Antioch Apartment Freeze Proposal Pulled

NASHVILLE, TN — A plan to put a moratorium on multi-family development in rapidly-growing Antioch died nearly as quickly as it was proposed.

Antioch Councilmember Jacobia Dowell pulled the bill before it was considered by the full council. The proposal would have halted the issuance of building permits for any multifamily project — typically meaning apartment building — in three Antioch-area council districts for four months.

While the council's attorney did not issue a legal opinion on the proposal, Vice Mayor David Briley, an attorney himself, was unequivocal to The Tennessean.

“I am confident that once the sponsors fully appreciate the illegal nature of this legislation, they will withdraw it,” he said ahead of Tuesday's meeting.

Among the concerns of the Antioch councilmembers were that infrastructure dollars were not keeping up with the rapid growth south and southeast of downtown, but Metro's planning director said future infrastructure dollars were likely to go areas with higher density and that, ultimately, slowing growth in Antioch could be counterproductive to solving the infrastructure question.

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