Hundreds of Residents Attend Met

Hundreds of Davidson County residents showed up to Nashville’s Essential Structures for Togetherness (NEST) Community Informational Meeting and Workshop on Saturday at Belmont University hoping to provide and inquire input on nine pieces of legislation concerning zoning laws being debated by the Metro Nashville City Council.

tennesseestar.com-NEST is what metro council members are calling a legislative package consisting of nine bills that would change Nashville’s zoning laws in order to make way for a “middle type of housing.”

A powerpoint presented to the audience described NEST as “simply” a “series of bills aimed at creating middle housing sufficient to meet Nashville’s needs by increasing efficiency within government and allowing at-scale residential infill housing.”

Saturday’s meeting, held inside McWhorter Hall at Belmont University, was packed full of residents so much that 100 were turned away by security, as noted by WSMV 4 Nashville.

Freelance columnist Nicole Williams posted on X that the sharply divided crowd was urged by organizers to address the details in a productive manner.

Room at NEST community meeting is officially at capacity. I was able to scoot in largely undetected and grab a seat in the front. This…is a lot.

“Let’s be respectful, okay. We want to hear your thoughts and your questions and your opinions, but let’s do so in a mature, responsible way,” Metro Council Member Tom Cash reportedly said.

Multiple yelling matches broke out throughout the meeting in addition to one instance where the audience booed and laughed when At-Large Council Member Quin Evans Segall said the proposed zoning laws are about “exploring housing types that would fit in neighborhoods without disrupting their character.”

The meeting was cut short by 30 minutes after Segall declared all of the written questions from the audience were addressed, however, many of those in attendance declared their questions and concerns were not met.

A livestream of the event was quickly ended as the meeting commenced into a yelling match.

The next public information meeting regarding NEST is scheduled to be held on Friday at the Edmondson Library.

One change proposed through NEST would allow for multi-family dwellings to be built where there are currently single-family homes.

Metro council members argue such a change would allow for housing to be more affordable, however, Council Member Jeff Eslick recently explained that building more houses does not necessarily make housing more affordable.

“Does building more houses actually make housing more affordable? Not in this climate, it doesn’t,” Eslick explained last month on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy. “There isn’t anything that says the developer has to make the definition of affordable when pricing…If you were the seller of your home, would you want someone telling you you had to take less than what you can get so that you can make it affordable? I don’t think anybody’s going to do that.”