By acting as a central information portal and registry hub, SONN not only shares information but also, if requested, offers strategies and issues guidance to help each neighborhood represent its unique context. Each community will have unique needs and interests. Our goal is to strengthen advocacy, foster collaboration, and empower residents to have a more unified and informed voice in shaping public policy. Ultimately, this builds stronger, more resilient communities.

Focusing on real community needs has value. When politicians control city planning, donor-class interests, and investor beneficiaries often overshadow neighborhood priorities, tilting outcomes toward the financial gain of the donor class and their ability to influence politics rather than the well-being of residents and the integrity of the places they call home.

Save Our Nashville Neighborhoods, Inc. (SONNinc or SONN) is a grassroots, neighborhood-led coalition working to protect community voice, community vision, affordability, and livability across Davidson County. Formed in District 23 and now active citywide, SONN helps residents decode zoning and housing reform, challenge who actually benefits from proposed changes, and advocate for policies that reflect the lived experience of real people, especially working families and long-time neighbors, the very people who create the communities that give Nashville its unique character.

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We invite residents, leaders, and policymakers alike to work with us, not in opposition, but in collaboration. SONN offers a space where shared goals can take shape, where practical solutions rise from real neighborhoods, not imposed blueprints. Add your voice. Bring your ideas. Help us build a better path forward—one that genuinely serves the people who call this city home.

Yes. It is organized as a 501(c)(4), created to advocate for neighborhood preservation through civic engagement and political action.

Yes—and likely sooner than you think. While Metro’s Housing and Infrastructure study is still underway, rezoning proposals are already emerging in established neighborhoods, before infrastructure needs or community voices have been fully considered.

A growing push to insert one-size-fits-all housing templates, such as fourplexes (and larger) and missing middle prototypes, recommended into every neighborhood for diversity, and risks overlooking what makes each community unique. These changes are being sold as solutions to affordability, but the outcomes in other cities and Nashville suggest otherwise, unless heavy subsidies or developer bonuses are involved.

This site offers counterpoints or the other side of the story with an effort to acknowledge the fabric that makes our communities special. Please help us connect with each other. Because no neighborhood or community should face these challenges alone—and Nashville’s future should reflect the people who call it home.

Churn

The rate at which housing units are vacated, reoccupied, or replaced. In the context of housing supply, churn refers to the natural turnover of units due to sales, rentals, demolitions, or redevelopments. High churn can indicate instability or speculation, while low churn may reflect long-term residency or constrained supply.

Filtering

In real estate development, filtering is the process by which older, once-expensive housing gradually becomes more affordable as it ages and newer, higher-end housing is built. Over time, these aging homes “filter down” to lower-income residents. While filtering can increase affordability without direct subsidies, it often occurs too slowly to meet current housing needs and does not guarantee access for the lowest-income households. Additionally, relying on filtering can lead to disinvestment in older neighborhoods, deteriorating housing quality, and the displacement of residents if older homes are instead renovated or replaced with upscale developments.

Gentrification

Gentrification is the process by which lower-income urban neighborhoods experience an influx of more affluent residents, leading to rising property values, increased investment, and changes in the area's character. While it can bring improvements in infrastructure and services, gentrification often has negative effects, including the displacement of long-time residents who can no longer afford higher rents or property taxes. It can also erode cultural and community identity, reduce affordable housing options, and create social and economic divides between new and existing residents.

HPR (Horizontal Property Regime) 2010

A legal structure in Tennessee that allows multiple property owners to share a single parcel, often used to enable higher-density development, such as duplexes or townhomes. Established by state law in 2010, HPRs played a significant role in facilitating the wave of “tall and skinny” housing types by enabling subdivision of lots without full subdivision platting.

Nashville Housing and Infrastructure Study

A comprehensive initiative led by the Metro Nashville Planning Department, in collaboration with various city departments and consultants, aimed at addressing the city's growing housing needs and infrastructure challenges. Launched at the request of the Metro Council, the study evaluates current zoning policies, housing diversity, and infrastructure capacity to inform future development strategies.

NashvilleNext 2015

A comprehensive long-range plan was adopted by the Metro Nashville Planning Commission on June 22, 2015. It was developed over nearly three years with extensive community input. NashvilleNext addresses key areas, including land use, transportation, housing, economic development, education, health, and the environment, and provides a framework to manage the city's projected growth while preserving its character and enhancing the quality of life for its residents.

NEST (Nashville's Essential Structures for Togetherness)

A legislative initiative was introduced in early 2024 by Metro Councilmembers Quin Evans Segall and Rollin Horton. The proposal aimed to address Nashville's housing affordability crisis by reforming zoning laws to allow for more diverse and affordable housing options, particularly "missing middle" housing types like duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes. While some elements have been adopted, broader reforms remain under consideration.

Overzoning

The practice of increasing development entitlements, such as height, density, or use allowances, beyond what is supported by infrastructure, market demand, or community plans. Overzoning can inflate land values, encourage speculative investment, and displace long-term residents without necessarily producing affordable housing, and before a city can manage the increase. In some cases, policies that stimulate excessive development can cause a localized submarket to collapse, leaving behind underutilized units and unmet economic objectives.

Place-Led Zoning

A planning approach that begins with the unique character, values, and lived experiences of a community. Rather than imposing one-size-fits-all rules or market-driven formulas, place-led zoning seeks to shape development in ways that reflect and reinforce the identity, history, and goals of the people who live there. It emphasizes local context, community voice, tailored solutions, and preservation of neighborhood character. At its core, it values people over profit and context over convenience.

Plan To Play

Nashville's 10-year master plan for improving parks and greenways. Originally launched in 2017 and currently being updated in 2025, it guides the city's expansion and maintenance of its recreational spaces. The plan focuses on land use, facilities, programs, greenways, and funding, shaped by community input to ensure all residents have access to quality outdoor spaces.

Politically-Led Zoning

A top-down approach to land use policy where decisions are driven primarily by political agendas, donor influence, or ideological trends, often disconnected from the realities of individual neighborhoods. Key features include agenda-driven planning, influence of special interests, reduced local input, and one-size-fits-all solutions. This approach often prioritizes market efficiency and developer incentives over neighborhood identity, affordability, and community health.

Speculative Development with Zoning Reform

A dynamic in which speculators acquire property in anticipation of zoning changes, investors finance ventures based on entitlement value, and developers execute high-return projects that may deliver market-rate rather than affordable housing. This triad can transform zoning reform into a tool for capital extraction, driving land inflation, displacement, and neighborhood change without equitable outcomes.

Upzoning

The process of modifying zoning laws to permit higher-density development, such as replacing single-family homes with duplexes, townhomes, or apartment buildings. While upzoning is promoted as a way to increase housing supply and support walkable, transit-friendly communities, it may also lead to rising property values, displacement of long-time residents, infrastructure strain, and changes to neighborhood character if not implemented with adequate protections.