High Appraisals Threaten Broadway
🏙️ Sexton takes East Bank Authority to task · More zoning stuff · A bomb threat at Lipscomb · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Cameron Sexton went off on the East Bank Development Authority yesterday, roll the tape... And, yes, more stuff about these damn zoning laws.
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Sexton Slams Nashville’s Inflated Property Appraisals
From Megan Podsiedlik
During yesterday’s East Bank Development Authority meeting, House Speaker Cameron Sexton threw some shade on the new property assessments that “over-evaluated” commercial property downtown. His concerns centered on how property valuations will be established in the East Bank.
“If we're collecting rents off valuation and they're overly inflated, obviously they're gonna be paying more rents,” said Sexton. “If I was on lower [Broadway] and I was paying rents right now based on my valuation, I'd be very unhappy with the ’25 numbers compared to the ‘24 numbers.”
Metro Legal Deputy Director Tom Cross explained that the appraiser will have instructions on how to assess the East Bank property based on stipulations drawn up in the agreement between Metro and the Fallon Co.
“The discussion is centered partly on the valuation of the affordable housing component for the market rate properties, and also the affordable housing blocks themselves, and also how to fairly and appropriately value the infrastructure that they're going to have to build,” said Cross.
Based on the negotiated process outlined in the East Bank agreement, the properties will be appraised before they are developed despite the fact that no rents will be collected. Once developed, the properties will be re-appraised by the assessor.
Sexton questioned why there is a preliminary appraisal for no real reason. Cross explained that it’s simply “what the contract calls for.” It’s worth noting that the appraisal process is different for the new Titans Stadium.
Sexton continued to lay into the reappraisals, which are exacerbating the property tax increase across the county. “I don't want to have to sit down with businesses, or whoever's coming in, and have these conversations,” said Sexton.
He then rattled off that Kid Rock’s bar evaluation went from $3 million in 2024 to $67 million in 2025, “with hist property taxes going four to five times higher than what they were.” He also mentioned Garth Brooks' bar, Friends in Low Places, now paying $850,000 in property taxes compared to less than $300,000 in 2024.
“That's going to shut down businesses,” said Sexton. “So my concern is to continue to look at the valuation process on the East Bank and make sure that it's not going in the same direction as what's happening on commercial property within Nashville and residential.”
The Speaker concluded that there seems to be an issue with the latest reappraisal process, and it’s not just limited to downtown. Some of his fellow board members nodded in agreement.
***Correction: The Metro Legal Deputy Director Tom Cross answered Speaker Sexton's questions. The previously published version wrongly attributed the answers to East Bank Program Manager Jim Czarnecky.
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
🏠 Are Nashville’s New Zoning Proposals Pro-Developer and Anti-Neighbor? During last week’s community presentation on proposed zoning changes held at Hillsboro High School, a Woodlawn resident claimed that the new legislation is glaringly pro-developer.
“I was married to a developer for fourteen years, together for twenty,” she said. Before posing her question about infrastructure studies to the Metro Planning Department, she shared that her husband has since passed away and “won’t get mad” with her for revealing how pro-developer the proposed legislation actually is.
“This is 100 percent pro-developer, and he would eat this up if he were trying to do this kind of thing,” she said, explaining that developers will be able to “politic” their way through the approval process without having to get buy-in from neighbors in the area. “He’d make money, move on, and not give a crap,” she said.
During the presentation, city planner Greg Claxton explained that the proposed legislation is trying to give developers the option to build naturally lower-cost housing. “Our goal with all of these is not to cram as many people in on any one property as we can,” he said. “That is what developers do when they see zone changes today, in many cases. That is not our approach.”
Claxton also reiterated that, if passed, these new zoning options will be available but won’t be applied unless passed through the normal Metro rezoning process.
Later in the meeting, a District 24 resident shared her concern that neighbors will be pitted against each other. “I think you're downplaying this when you say you have to go through a rezoning [process],” she said. “That's going to be a slug fest.”
She went on to explain that residents will have to lobby their council member not to sponsor the request. If that fails, they’ll have to lobby the Planning Commission and the other council members “with little likelihood of success if your council member sponsors it.”
In conclusion, she surmised that it's disingenuous to say it's necessary to create conflict between neighbors for the sake of more density “in order to get affordable housing, which we desperately need.” Instead, she reiterated that infrastructure issues should be part of the conversation before adding these zoning options to the toolbox.
HEADLINES
- 🔎 A new Senate oversight report alleges that the Biden administration’s FBI secretly accessed phone data from eight Republican senators — including Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty — as part of its “Arctic Frost” investigation, raising fresh concerns about political surveillance under Biden’s Justice Department.
- 🚨 A 25-year-old woman, Karissa Hamlet, was arrested after commenting on a Facebook post about how Lipscomb University handled a student-led memorial service for Charlie Kirk, threatening to “blow up” the school. She was charged with making a threat of mass violence and filing a false report.
- 🎭 Nashville-native comedian Nate Bargatze will host a new game show filmed at Municipal Auditorium, where three contestants compete to prove they’re “anything but average,” and the winner stands to take home the U.S. average annual salary of $67,920.
DEVELOPMENT
- See the new park, pickleball courts and more at Nashville Yards (Tennessean)
- Home Depot subsidiary to cease operations in La Vergne (Post)
- East Bank details emerge at development authority meeting (Axios)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 My Morning Jacket @ The Pinnacle, 8p, $88+, Info
🎸 Matt Tedder @ Dee's Lounge, 9p, $5, Info
🎸 DICE @ The Basement, 7p, $27.22, Info
🎸 Jeff Tweedy @ The Caverns, 6:30p, $75.50, Info
💀 Tennessee Dead @ Tennessee Brew Works, 6p, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik and Camelia Brennan.