Planning Department

Community Planning

Davidson County is divided into fourteen communities for planning purposes. By dividing the county into smaller portions, Metro Planning staff can engage more stakeholders in each community and plan for smaller areas, achieving a greater level of detail in planning.

Click on any of the communities, or any of the links, to learn more about each of the fourteen communities and their local plans.

subarea map joelton Parkwood/Union Hill Bordeaux/Whites Creek Madison Donelson/Hermitage Antioch/Priest Lake southeast Green Hills Bellevue West Nashville south nashville East Nashville North Nashville Downtown

Our planning for Davidson County’s growth and development is based on public input and cooperation. We have a long-range “General Plan” for the entire county (there’s no online version; order a printed copy here ), but nearly all of our planning is done at the local level; we work closely with residents, property owners, and business owners in those fourteen communities, or “subareas,” to build detailed plans based on each community’s needs and vision, combined with best planning practices. Some of those plans cover large areas; some are as small as a specific street or neighborhood

Each Community Plan includes at least one Detailed Neighborhood Design Plan, or "DNDP." Community Plans and DNDPs provide the policies which shape zoning in each community.  The Land Use Policy Application, or LUPA, guides subdivision and zoning decisions.  An updated version, the Community Character manual, is currently in draft form.

The Urban Design Overlay is  another way of applying policy to zoning; UDOs put additional standards on top of the existing zoning. Our Urban Design page has details of how these and other planning tools work.