This story was originally published April 7, 2026 by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter.
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The Metro Council returned to City Hall on Tuesday for its first meeting of April. Find the full agenda here.
Water credit
The Metro Council voted 18-16 on Tuesday to reject a mayor’s office proposal to credit Metro Water customer bills.
The mayor’s office offered the credit in response to the winter storm earlier this year. Councilmembers previously delayed consideration of the legislation as Councilmember Courtney Johnston and others questioned the necessity of the credit, citing figures showing most customers did not have higher water bills after the storm.
“This is not a giveaway,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell said last month. “This is a give back.”
Most residential customers would have seen a bill credit of approximately $25. The move would have cost Metro Water approximately $6 million.
There was no debate on the legislation at Tuesday's meeting. At prior hearings, supporters argued that the across-the-board credit was a rare opportunity for Metro to support residents without requiring them to seek it out or qualify.
"At a time when people are hurting from higher prices everywhere, coupled with winter storm damage costs, this council couldn’t see fit to return $26 to every Nashvillian," O'Connell said Wednesday morning. "Metro has tightened its belt multiple times, and Water assured us they could, too. This is an incredibly disappointing outcome after a devastating weather event.”
East Bank
Councilmembers deferred a final vote on a major East Bank rezoning proposal until the April 21 meeting.
The proposal involves the scrapyard site on the East Bank, deemed both an eyesore and a prime redevelopment site by a series of mayoral administrations.
With a group of investors now pushing such a redevelopment, the council is considering a rezoning proposal to allow for it. Two related bills were up for a third and final vote. One would establish a new zoning district, while the other would apply that new zoning to the scrapyard properties.
A series of amendments has been proposed (listed as attachments here) that would limit hotel and parking uses in the project and request environmental and shadow studies, among other changes. District 19 Councilmember Jacob Kupin, the legislation’s sponsor, cited a desire to have more time to work through the amendments in seeking the one-meeting deferral.
“We’re really, really close,” Kupin said, expressing excitement about the prospect of improving the “wasteland” that currently exists at the site.
On Monday night, the Planning & Zoning Committee voted to recommend amendments limiting hotels and parking. Benedict withdrew an amendment that would have created a new East Bank-specific design review committee, separate from the existing Downtown Code Design Review Committee, which would review projects at the scrapyard. Benedict said she would instead pursue the idea via standalone legislation.
A summary of the zoning proposed for the parcels can be found starting on page 59 of this document. Some councilmembers, including Clay Capp and Emily Benedict of East Nashville, have expressed hesitation about the proposal, citing a need to get the once-in-a-century opportunity to build a central neighborhood from scratch right.
Also on the East Bank, the council held a public hearing for two linked bills related to zoning in the area of the planned Oracle headquarters at River North. No one spoke on the bills before they were given their second of three required affirmative votes.
Permits
The council continued debate on legislation aimed at making it easier to open child care businesses in Nashville. A bill that passed on the second of three readings would establish a permit prioritization system for child care projects aimed at speeding up delivery.
Councilmember Clay Capp called the legislation a “solid little way to encourage day care projects to come online.”
Another bill introduced at the same time but not on Tuesday’s agenda would eliminate certain zoning restrictions for child care businesses.
The Nashville Early Education Coalition, a newly formed advocacy group, concluded in a 2025 white paper that the conflicting financial pressures of low employee pay and high parent costs created an environment in which sustained public financial support is necessary to offer high-quality child care to low-income Nashvillians.
Fair Board
A long-vacant seat on the Metro Board of Fair Commissioners, tasked with reviewing any expansion plans at the Fairgrounds Speedway, could soon be filled, as the mayor has named neighborhood resident Brittany Tabor to the board.
“I grew up going to stock car races and flea markets so I know what the Fairgrounds means to people,” Tabor said in her board application. “I also live in the community so I’m dedicated to making decisions that are good for the residents and Nashville as a whole.”
Tabor’s appointment is supported by Councilmember Terry Vo, who represents the Fairgrounds and is opposed to a deal to renovate the Fairgrounds Speedway. Track supporters have flagged Tabor’s volunteer work with Stand Up Nashville, a party to the community benefits agreement with track neighbor Geodis Park, as a potential conflict of interest.
The Council could vote on her appointment on April 21.
The rest
- Metro Councilmember Joy Styles proposed banning bars and nightclubs from shopping centers. The legislation was unanimously disapproved by the Metro Planning Commission, and Styles opted to withdraw the bill on Tuesday night. The council did advance another Styles bill requiring shopping centers to provide garbage containers.
- After a public hearing, the council advanced zoning legislation that would allow for the conversion of a Joelton motel to long-term housing. Some community members expressed opposition, while councilmembers from other districts described positive encounters with similar conversion projects. The bill will need one more affirmative vote, tentatively at the April 21 meeting.
- Councilmembers representing parts of the more suburban and rural general services district are asking Metro to continue studying the differences between the GSD and the more central urban services district. For decades, GSD residents paid lower tax rates because they did not receive certain services, like trash pickup. But a recent study found that USD residents were paying more than their fair share, and the most recent budget sought to reduce the discrepancy.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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