San Francisco and DC because our density levels lower.

A lot of people like it here because it's not San Francisco or DC, hence why we decided to stay.

As when we first moved in this area, we had adjacent neighbors with what appeared to be substance abuse problems and other issues.

We have we have stuck it out for approximately 14 years, and we have had numerous um numerous neighbors' friends who have fought for decades long to preserve our neighborhood from overdevelopment, and we are very fortunate for that.

I can go on, I can go on about my previous negative experiences living next door to an illegal dadu and the fact that it takes a miracle for Metro Codes to enforce anything after the fact.

You know, maybe they should preserve some of the older homes in the area that are somewhat affordable.

But the answer seems to be now tear on down, place two million dollar homes on one lot.

The developers are always going to try and get the biggest profit they can.

I have a developer who lives in our neighborhood.

He's from out of state, and I've heard him say some interesting things regarding development around here.

One thing is for certain he could care less what people think.

He just wants to make money.

Plus, I don't think it's beneficial to destroy the very thing that attracts people to these quaint neighborhoods.

Therefore, I'm opposed to 1005 through 1000.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, go ahead and come forward, please.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Jordan Lawhead.

I reside in district district six.

I appreciate you all showing up so consistently in being here.

Um, I believe we're all here united under the front of improving our city.

Um, and that's why you all show up so much as you want to improve our lives and to create human flourishing for the people that live here, and we appreciate that.

Um, I was just doing some simple Googling uh as I was waiting in line.

The vacancy rate for apartments is in Nashville is currently around 8.2%, reflecting a significant number of units sitting empty due to an oversupply in the market.

This is high vacancy rate as a result of a recent construction boom that has outpaced demand.

Uh we have places available actually, and they're not being used.

Uh, I would hope that we could maybe figure out a way that we could use those first before um placing something that we haven't quite studied.

Uh we haven't studied the parking, we haven't studied the stormwater, we haven't studied any of the feasibility whatsoever.

Uh, I have worked for developers, and I can honestly say that their main goal is to buy things as quickly as possible for as low as possible, and to make the greatest amount of profit on those things.

Um, you all, I'm sure know them well.

Uh, I appreciate your time and listening to everyone here tonight on both sides.

I'm very proud of our city for having this dialogue, and I ask that you would consider deferring this for more study.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

My name is Logan Key, and I'm vice chair of the coalition for Nashville Neighborhoods.

I also live in the 6th district.

Our organization cuts across all locations and political ideologies in Nashville.

We're liberal, conservative, moderate, left, right, Democrat, Republican, all the above.

And we all wish housing was less expensive.

But the H and I study presents no evidence that its own recommendations will achieve what they're intended to achieve.

In fact, it's not a study, it's a set of recommendations based on a set of flimsy premises.

There's no evidence that the proposals will do anything except reorder the existing housing supply in Middle Tennessee.

There's no evidence that monthly rents or mortgage payments will drop in Middle Tennessee.

In fact, there's no evidence that it would do anything but encourage more outside investment in outside control of real estate that is already expensive.

And remember the price of homes that result from this will be controlled by developers.

And as you've already heard, but it bears repeating the proposed zoning codes themselves don't even exist in our own general plan.

So what on earth will be used to guide the implementation except the whims of the planning commission?

Madam Vice Mayor, a trigger warning.

I don't address uh a piece of rhetoric that I hear from proponents of this from time to time.

They say of us who are opposed, you people are just pulling up the ladder behind you.

So let me say this.

For those in this chamber who are voting for this out of some moral crusade, while they themselves are living in a single family home, then if this passes, they have a moral obligation to advocate that their own property be rezoned so that they can sell their home or otherwise redevelop it and sell it for multifamily use.

And failure to do so would wreak of hypocrisy.

Thank you.

You're recognized.

I'm Grace Renshaw.

I live in District 24.

Many Nashvilleans feel we are in the same abusive relationship with developers that our city has with state government.

Our city is viewed as a resource from which they seek to extract as much profit as quickly as possible by providing us with little or no voice in our future.

I'm not here to oppose this bill.

I'm asking you to defer it while you work out one particular divisive feature that one of this body articulated to the banner in September quote if you live in an MB part of town, keep electing NIMBY council members, and none of this is going to come your way.

Well, if it's really that bad, I I'm I'm speechless by the cynicism.

We don't need council members who are NIMBY's or density doctrineers.

We need leadership that brings us together to address the generally genuinely pressing need of affordable housing.

I know the state won't let us require developers to build affordable housing.

Please stop using that as plausible deniability to make it easier for them to raise the remaining marginally affordable housing remaining in old neighborhoods like mine, which contribute diversity and bring in renters for market rate units that even planning staff admit won't be affordable to first-time buyers.

As for the claim that the more we build, the more affordable housing becomes.

My husband's old Texas expression comes to mind.

Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.

Oh well, let's reset.

Go ahead.

I won't be up here long.

You don't have to worry about that.

But uh when that bill is passed, we said, well, we've got protections, you know, it has to be a whole block and all this, and now we're gonna get dados everywhere if the council has its way.

So it's just another Drogian horse.

And I just terrible.

Vote against it.

All righty.

Um next, please.

You're recognized.

Thank you.

Uh, my name is Stephen Ward.

Um, live in District 34, uh, native Nashville.

And um, I like has been said tonight, I do agree that there's an affordability issue.

Um, I just want to say that we uh that I can hope we can take the time to get it right.

Um, and so I'm asking you to defer the vote on these three specific points.

Number one, the infrastructure study hasn't been completed.

We've talked about the importance of that.

Number two, um, let's just put a little more thought before we open the door to additional development.

Um, feels a little bit rushed, and if history holds true, the restrictions are typically going to be relaxed over time.

Let's just take the time to get it right from the get-go.

Third is around affordability, and to that point, number one, you know, the market's gonna build what the market will sell.

Um, there's nothing that specifically mandates that the affordable housing we're looking for will be built.

Uh, number two, you know, the density is going to be increased as we increase density, it increases land value, which is gonna attract more corporate investment.

So I think that's fundamentally working against the goal that we're all striving for.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Hi, Madam Vice Chair, um, members of the council, John Summers, 5000 Wyoming Avenue, District 24, Sylvan Park.

Um, these group of ordinances are being proposed.

It's it's part of a national agenda.

It's not just happening here, it's happening everywhere.

And we're at least nest was honest and it was gonna eliminate single family zoning in one fell swoop.

This is very deceptive, because this is gonna do it lot by lot.

Because you're not just adding a couple of text Texas uh districts, text districts into the ordinance, you're actually changing policy because you're gonna allow this in every single family uh neighborhood, every RS in our district.

I've been to the meetings, it's been overwhelming opposition.

And while I sympathize and agree with everybody about the affordable housing issue, these bills will not, as others have said, build one single unit of affordable housing.

If you want affordable housing, this council needs to step up and fund it and build it.

That's the developers are not gonna do it, they're gonna respond to the market.

That's just the way our free market system works.

I don't think any of you ran for office.

I'll just be surprised and said, hey, vote for me, I'm gonna get rid of single family housing.

Did any of you do that?

Raise your hand.

Okay.

You ran to say you were gonna protect neighborhood and represent the interests of your constituents.

Well, I saw Roy Dale out here earlier.

He's a good example of a council member that didn't get re-elected because of zoning issues.

That's the issue that you lose on.

I know I sit here for four terms, 16 years and watched council members.

I can give you a list of names if you want to see them.

This will be the issue in the 2027 council races.

So you need to listen to your constituents.

You need to not betray their trust in you, defer this, and let's see if we can find something that works for everybody.

So there's no lose in this.

Let's all try to win and win for Nashville.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Hi.

If you'll pull that mic down, I will.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

I'm an introvert, so I really hate being up here.

Um, but I feel moved to talk about rezoning.

Um, I think rezoning for more density does not guarantee affordability.

Simple economics means that rezoning will lead to more building, more people building, which leads to land value increases and new construction, which will be more expensive.

It does not guarantee that developers build enough or even the right type of housing that will impact prices.

They could easily build high-end units that don't serve lower income or more affordable housing for our communities.

I live in historic edgefield, and we had someone rezone their homes.

They built 16 townhomes, and it increased all of our property taxes by 40%.

The trickle down effect hasn't worked in New York City, it hasn't worked in San Francisco, and it won't work here.

Um, creating market rate housing doesn't magically make housing prices drop.

Increasing density without implementing infrastructure and important policies to ensure more affordable housing will not rebalance the market.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you're next.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Randy Young.

I live in District 23.

I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight and who have heard our concerns over many community meetings.

I think I've heard a lot of good information here tonight from both sides, and I appreciate that.

I've also heard some excellent ideas as to how you might come together to come to a solution that will work across the board.

I have one question for you.

What's your hurry?

What data do you have in the towns that have implemented these zoning rules that it worked?

It doesn't work from anything that I have read.

And I would ask you to do your homework before you move forward.

Please defer this bills.

Thank you.

You're recognized.

My name is Charles Scotty Madison.

I go by Scotty Madison, and I appreciate uh your undivided attention and not the back of your heads or top of the heads, such some of you have done.

The phrase, all people are created equal and endowed by the creator with certain inevitable rights.

The inalible rights, it refers to our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not material possessions or government guaranteed goods like housing or income or property.

While the right to own property is closely related to these principles and certainly protected by the Constitution, it does not mean that the government or anyone else must provide you with a house.

That means you, the council members here, it only means that you have the freedom to pursue, acquire, and keep property if you're able.

To the point where she said, please don't get up and speak.

But I did.

The difference between me and some of these other people is I don't envy and I don't covet, and I don't resent what other people have when other people have done.

And if you have any resentment in you for what other people have achieved, you don't need to vote yes on this.

All right.

Uh go ahead.

You're recognized.

Uh hello.

My name is John Grimson.

I'm in District 23 in West Mead.

And I'm not gonna repeat all the good points my neighbors have made because I agree with them all.

Um fortunately our councilman has kept us well informed.

I do think that most of the residents of Davidson County, Metro Nashville, don't know anything about this.

Totally in the dark.

And if it's such a great idea, put it on the ballot and let the residents vote for it.

Up or down.

All right.

Um is there anyone else seeking to be recognized to speak in opposition uh to ordinance one zero zero five?

Seeing none, I will declare the public hearing closed, and I will go back uh to the bill's sponsor, Councilmember Gamble.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I would like to move for approval with a comment.

Okay.

Um there is a uh motion uh to approve um on uh second reading.

Um anything else you want to add um to that motion?

Yes, I way of your comment, or do you want to articulate it in the motion now?

Uh if I can articulate it in my comment that we're okay.

There's a motion to approve Dahir second.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you.

First, I want to thank everyone who came out today to speak on this issue.

Uh, there have been many meetings, public meetings held by the planning department and many of the council members and uh community members have had opportunity to uh provide input input, express concerns, and we have listened.

And I know that there's a perception that uh council members aren't listening, but we are listening, and we appreciate when you all come out and provide feedback and input and share your concerns about legislation that is proposed.

Uh, as has been stated, these uh this particular bill, bill 2025 1005 establishes two new zoning codes for building standards or for building types that we currently don't have building standards for in our code.

Uh, we're talking about townhomes.

We're talking about house courts and three and four unit plex houses.

Housing types, uh diversity of housing types that provide home ownership opportunities for um our middle income for our working people.

It's been said several times for our teachers, for our firefighters, for our nurses.

Uh these housing types will be more affordable.

We're talking 300 to 500,000 is what the current market rate is for this type of housing type, which is still expensive, but more affordable than some of the quarter of a uh million dollar rather million-dollar homes that we are seeing uh that are just really shutting a lot of Nashvilleans out of home ownership opportunities.

So we're not just talking about uh people who are moving to Nashville.

We are talking about people who live here currently and the next generation of Nashvilleans, like my two adult sons who were born and raised here and went to Nashville public schools and can't afford to buy a house in Nashville.

So we're not just talking about people moving here.

Yes, Nashville has grown exponentially.

Nashville has grown 81% since 1990.

Uh Nashville has changed in the uh the 30 years that I've owned my house in the Bellshire neighborhood.

Housing costs have increased 155% over the last decade.

There is nothing we can do about the market rate and housing costs, but what we can't do is to establish new zoning codes that provide a diversity of housing types for residents living in different stages of life and at different income levels.

And this that's what this bill does.

This bill establishes a building standards that everybody would be aware of.

The community, the council member, developers, everybody would be aware of on the front end what the standards are for these housing types.

And no recommendation has been made at this point of where to apply these zoning codes, other than the fact of having them near major court.

And I'm sorry, I didn't get to my motion.

That's okay if you want to bring up the I'll wrap it up and get to my motion.

So what I would like to do today is uh move for approval on second reading, however, defer the third reading uh on these bills to the December 4th meeting.

I want to remind everyone that this bill was already deferred.

The October uh public hearing for this bill was deferred to this meeting.

So we have deferred this bill to allow more time for community engagement to allow more time for feedback from the community.

What I'm asking today is that we move forward on second reading, defer third reading to the first meeting in December, and I would ask that the uh chair Horton, who's the uh planning and zoning chair, uh add these uh a discussion, a discussion only about these bills and the pending amendments.

There are several amendments uh to the bills that to the bill that has all have already been introduced.

Um I would like to for us to start conversation and discussion about those bills and also getting the public input that we got tonight, having opportunity to add more amendments, but to start the discussion on how we can address some of the concerns that we've heard over the public comment period today as well as over the last few months of meetings that have been held about this meeting.

So I'm asked or about these bills rather.

So I'm asking today that we uh approve on second reading with a deferral on third reading to the December 4th meeting, and that we have a uh public discussion about these bills, this bill and the amendments at the November 17th planning and zoning meeting held by our chair uh Rollin Horton.

And with that, I move for approval.

Okay, all right.

So there is a second um for that amended motion.

The motion that is before the body is a motion to approve on second reading and defer the third reading uh to December fourth.

Um typically at that time that's when the bill is in uh the planning and zoning committee um for consideration of amendments and so forth.

Um Ms.

Gamble has also requested um a uh discussion only um at the planning and zoning committee of November 18th, um, just for purposes of uh um additional discussion.

All right, um, there's a motion to uh before us, it is properly seconded, and we are on to discussion.

All right, first in the queue for discussion is uh council member Johnston.

You're recognized.

Thank you.

I'm gonna make a little bit of a different motion.

Um I think that what I heard overwhelmingly from my community meeting, but also that a lot of community meetings that were being held is that people don't feel heard, they don't feel listened to, they don't trust the process, they don't trust the council, they don't trust planning or the commission.

I think that voting yes tonight just feeds into that and it proves them right.

If we are willing to defer, why not defer second reading?

I totally agree with moving everything.

The amendment we've got so many amendments and several substitutes, some of them are late filed, yada yada for several of these bills.

I totally agree with having it referred uh to the planning committee for November the 17th and 18th to have those discussions without vote so that we can really dig into it and make the right decision and do it correctly.

But I think it is such a slap in the face for us to say, yeah, thanks for coming out, overwhelming opposition, hundreds of emails saying we don't like this, we don't know what this is, we don't understand whatever it is, and then to say we're gonna vote yes.

The optics of it are terrible.

Can we please not prove that right?

A deferral is a deferral.

Please let's defer second reading until the December fourth meeting, refer the bills and their amendments and substitutes all the way to have that discussion at the planning meeting and do what they are calling us overwhelmingly to say is to slow down.

Let's get this right.

Please listen to us.

We are not listening to them if we vote yes tonight.

I understand rules of procedure.

I understand usually committee is done on third, all of that.

This is a countywide discussion that has countywide implications and impact, and we've have a ton of people that have eyeballs on it that are invested, that are that are engaged, and we should.

At the planning committee meeting, I'm seeing Mr.

Horton nod his head, he's in agreement.

Can we please do that?

That's what they're begging for.

Second.

All right.

Um so uh discussion continues, and um we are on to a motion.

Uh yeah, you you may make a point of order.

Uh council member Porterfield, you're recognized.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

A council member was mentioned by name.

Does that council member have the opportunity to speak because they were mentioned by name and we don't know if what would say it was true or not?

I it that's not really the intent of that rule.

It is if a member specifically impugns another member.

Um Mr.

Horton may have a um uh opportunity to indicate that um uh I think Ms.

Johnson, you can't know necessarily why Mr.

Horton was nodding his head in a in approval.

Um, and so um I think there's a concern that you've kind of mischaracterized his support, but I want to be clarify there is no motion before us at present, other than Ms.

Gamble's motion to approve on second.

Um uh with third deferred um to December 4th.

Doesn't a deferral motion trump that you did not make a motion to defer to the map.

I made a motion to defer second reading.

Did not, ma'am.

Yes, I did.

A subsequent member you you did not.

You said I'm going to, you never stated the motion, it didn't get a second, the time ran out.

Another member we have rules of order, and that is a proper we are continuing on Ms.

Gamble's motion.

A subsequent member may make a uh uh substantively uh may make a deferral motion, and that would be a proper motion at that time.

Um you spoke about it, you you didn't make the motion.

Okay.

So now we continue discussion.

Mr.

Druffle, you're recognized.

Oh, I'm sorry, sir.

Hang on just a second.

Go ahead.

Uh you got me.

I yes, sir.

You're on.

Uh Vice Mayor, I make the motion to defer it to the second meeting in November.

Okay.

There is a uh motion to defer.

Oh, I'm I'm sorry, December, excuse me.

Let me repeat the motion.

I'm just I'm just gonna if you would restate your motion, please.

I make a motion to defer it to the first meeting in December.

Okay, so the motion is to defer the second reading.

The second reading to the to the first meeting in December.

December.

Is that correct?

And it has been seconded.

Okay.

And so now we are on discussion of Mr.

Druffle's deferral motion.

Okay.

Thanks, Vice Mayor.

I'd like to just remind everybody when we started this process in March last year, we put a resolution together.

And in that resolution, we set some goals.

So let me sort of repeat some of that.

Um, to determine additional funding amounts needed to supply and adequately provide infrastructure that will support any recommended increases in housing density.

This review should include an evaluation of current requirements for adding infrastructure with development and determine whether these costs and deliver housing products that can address Nashville and Davidson County existing and long-term affordable needs.

That was our goal a year and a half ago, and I don't believe we met all those goals.

Number one is uh I'm not really hearing the affordability component that was been discussed, and I don't overstate that.

But the second thing is the infrastructure costs are part of what the needs of this, and those costs are gonna be taxpayer cost at some point.

Uh, we need to be very transparent on what we're doing and be very um aware of how we deliver this.

Um there's some uh barriers to delivery as we look at corporate housing as we look at some of the other areas that we know in the free market will occur.

Uh some of these we need to address before we get to started.

Thank you.

All right.

Um, so we are on to discussion of Mr.

Druffel's uh deferral motion um that would propose to defer uh this bill's second reading to December 4th.

Um there were a lot of folks uh in the queue for um the initial approval on second motion.

Um and so I will just inquire if the folks that are in the queue um want to speak on the deferral.

Um please remain in the queue.

Miss Stiles, do you seek to be recognized on Mr.

Druffle's deferral motion?

Okay, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Vice Mayor.

I I do support this being deferred.

However, if I can, is it possible to propose a deferral that actually goes to the second meeting in December, not the first that gives us a little bit more time.

The emails and all of the correspondence that we've had, no one is ready.

So is that is that possible?

Or does Mr.

Druffle need to amend the motion that you're going to do?

Mr.

Druffle would need to amend um the pending motion.

Um you cannot make a subsequent deferral motion that is not substantively different because then we would just all night be two meetings, three meetings, four meetings, and so forth.

So you have a colleague, Mr.

Druffle, who has um asked or suggested if you would be willing to amend your deferral motion.

Um and so uh hang on, Mr.

Duffle.

Ms.

Stiles.

It's would you like me to ask Mr.

Druffle if you would like to amend this motion?

Um uh Mr.

Druffle.

Uh agreed, uh Vice Mayor.

I'd be glad to uh amend my motion to be the second uh and uh second meeting in December.

Okay, so you are the motion is to defer the bill's second reading to the second meeting in December.

Is there a second for this amended motion by Mr.

Druffle?

Okay, so discussion continues on this now amended deferral motion.

Um Ms.

Allen, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm one of the people who had amendments that I hope we will get to talk about at some point.

And so I will ask the original deferral motion included a discussion in the November 17th planning committee meeting on the bills, and I would hope that this new deferral motion might be again amended to include a discussion before that December 4th.

I don't think it benefits us if we have an amount of time that's that where nothing's happening.

So I would ask if you could ask Mr.

Druffle if he would be willing to include um an opportunity, either a workshop um separately from that or a part of the planning committee meeting as suggested.

I think that that discussion is really important.

Okay.

Um so uh Ms.

Darby, can you speak to that if that can be a request posed uh to the chair as to the discussion aspect since that's not gonna require a vote um as contemplated, whether by Ms.

Gamble or potentially by Mr.

Druffle.

The original motion did not actually refer this item to the committee.

It was a request to the chair of the committee to hold space for the discussion of the uh the bill and the amendment, the proposed amendments uh for discussion purposes only with no vote.

The items themselves would not be referred to committee prior to the third reading.

That's just collegial intention, right?

So the things that we are actually voting on are deferring to date certain um and so forth.

So um Ms.

Gamble articulated it with her motion.

Um we know uh that Chair Horton um concurred with that, and that was a discussion, put it on council connect.

So we spoke it into the room, so there was an awareness and a commitment to that.

It is not technically part of the motion.

Okay, so it is not necessary um for Mr.

Uh Druffel to his amend his emotion in that regard, because I would presume if this motion were to prevail in the spirit of having time to discuss um the amendments, we would try to afford that um with the chair.

So I would suggest in an effort to keep things simple, we do not continue to amend uh motions with these ancillary.

I I respect that.

I will not I will not further muddy the waters.

Only to say I do think that discussion is very important, and if this is a way to do it, great.

If this is not a way to do it, then that would be the reason to defer third reading because that does officially introduce a discussion.

But regardless, as long as we know there's a way to have a discussion, it's been spoken into the room and it's still relevant out there, then that's important to me.

And I think that's important to everyone here.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

And as members and we'll make the public aware, we have our initial um motion by the sponsor.

Um Mr.

Uh Druffel um has made a deferral motion, um, which uh is um supers or is prevailing at this time.

We will address the deferral motion if we dispose of it, depending on how it goes.

Um, if that deferral motion fails, we will be back to Mrs.

Gamble's initial motion.

Okay.

So we are on discussion of uh Mr.

Druffle's motion to defer second reading um to the meeting of December uh 16th.

Okay.

Um Ms.

Porterfield, you are next in the queue on this deferral motion.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I would like to table the deferral motion.

Okay.

All right.

Um let's see.

We need uh a second.

Okay, ample seconds.

Um right.

The motion to table um uh requires a uh second, so achieved.

Um uh there is no uh other speaking with the motion, and you have made it correctly.

The debate um will now be um between uh the uh motion maker, um uh yourself making the motion to table um and um the person with uh the pending uh motion to be tabled.

Um and you will each uh have three minutes uh to speak.

Um and um let's see.

Um Ms.

Arby, help me out here though.

Um do we need we need to vote first then?

That would be how the motion to table would be conducted.

Okay.

Okay, right, and then the voting subsequent.

All right.

Okay, so um uh Ms.

uh Porterfield, um, you will go first with three minutes, um, Mr.

Clerk.

Um, after which uh Mr.

Druffle, you may respond to the motion to table also for three minutes.

Um go ahead, Pro Tim Porterfield.

Uh thank you, Vice Mayor.

I am standing to table the motion to defer this legislation.

Um first I want to thank Councilmember Gamble who has brought very thoughtful legislation.

She has had over 20 meetings and worked on this for over two years.

Initially, when we started looking at revamping our um housing policy, we were told to wait until the housing study was done.

We did that, we waited, and now we are being told to wait again.

As Councilmember Druffle has just reminded us 20 months ago, almost two years ago, we were discussing this, and we have waited.

And in the meantime, this housing crisis that we all agree that we are in has exasperated.

People need a place to live.

We have to provide housing options.

We cannot continue to kick this down the road.

Councilmember Gamble has stated that she would like to pass this tonight and defer this legislation on third reading.

The deferral will still be there.

But what it happens if we honor the request of council member gamble, we can play out our own process.

What everyone here wants is to discuss this legislation.

Uh um moving forward and allowing this to go for it on second, allowing this to go before our committees will honor our process.

This is Title 17 legislation.

We can continue to defer this as many times as we need to, but this will allow us to honor our process that we have here that we have created to allow us to continue to discuss this.

Councilmember Gamble did state in our uh public um connection website that anyone's able to read that.

Council connect Council Connect, thank you, that she wanted input from the community, and we have so many community members that came out tonight, and thank you all for coming out to share your uh opinions and and share your truths on this legislation.

She has stated that she is open to amending the legislation as appropriate, but we have to honor our process.

We cannot continue to kick this down the can while our constituents are struggling to find housing.

So I'm gonna ask everyone to support the table in motion.

Thank you.

Uh Ms.

Porterfield.

All right, um, Mr.

Druffle.

Um, you are now you have three minutes on the clock to respond um to uh Ms.

Porterfield's uh tabling uh motion.

Go ahead, sir.

Okay, thanks.

And and I respect uh Council Lady Gamble's work on this.

Uh she spent a couple of years doing this and truly appreciate all the work.

But as you can hear from the voices and the meetings that I've been, our voices haven't been heard as this is is occurred, right?

We are hearing now that they don't understand or that they understand they might have different perspectives on how this will be actually delivered.

Uh when we know that there's an idea, it it becomes down to the delivery of that idea.

We know there's barriers to that.

We know that corporate housing is gonna be an issue.

Uh, we know gentrification is gonna be an issue as we've seen in the past.

Uh uh, I'm saying let's slow this down uh for a couple meetings.

Um when you think about how much time we've spent and where we need to go, uh we need a solution that's gonna take the long term.

With that, we need people behind that solution that's gonna take the long term.

We can't just simply say, hey, we got the best idea and we're gonna move forward quickly.

Getting the respect of our community provides a significant part of that.

Um, I think when you when you start to take a look at the strategic plan that we need to work on, there's a lot of questions that we still have.

This provides some of the answers, but in delivering again, delivering it, we know that the corporate the corporate developer is going to take this and run with it.

I'm not a conspiratist, but at the same time, we gotta realize and recognize the reality of what's happening.

I think there's a value of slowing this down, taking the community input, asking for more community input, and then really taking taking that uh to task, not just saying, here's the plan, what do you think?

But take what's the here's the plan, what do you think and doing something with what they say, not what not where we're trying to tell them.

So I appreciate you um deferring this, giving everybody a little bit more time for it to sink in and let's come up with some plans and some communication.

As I've heard from a lot of people here, they're interested in moving.

They all see affordable housing as as an issue.

But I think there's there's this platform that we we've missed of having a greater discussion on what are your thoughts, what of our neighborhood's thoughts on where that works.

So I appreciate your uh deferral.

All right.

Um, so what is before us is a motion to table Mr.

Druffel's deferral motion.

Okay.

This requires a simple majority of those voting, um, but in an abundance of caution, I am gonna ask for the clerk um to do a machine vote, please, a roll call vote.

So if you are in favor of the motion to table, that means it will put aside, lay on the table, Mr.

Druffel's uh deferral motion, and we will be back to Ms.

Gamble's uh motion.

Okay.

Um, and if you are uh against the motion to table, we will simply continue debate on uh Mr.

Druffel's uh deferral motion.

Everybody clear?

All right, Mr.

Clerk, if you would please open the vote, all right.

With all votes in, Mr.

Clerk, if you'll please show the vote.

Okay, the motion to table, Mr.

Druffel's deferral motion passes with 22 votes in favor, 15 against, and uh zero abstentions.

Okay, so what that means now is we are back again on the primary um initial motion.

I will restate that for purposes of uh debate.

It is to pass um the bill uh on second and defer its third reading, at which time it will be in our committee process um uh to the meeting of December 4th.

Okay.

Um and we are on to uh continued discussion.

Um Ms.

Welsh, uh, you are recognized.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, I rise in support of Councilmember Campbell's um motion.

I think it's very important, first of all, um, to reiterate what um council member Porterfield said that we um honor the process that we have in the council.

I think it sets a bad precedent when we try to change the process um for no real reason.

Um we have we have heard that we're not listening to people in the audience, but it seems like we've already forgotten that almost an equal number of supporters spoke first for this legislation.

And I think it's really easy that we we seem to forget that that there are people who actually support this.

Um I would say it's it's pretty easy going back and forth.

I do uh agree after hearing the comments tonight that there is a lot of confusion about what these things do because they literally do nothing but add new zoning codes that actually exist in space.

If no one ever does these new zoning codes, they don't do anything in and of themselves, they don't do anything.

They give options where someone wants an option, but if you don't want that option, it it doesn't have to be used.

I mean, anything that's in the code now could be used right now to change the zoning in any single family district if a council member brought it and could convince their colleagues to support it.

So this is really no different than anything else that we already have.

Um uh one of my colleagues earlier said that they felt like the optics would be bad if we went ahead and passed this tonight on second reading.

But I think the optics are only gonna be bad for those who are in opposition.

Again, we forget the people who are actually here speaking in support.

Um we all have different reasons for why we support or oppose, but there are an equal number of people who came out to speak about this, and I think we need to honor everyone.

But the bottom line is it's very important, I believe, that we follow our process.

Uh, and we pass this on second tonight.

We've deferred to third.

We can go through the amendment process, and we all know that on third, we can defer this legislation forever if that's what we choose.

So I ask people to uh vote in support of council member gamble's motion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Welsh.

Uh, next in the queue is uh council member at large, uh Zol Patswara.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um yes, I wanted to make a couple of clarification.

I think uh again, thanks to everyone that came to speak in opposition and in support.

Uh, but I think it's very important for people to understand that the motion that uh Councilman Bagambu made is deferring this.

It's just a question of sequence.

And so we still did listen to the people, and there is a defer on the table that still allows so much discussion.

It's just a question of when the deferra takes place.

Uh, listening to the people that came and spoke and also at the at the uh channels that I went to, uh, I think it's important for us to also understand that there's a lot of misinformation out there, and there's a lot of misunderstanding about what this bill actually does.

One thing that I heard over and over and over again is about the infrastructure.

And everybody said we want to have 40 bulls in, but we don't have the infrastructure.

This bill does not allow for anything to happen until after the infrastructure study is done.

I've seen explaining, explain this all, yes, yes.

Members McGallie.

Please don't yell out when members are speaking, please.

It's okay.

I get the frustration.

Uh uh, I understand, and people are allowed to be frustrated.

This is their home.

So I'm not faulting them.

But what I want to say is that it's important for us to actually have the facts and to know what the bill does.

That's all I'm saying.

Now, until that study is done, there would be no zoning.

This does not apply.

This does not go into effect immediately.

And it also says that even when it goes into effect, it's only if the infrastructure supports it.

The planning department have said this over and over again, and I think that point is not either be made or heard.

And so if the concern is about the infrastructure, please do know that as it is with this bill.

That is not a concern here right now, because we would not have anything until that study is done.

That's the fact.

The other thing that I heard over and over again is that okay, this is a blanket application.

It's not.

If a district does not want it, it will not happen.

It will still have to go through the process.

So nobody's changing anything right now.

I just want to make sure people have the fact.

Again, I get the frustration, but what I don't always like is when we conflict issues, or we we said the wrong things just to make a point.

We should not be doing that.

This does not do that.

And if a council member or somebody applied for this, it will still go through the process.

Someone asked if my district council person doesn't want to do it, would an Alage at large do it?

Yes, it's possible.

But in my six years here, I've not seen an outlarge go over the wheel of a district council personal member.

So I I don't want undue fears and misinformation to inform our decision.

I want us to get the facts with yes, let's keep the conversation going.

Let's have the deferred like uh Councilmember Gambu once, and let's make sure we uh instruct and educate and let people understand.

We have a housing crisis.

Part of the solution is zoning, and this give us the two to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next in the queue is Councilmember Koopin, your recognized.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you to everyone who came out today, both in support and opposition.

I know that um, as we said earlier, these bills affect people's everyday, everyday life.

It's their home, it's their most most special place.

And um, you know, I take that very very deeply.

Um we had uh in 2023, imagine national survey that looked at over 10,000 Nashvilleans' feedback.

Um, and one of the findings that struck me then and strikes me tonight is um that people are not just proud to be Nashvilleans, but proud of their neighborhoods.

They're proud of where they live, where they grow up, where they move to.

Um the survey also showed that Nashville's agree that we need affordable housing.

My heart breaks when I hear of people working a Starbucks shift before they go to work as a teacher, before they drive hours home because they can't live in the cities that they work in, and that's unacceptable, and that's something that we absolutely have to address and fix.

Um, I know our planning department has worked tirelessly on the on these bills.

Um, I had concerns about one of the upcoming bills, and they they heard it and they are willing to defer it and have more time on it.

So I appreciate the the engagement that we've we've worked through.

Um appreciate everybody that's in support that's fighting for affordability and affordable housing and accessibility.

People should be able to live here.

I also appreciate the people in opposition who want to be heard, who share their concerns, who share their desire to be listened to.

Um, and I also hear the need for infrastructure, um, the need for roads and traffic congestion.

Please, somebody help fix the traffic congestion.

I know we're working on that.

Um, and so I I hear a lot more similarities than differences when I when I hear both groups speak.

Um, and so I I thought carefully about this um and how I want to vote and how I want to um engage with this tonight.

Um I I kind of see two paths in both of them.

I see pros and cons.

Um, I was supportive of um Councilman Johnston's um motion to defer second, um, and then move on with third and have it go to committee.

I didn't want to defer it all the way to the second meeting in December.

But also Councilman Gamble's motion gets to kind of the same point, which is not past second, past third, and we're done.

It's not a done deal.

I was talking to someone out in the gallery earlier that normally third reading is kind of perfunctory, and second reading is where we do the deep engagement, but for title 17 zoning bills, third reading is really where we do the work.

We get the committee analysis, we get the staff analysis, we get to talk in committees.

So either way, um with the motion that Councilman Johnston made and the motion that councilman gamble made, we end up with a discussion and committee on the 17th, a discussion committee on the third, um, and then the next vote on the fourth.

Um so I'm gonna be supporting councilman gamble's um motion.

Um, but I want to make sure we have deep engagement again on the 17th, um, on the third, and look at where we are on the fourth.

And I want the public to keep reaching out to us, and uh these are really important, and and I'm confident we'll get them right.

Thank you.

All right, uh Councilman Huffman, you're recognized.

Oops, sorry, sir, go ahead.

Thank you, boss may recall the question.

All right.

Um is there a second?

Okay, there are many questions.

Uh uh to call the question.

Um it requires a second.

This is non-debatable, it requires uh two-thirds of those voting um in an abundance of caution.

Um, I am going to uh do this uh by machine.

Um if you want uh to support the motion to call the question, that means we will end debate and we will move to the vote.

Um if you want debate uh to continue, you would vote against calling the previous question.

Okay.

Um, Mr.

Clerk, if you would please load the vote.

Uh all votes are in.

Mr.

Clerk, please uh show the vote.

Okay, the motion to call the question uh prevails with 26 votes in favor, 10 against, and zero abstentions.

That means we will now move directly uh to the vote on uh the motion to approve on second uh with the deferral of third reading to the meeting of December 4th.

Uh Mr.

Clark, if you would please uh load the vote.

We will also do that, uh colleagues by roll call.

Mr.

Koopin, do you tend to vote, sir?

Okay.

Um ITS, we may have an issue with our voting tablet.

It's okay.

Yeah, ITS is right there.

Okay, with all votes in, Mr.

Clerk, if you would please show the vote.

All right.

Um the motion passes with 24 votes in favor, 11 against, and three abstentions, such that this bill has passed its second of three readings.

The third reading has been deferred to the meeting of December 4th, and in the intervening time per collegial discussion, um, with no votes.

Um, but at uh the meeting of November 18th, um uh amendments there will be some time on the agenda held um to have a discussion about those um as well.

All right.

Um okay, that was our first bill on public hearing.

Um, and so now we are moving to agenda item three.

Um that is ordinance BL 2025-1006, sponsors Gamble, Parker, and Benedict.

This is an ordinance amending uh chapters 17.04, 17.12, and 17.16 of the Metropolitan Code to amend the regulations pertaining to the height within single family residential RS and one and two family residential R zoning districts, and to simplify the conditions by which two family dwellings may be permitted in the AG, AR2A, R80, R40, R 30, R20, R15, R10, R8, R8A, R6, R6A zoning districts.

Uh Ms.

Gamble, you are recognized.

Um if folks could please uh keep it quiet, both on the floor and in the gallery.

Um go ahead, Miss Gamble.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I'd like to move to defer this the public hearing until the first meeting in December, December 4th with a brief comment.

Okay, properly seconded.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you.

I am uh motioning to defer this bill to allow time to receive the recommendation from the planning commission.

The planning commission deferred uh their recommendation at its last meeting for further review, and so by deferring this uh to the December 4th meeting, we'll be able to get that recommendation before moving forward.

And with that, I ask for approval.

All right.

Um, you've heard uh uh Ms.

Gamble's motion um to defer uh the second reading of this bill uh to just the meeting of December 4th.

It is properly seconded.

Is there any discussion um on that uh uh motion before we move to the vote?

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Any voting no?

Any abstaining?

Okay.

Um the second reading uh as well as the public hearing uh for this bill is deferred uh to the meeting of December uh fourth.

That is one zero zero six.

Next on our agenda is agenda item four.

This is ordinance BL 2025-1007, sponsors Gamble, Parker, and Benedict.

This is an ordinance amending chapter 17.04, 0.08, 0.12, 0.16, and 0.36 of the Metropolitan Code to amend the regulations pertaining to detached accessory dwelling units and the detached accessory dwelling unit overlay district.

Uh Ms.

Gamble, you are recognized.

Move to open the public hearing.

All right.

Um I declare uh the public hearing open um for Ms.

Gamble's ordinance, uh 1007.

Uh, would all members of the public hear in support of 1007 uh please raise your hand?

Okay.

Would all members of the public hear in opposition to 1007?

Um please raise your hands.

All right.

Um uh folks uh in support are recognized first to speak as part of our public hearings.

Um is there anyone here uh in the gallery in support of 1007 um who seeks to be recognized to speak uh in support.

Um okay, you're recognized.

Oh, I'm sorry, pardon me.

Let me turn on the board.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

You're good.

Yes, I do want to speak in support.

You know, I'm from East Nashville move the tornado year.

Um and uh, you know, folks had studios that they were working out of that many of them have turned into daddoos, and also many of them have built dadus.

And I will tell you, there's no impact on the community.

There's no difference in the dadus in the back of homes and any other dwelling in the neighborhood.

And I think dadus provide a great opportunity to house more people and potentially house them at a more reasonable rate than um, you know, then to buy a place.

And there's just I heard somebody talk about all the all the uh rentals that are out there.

There's a lot of rentals out there, but they're not necessarily affordable.

So um, so anyway, I think it's possible that it might do two things, address some of the affordable and not particularly have an impact on communities.

And again, it's only if you want the dadu.

It's not like you're putting an ado on there if you don't want it.

It's if you want it.

And I don't perceive there being a major impact on the community.

So thank you for hearing me.

All right, thank you.

Um next, go ahead.

Uh hi, man and all.

Um, I live in a attached um dwelling unit in uh ADU, and it's great.

Um, I got the same roommates that I had when we were living in a single family home.

And now we have better shared space.

Um they uh re have a child and now they're about to have another one.

And so it's working out wonderfully.

Um, I still get to spend time with them, hang out with them.

Um, but there's more privacy for both of us.

Um there are tens of thousands of Nashvilleans that would be benefited by housing options like this.

Um I don't think I'm gonna be able to um do one of these, but I know people that have literally said, hey, if this passed, I would put a Dadu and you could live in it.

So um I don't know if I would take them up on that.

What would you say?

Oh, okay.

Um but I I mean that would be pretty sweet for me personally, uh, because it's expensive to live in Nashville.

Hey, it's actually in Mr.

Cap's district, so that'd be cool.

Um, but uh I love I just want to live in all the districts because Nashville's wonderful, so I'm happy to bounce around and rent wherever y'all have good deals.

Um yeah, if I mean I I got a two-year lease right now, so um uh it's it's it's for a minute.

Um, yeah, let's let's let's let people do stuff with their properties.

That's pretty cool.

Um I love to see like all the innovative stuff that people do in California with um there the you know they have a much worse causing crisis there than we have here, and just seeing like the kinds of innovative um dadus they're able to build, the kind of spaces they're able to use.

Um I really love seeing like the ways that people make prefab ones that meet all types of different needs, um, whether it's for the elderly and large, you know, tubs and bathrooms that are for people that are disabled and and those for young families that um are able to use a couple hundred square feet and really um have room for children and and families.

Thank you.

Uh next, go ahead.

You're recognized.

Grace Renshaw District 24.

I favor this bill, but ask that it be amended to tag dadu size to the size of a lot so that lots like mine that are a fifth of an acre aren't overwhelmed by a second structure.

My neighborhood has been zoned for duplexes since its inception in the 20s, and even with small lots to units per lot works fine as up downs or duplexes and even small dadues, which were original to the neighborhood in the 20s and 30s.

My major concern is that the 50s duplexes that now constitute the affordable housing in my neighborhood will be raised and replaced with unaffordable units.

Densities should not be the only goal.

In addition to an unwise SDR bill that allowed unlimited permits and multifamily complexes, both rentals and condos.

This council has provided over 15 years of development that has replaced smaller, more affordable homes in neighborhoods with unaffordable housing of all types in all areas of town.

I ask that you stop blaming the state of Tennessee, although they certainly share the fault for the city's failure to seriously address affordable housing.

That is well barely make a dent in that need, which is real, and you need to move on from the market rate housing proposals on the table to actually working on true affordable housing.

Thank you.

Um is anyone else seeking to be recognized in support of uh Bill 1007?

All right.

Um seeing none, we will move on to those wishing to speak in opposition um to this legislation.

Uh if you would uh please come forward.

Go ahead, you're recognized.

Good evening.

Uh John Ferenger, District 24.

I'm here on behalf of the Richland Weston Neighborhood Association.

Uh I will note for the record we did not take a stance on the verse bill because we are focused solely on things that affect our neighborhood.

This bill is different.

Um I heard speaker after speaker, several council members talk about we're just adding tools.

We're not imposing anything.

This imposes something.

The current system neighborhoods can opt in to allowing dados.

That's the current system.

A lot of neighborhoods have.

You've heard about them.

We have not.

We don't want daduos in our neighborhood.

We took a poll.

88% of neighbors are against this bill in our neighborhood.

So this is not a tool.

It's not adding an option.

This is being imposed on us.

We're against that.

So we ask that it be withdrawn if it's not withdrawn with deferred.

Um, at the very least, we seek an amendment that urban services district continue to get to opt-in, like the general services district, the current system.

There's we've asked at meetings, we had multiple representatives asked the planning commission why, what's the rationale for treating urban services districts different in that respect on the opt-in?

Gotten no reasonable answer to that.

We've asked it repeatedly in writing and at meetings.

So we asked that there be an amendment to allow it to be opt-in for urban services like general services.

Um at the very least, we understand there's a potential amendment to exempt uh historic and conservation overlay neighborhoods like ours.

Um that's not our first option, but it'd be better than nothing.

There are unique problems in historic neighborhoods, um, such as the closeness of the lots, um, the alleys, the we already have issues with with water pressure in our neighborhood.

This would exacerbate that, um, parking and other issues.

So we ask again that you that it be withdrawn or that these amendments be considered.

Thank you.

Next, go ahead and come forward.

You're recognized.

Okay, and my name is Melissa Lockhart uh from District 23.

I'm here to speak in opposition to the proposed zoning bill that expands where detached accessory filling units can be built and increases the size limits for these structures.

Uh the bill goes far beyond helping a few families build small backyard cottages for loved ones.

It opens a door for much larger second homes to be built across wide areas of the city, and it does so without a clear justification or study of the impact on the neighborhood, parking, infrastructure, and property values.

I understand the bill states that uh cannot be used as short-term rentals, and that the property owner also must live on site, but there's no realistic way for Metro to enforce that.

The city simply doesn't have the staff and resource to monitor thousands of individual properties to ensure compliance.

Once a detached unit is built, nothing prevents it from being quietly rented out, especially enforcement.

Um as enforcement typically happens only after neighborhood complaints.

If the intent is truly to allow families to care for aging parents and relatives, that can be achieved by adding on to the sixth existing home, not by building separate detached housing in the backyard.

This expansion will fundamentally change the character and density of single family neighborhoods and create enforcement challenges.

The city isn't equipped to handle.

I urge you to vote no on this bill.

Growth should be responsible, transparent, and supported by data, not driven by blanket zoning changes that are impossible to manage.

People protect the stability and character of our single family neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Go ahead and come on forward, please.

You're recognized.

Thank you.

Um, I oppose this bill.

Um, I live in West Nashville.

We have issues with flooding pretty much every time it rains.

I think passing this without a proper impact study on the impervious ground that it would be taking up, all while adding traffic, parking, and changing the character of our neighborhood, and um should not be done until you get an impact study done.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next.

Thank you, Chris Remke, District 20, and and I'm gonna speak this time basically as what we're hearing from say of our national neighborhoods.

And we had 15 districts giving feedback on this, and and the feedback varies uh significantly from heck no to bring it on.

Uh but there's one common denominator in that, and and that is that almost all of them were concerned about the size of the dado itself.

So I don't know what kind of amendments are being talked about.

Others, I can tell you there's a lot of variations on where people want them and how they want them, and we don't understand what why.

Well, we well, I don't understand how how amendments occur, but we feel like this is a good candidate for you for some kind of overlay process that that allows you to deal with each of these neighborhoods as or communities or whatever that group may be that allows you to work within those because to us it's very clear almost by district what those desires are.

So we would appreciate that being honored through some form of of look.

Another issue that I think may be important is that corporate ownership that I was talking about earlier is buying up Nashville, literally in Rutford County in one census district.

They already own 19% of a district, the whole census track.

That's a lot right now, it's happening in Antioch.

It's happening in Madison.

This is a real issue because they're competing with cash and they're competing with each other.

People don't stand a chance competing with that.

That's what's causing affordability the explosion for the for the for the inflation.

But ultimately, we've got an issue of what happens when those corporations own the property with a dadu.

If if the corporation is owning that dadoo and they're supposed to be the primary resident, how's that made?

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

You're recognized.

Thank you, John Summers, uh 5000 Well, I mean, District 24.

This is a good example of why the public doesn't trust you.

Because we had an agreement with the sponsor of the Dadu ordinance that for those neighborhoods in the single family neighborhoods that wanted it, you have an overlay process.

You're now gonna force it on everybody.

So despite what you're saying tonight by just passing zone text, you're actually by right giving everybody the chance to build a second dwelling on their property.

So really with this bill, you are eliminating single family zoning.

But it won't be affordable, it's gonna be market, and we could not enforce the restrictions that we put on short-term rentals in this council.

The previous councils have gone through great links to try to do an enforcement.

Your restrictions for these not to be short-term rentals, it's not gonna get enforced.

So there's gonna be a lot of unintended consequences here.

You're not solving the affordability issue.

All you're doing is undermining the fabric of our neighborhoods that we've fought really, really hard to um establish.

And now we've up the number of people you can have non-related into a um and to a unit to five.

I mean, where's where's the infrastructure they're gonna be to support when we add all this density, assuming it gets built because it's not cheap to build a build a dadu for sure.

But I I've never seen quite frankly a council that's as anti-neighborhood as I see this council.

You may disagree with me, but that's my perspective, and I'm not the only one that has that perspective.

And there's gonna be a lot of fallout from this.

There's gonna be a lot of fights in neighborhoods over zoning.

You're gonna get a lot of requests and a lot of fights over those requests, and you're not solving the affordability issue.

You're not solving the affordability issue.

Thank you.

Okay, next, please.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor Logan Key, uh coalition for national neighborhoods that live in the 6th district.

I'm not gonna preach this time, I promise.

I do want to I do want to elaborate briefly on one thing that Mr.

Remke said earlier.

This is crucial.

If if uh owner occupancy is part of any text in the code, then you're going to deal somehow, somehow, with corporate ownership of the property, and you're not gonna like the outcome.

If that gets litigated and goes to the Supreme Court, you are not gonna like the outcome because if you have anything that refers to owner occupancy and it's corporation owned, then it's not gonna come out in your favor, it's not gonna come out in the neighborhood's favor.

You've got to address that thoughtfully.

Uh, this also I think promotes excessive land speculation, especially on lots that you and I would already characterize as part of that missing middle that I would argue is not really missing as much as it's often portrayed.

But you're gonna see you're gonna see modest size homes bought up by corporate ownership or not, torn down in favor of a larger home and a large dadu that's going to uh I think cut against that missing middle that so many people are advocating for.

Uh, I live in a district that already has daddoos.

You've got tools on the table now to put dadu's by right.

I hear frequently, well, I'm the district council member.

I can I can have anything up zoned.

Then then do it and put it in R because you can have Dadus in R right now.

The tools are there on the table.

I think STR enforcement, vacation rental enforcement is going to be uh quite difficult, as Mr.

Summers said earlier.

It's very difficult to enforce now.

It's gonna be even more difficult on these large lots with these rather obstructed daddoos in the back to enforce those rules.

Uh and I also think it's risky to create different land use uh standards within a six within a single zoning code in USD versus GSD.

Thank you, Madam Bossman.

Thank you.

Um, is anyone else seeking to be recognized uh to speak in opposition?

Um is anyone else seeking to be recognized uh to speak in opposition seeing none, I will declare the public hearing closed uh for 1007, and um it is back uh to uh sponsor Gamble for a motion.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I would like to move for approval of the substitute or this uh that is on uh for this.

If you could please just move approval um first, um, and there's a second.

Now you can move the substitute.

Yes, yeah.

I'd like to move the substitute with the brief comment.

Thank you.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you.

Uh again, I want to thank everyone who spoke uh about these uh this bill.

Um this is one that I've been having discussions with with residents in district three since 2022.

And yes, uh dadu's are allowed with the overlay and in our zoning, but I experienced firsthand how that is an issue for people who may need a dadu, whether it's for uh renting it out to be able to afford to stay in their primary residence or for aging parent or an adult child.

I had a man in my district who lost his wife and was on a fixed income and was trying to figure out how he was gonna afford to stay in his primary residence.

He lived in a RS uh 20 zoning districts or residential single family zoning district that this does does not allow dadu's currently.

Uh we had community meetings.

Fortunately, he lived close to a corridor, close to Dickers and World, Dickerson Road, and right next door to him was a uh uh structure that was zoned office general is a four-appartment uh building, four unit rather apartment building.

So because he lived close to the corridor and had other zoning around him, uh the community supported his rezoning to our zoning, two family zoning in order to build another structure and planning supported it because of that, but not everybody lives close to a corridor or has other zoning around them that might need a dadu for a loved one, uh aging parent or a child, adult child coming back home.

So this bill provides that option for people who need it.

Not everybody will need it.

We know from our own data, which all of these bills are data driven.

There's a data-driven approach for all of these bills, but we know from data that uh the dadu overlay adopted in North Nashville in 2021, since 2021 has only produced six uh six permits for dadduos out of twelve hundred parcels eligible.

So out of twelve hundred parcels eligible in North Nashville that have this dadu or let dadu overlay, only six permits since 2021 have been issued.

So this is not something that is gonna cause major uh traffic makers major concern.

The same thing in East Nashville, same thing.

10 permits out of 900 parcels that are eligible.

So the fear that this is gonna mean everybody's gonna be building dadues, it's gonna cause all this uh parking and traffic concerns have just not been seen.

We don't have the evidence of that.

And for that reason, we we we need to make this option available for people who need it.

So I asked for approval of the substitute, which also includes feedback from the community.

We heard the community when you said we did not need to allow uh short-term rental or owner-occupied short-term rental in the dadu's.

This substitute prohibits short-term rental in the uh in new daddues and single family zoning.

So for those reasons, I ask that we pass this today and then defer the third reading to the December 4th meeting, just like we did uh 1005 with that.

Thank you.