NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Nashville Banner) — This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter.
Amid the wide-ranging battle between Cheekwood Estate and Gardens and the residents of nearby Belle Meade Highlands, the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) met Thursday to answer a single, narrow question: Did zoning administrator Joey Hargis err in granting Cheekwood a permit to build an on-site parking garage in May 2026?
During the hearing, several board members said this issue of the parking garage and Cheekwood’s zoning will probably come before them again soon. On this particular matter, the board upheld Hargis’ decision. All five voting members agreed, with two having recused themselves.
Representing the Neighbors for Safety (NFS), a coalition of citizens challenging the garage and Cheekwood’s zoning status, attorney Chanelle Acheson argued that Cheekwood has not complied with the “non-assembly cultural center” status and zoning exception it was granted in 1996.
“Cheekwood is beloved, and it should not close,” Acheson said. “But it has to obey the law.”
Both Metro Legal and Cheekwood’s counsel maintained that the gardens were grandfathered in by statute as legally non-conforming. Due to a memorandum of understanding signed with Metro in the spring of 2025, Cheekwood has agreed to move all its parking on-site and off Warner Parks land by December 2027 and said the garage, which will reduce net parking spaces, is its effort to comply.
“The appellant is basically challenging a project that reduces parking, removes cars from a public park and is contrary to an MOU approved by the Planning Commission and Metro Parks,” Jon Cooper, representing Cheekwood, said. He also pulled up an email from Jackson Moore — who leads NFS and lives at the edge of Cheekwood’s property — as evidence that Moore wasn’t originally opposed to the garage, and that Cheekwood moved the planned garage to a location Moore proposed, paying $5 million to do so.
Hargis said a separate investigation was ongoing into whether Cheekwood violated the special zoning exception it received in 1996. Even with the ruling, the affair is far from settled.
How we got here
The BZA is one of two fronts on which the battle between Cheekwood and its surrounding neighborhood is being waged. The other is in Davidson County Chancery Court.
The fight stretches back to at least the 1970s. In 2000, residents in the Belle Meade Highlands neighborhood sent a letter complaining about late-night noise and music. The Neighbors for Safety, a group which sources say includes 536 of the roughly 700 households in Belle Meade Highlands, has become more active over the past five or six years. NFS filed suit against Metro in June in Chancery Court over Cheekwood’s new parking garage, citing zoning issues and a study showing traffic three times the acceptable levels for the neighborhood.
Throughout the dispute, one word has repeatedly popped up: “existential,” as in whether or not what NFS is asking for would threaten Cheekwood’s existence as we know it.
“What is the existential threat?” said Bob Boston, another attorney representing Cheekwood in litigation. “It’s the fact that the operations of Cheekwood require you to have ingress and egress to get patrons in there, and you have to have a place to park there. You can’t get in otherwise. The claims that are being made to stop the permitting process and/or challenge it in Chancery Court ask that that not occur.
“That’s what they say. They’re finessing it, but they ask that that end.
"If it ends, so does the ability of Cheekwood to be Cheekwood, even where it is today. It can’t continue what it’s done for 66 years. Its operations are interrupted and stopped, pending whatever happens next.
“That is the existential threat, and it’s not just a threat. That’s what the plaintiffs are asking to do. If the plaintiffs get their relief, Cheekwood as you know it and as it can operate goes dormant.”
According to figures provided by Boston, Cheekwood costs $46,000 per day to run, and Cheekwood says that 65 percent of its revenues are from gate admission – which makes parking an existential issue. Boston pointed out that Cheekwood is not a party in the Chancery lawsuit — Metro is the defendant — and will be unable to do anything if Metro loses. On Aug. 14, Metro filed to dismiss the suit, and a hearing is scheduled for Sept. 18.
The Save Cheekwood campaign, which has launched a petition signed by more than 56,000 people, writes that the lawsuit “explicitly asks the city to halt ALL public operations and events at Cheekwood.”
The complaint itself asks for a stop-work order “prohibiting further operations by Cheekwood and any further construction unless and until Cheekwood demonstrates compliance with all applicable zoning restrictions, permit limitations, and lawful access requirements,” as well as “permanent injunctive relief ordering Metro to prohibit Cheekwood from conducting assembly events in excess of the number permitted by applicable law” and “temporary and permanent injunctive relief ordering Metro to cease Cheekwood’s continued operation outside the lawful scope of the R20 zoning designation and the 1996 Order unless and until Cheekwood demonstrates compliance with applicable zoning requirements and permit conditions.”
‘Cheekwood is a huge asset to Nashville’
NFS advocates say they do not want to shut down Cheekwood, and that they’re simply trying to live in their homes and their neighborhood. They say they bring their kids to Cheekwood, and some members actually volunteer at the gardens.
“Cheekwood has tried to make me and my neighbors out as self-serving villains who want to shut down Cheekwood,” Moore told the Banner in an email. “We do not want this to happen. Cheekwood is a huge asset to Nashville. However, we do expect Cheekwood to have to comply with their residential zoning, just as we do.”
“Asking someone to obey the law isn’t a threat if they’re obeying the law,” Acheson, the lawyer representing NFS, said. “If someone tells you, ‘Don’t run a meth lab in your house or I’ll call the cops,’ and you’re not, you’ll just shrug. If you are, you’re going to freak out. The reaction tells you everything.”
Moore said that the zoning issue wasn’t a problem with the neighborhood until recent years, when neighbors saw an increase in programming at Cheekwood and heavier traffic in their neighborhood. NFS says that average annual attendance at Cheekwood grew from 245,000 visitors between 2013 and 2020 to 400,000 between 2021 and 2023. Matt Kisber, chair of Cheekwood’s Board of Trustees, wrote in the Tennessean that Cheekwood received 370,000 visitors in 2025. He also wrote that Cheekwood has reduced visitor attendance by 15 percent over the past five years to stem traffic through timed ticketing and rideshare coupons.
NFS said that the blasting notices for the parking garage that arrived in nearby mailboxes in May 2026 intensified their fight. Cheekwood says it is building the pavilion as a result of a city mandate, the memorandum of understanding with Metro that requires all of its parking to be off Metro Parks land by December 2027. Metro and Hargis permitted the garage in May. Cheekwood says that — in response to the allegations in the Chancery suit — the garage would reduce parking capacity from 949 to 837 and would comply with the MOU by moving all parking on campus.
Moore says there is no mandate to specifically build a garage. Acheson said during the hearing that the garage will include 200,000 square feet, 600 parking spaces and a ticket collection booth. “There’s no straight-faced argument that this is not an expansion,” she said.
Part of the problem, Acheson said, is related to optics. NFS believes some Nashvillians will react viscerally to the words “Belle Meade.” Acheson emphasized that the Belle Meade Highlands are not part of the city of Belle Meade.
“People seem to have a certain reaction because ‘Belle Meade’ is in the name of the neighborhood,” Acheson said. “But Belle Meade Highlands is in Nashville, Davidson County, not in the city of Belle Meade. Most of these houses are single-story bungalows and family homes, not the homes you see along the Boulevard. These are residents of Nashville and deserve the protection of the Nashville laws, just like everyone else.”
As of Aug. 20, Redfin listed individual homes in Belle Meade for $22 million, $18.5 million and $15 million, as well as some around $2 million or $3 million. The homes listed in the Belle Meade Highlands ranged from roughly $1 million to $4 million, more comparable to Green Hills or Hillwood. In the past year, those single-story bungalows Acheson mentioned have sold for around $1 million to $1.5 million — unattainable for most Nashvillians. Still, to Acheson’s point, those prices aren’t the same as Belle Meade proper.
Access points
Moore also pointed to a study by traffic consultants Kimley-Horn that recommended five access-point options along Highway 100. The most publicly discussed option is a “shared access” road through Percy Warner Park for both Warner Park and Cheekwood visitors, which could affect mountain bike trails and forest habitats. According to Friends of Warner Park, Metro Planning preferred the shared access road option. The study's implementation plan asked the Nashville Department of Transportation to analyze the best option and Cheekwood to conduct its own analysis to determine its preferred access point.
Colonel Luke Lea's heirs could block this road, as they deeded the land to Percy Warner Park in 1927. His deed stipulated that the land was to be used solely for “public park purposes,” and the land will revert to Lea’s heirs if that stipulation is violated. That reversion is automatic and self-executing. Lea’s 14 grandchildren filed a June 2025 lawsuit in Chancery Court challenging a theoretical access road to Cheekwood through Percy Warner Park. The case is pending, but the heirs seek a declaration that, per the initial covenant, an access road violates “any other use” than public park purposes.
Cheekwood points out that Acheson’s firm represents both the Lea Heirs and NFS — which would seem to represent a conflict. Moore and Acheson don’t see it that way. They both cited the other four access point options, arguing they would be much more affordable.
“NFS simply wants a new access point along Highway 100 for Cheekwood’s new entrance/exit [to pair with on-site parking],” Moore said. “This would remove Cheekwood traffic from the neighborhood. The traffic consultants made five recommendations for access points, only one being the road through the park.
“This is a road Cheekwood is pushing for so that the taxpayers, not Cheekwood, pay for the road. The Lea heirs simply do not want Cheekwood (or any private entity) to be able to build a road through the Warner Parks. The other four options would require Cheekwood to spend money to purchase and build this access. That’s why Cheekwood is not pursuing these actions.”
Acheson alleged that the road through the park is being discussed in part because of Cheekwood’s preferences for park views as guests enter.
“The Kimley-Horn study located five potential access points to Cheekwood from Highway 100,” Acheson said. “Four of those access points are topographically, geographically and economically more accessible than the proposed road through the park and the current location of the proposed parking structure.
“But one comports with the aesthetic preference of a small number of people associated with Cheekwood. I fully support the right to have a preferred aesthetic, but that’s not the only consideration. There are families, residents, mountain bikers, hikers, and even the flora and fauna of the park itself that matter too. The other four access options would be so much more affordable and have so much less of an impact on all of those groups.”
“Any allegation that Cheekwood hasn’t explored and considered any other new access point other than a shared road off of Highway 100 is unequivocally false,” Boston said in a statement. “Cheekwood supports Metro’s exploration of a shared-use Highway 100 access road because it offers the most comprehensive and collaborative solution for the entire community.
“Under Metro Charter, NDOT is responsible for determining where new roads go and for constructing them. Cheekwood is committed to supporting Metro's process and cannot circumvent the city to build a private drive while Metro continues evaluating the best neighborhood-wide solution.
“Furthermore, a private road ignores the real problem: Metro's Design and Mobility Study demonstrates that numerous factors are driving increased visitation throughout the area. Building a private road serving only Cheekwood would not solve those issues, particularly when our immediate neighbor, Warner Parks, receives four times the number of annual visitors Cheekwood does. This is a popular neighborhood in one of America's fastest-growing cities.”
The sides also disagree on whether the other has acted in good faith in negotiating and trying to come to a solution. NFS maintains it has tried to engage with Cheekwood and has been dismissed. NFS claims Cheekwood applied for its permits under 1200D Forrest Park Drive rather than 1200 Forrest Park Drive so neighbors would find them harder to locate in the system. Cheekwood disagrees with each allegation, citing a full-time staff position serving as a liaison to the neighbors and regular communication with the neighborhood.
Even in the wake of the BZA ruling, there could be a long way to go. The Lea heirs’ suit still has to be litigated. There are mechanisms to appeal the BZA ruling by seeking a writ of certiorari through a court, as well as any Chancery Court decision. The years-long battle will continue.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Kelsey Gibbs brings us a powerful story of humanity, compassion, and love in action while showing us the hard and lifesaving work our officers do daily. Nashville is lucky to have people like Lt. Hotz wearing the badge.
- Carrie Sharp
