Mayor Asks For Deferral on Proposed Nashville USD Expansion

NASHVILLE — Mayor Megan Barry has asked the Planning Commission to defer consideration of expanding the higher-tax, expanded-service Urban Services District.

The Planning Commission was set to take up the recommended expansion at Thursday night's meeting, but Barry wrote she wanted residents to have plenty of time to consider the implications of the change and to give members of the Metro Council time to take the temperature of their constituents on the change.

The proposal moves 63,379 acres with roughly 74,000 housing units from the General Services District — which pays lower property taxes, but does not get, among other things, Metro-provided trash and recycling service or street lighting — into the Urban Services District.

Residents inside the USD pay $4.516 per $100 of assessed value in property tax versus $3.924 in the GSD. On a $300,000 home, that's about $444 per year.

Some members of the Metro Council bristled at the proposal, because many neighborhoods within the proposed expansion have homeowners' associations with fees that cover trash pick-up and street lighting. The Planning Department said the average GSD resident pays about $324 for trash pick-up annually, effectively making that $444 tax increase drop to $120. The department also said that many areas within the proposed expansion receive the increased police and fire protection that is supposed to come with inclusion in the USD, meaning their public-safety services are being subsidized by those already paying the USD tax rates.

"Ultimately, my desire is for those areas that want to receive the benefits of inclusion in the USD, while neighborhoods that prefer to stay in the GSD will have that option as well," Barry wrote.

The mayor asked the commission to defer consideration on the plan until its Oct. 13 meeting.

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