Data Centers and Zoning in Davidson County: The 2026 Fight

How one proposed project became a citywide zoning rewrite

In early 2026, a company called DC BLOX applied for permits to build a roughly 69,220-square-foot data center at 648 Grassmere Park in South Nashville -- a site sitting just feet from the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. Metro's zoning administrator ruled the use acceptable under the zoning in place at the time of the application. Once the project became public, the Nashville Zoo raised concerns about noise, lighting, air quality, and strain on the local power grid affecting its animals, and a public petition opposing the project drew more than 500,000 signatures, with country musician Brad Paisley among the vocal opponents. A second, unrelated data-center proposal near Fisk University added to the pressure on Metro Council to act.

Council members Courtney Johnston and Russ Bradford introduced a temporary moratorium ordinance (BL2026-1448) that passed its first reading in a 26-1 vote in June 2026, pausing the acceptance, processing, and approval of zoning, building, and grading permits for data centers across Davidson County. In parallel, Councilmember Rollin Horton led two zoning bills, BL2026-1391 and BL2026-1392, to write permanent data-center rules into the Metro zoning code rather than leave the issue to a temporary pause. All three measures passed Metro Council, with the final vote on July 21, 2026, described as unanimous.

What the adopted rules actually require

The size cap: Metro's new rules ban data centers larger than 500,000 square feet anywhere in Davidson County outright. Anything under that threshold still faces a more rigorous approval process than before, rather than being treated as a routine industrial or commercial use.

The distance rules: the ordinance sets different setback distances depending on a data center's size relative to sensitive uses -- schools, daycares, churches, zoos, and hospitals among them. Reporting on the adopted rules describes small data centers as barred within 100 feet of such uses, while large data centers face a much wider buffer, on the order of half a mile (roughly 2,640 feet). A separate distance standard was also described covering schools, homes, and parks more broadly. Because the exact distance table and size-tier definitions are the kind of detail that can be refined after adoption, confirm the current, precise setback and tier structure directly with Metro Planning for any specific parcel before assuming a distance from this summary.

Operational restrictions: the new code also addresses how a data center can run once built -- restricting on-site backup power generation such as gas turbines, and adding environmental review tied to air emissions and water use, on top of the standard building and grading permit process.

The moratorium: separate from the permanent zoning rules, Metro's temporary moratorium on new data-center permits, building approvals, and grading runs through December 1, 2026, or until the permanent zoning bills take effect, whichever comes first -- meaning a new data-center project submitted in Davidson County in the second half of 2026 should expect that pause to apply regardless of how it fits the new size and distance rules.

DC BLOX's lawsuit -- an active, unresolved fight

DC BLOX did not accept the moratorium quietly. On August 11, 2026, the company filed a federal lawsuit against Metro Nashville, arguing the pause amounted to a targeted action against its specific Grassmere Park project rather than a genuine, neutral zoning policy -- the lawsuit specifically points to Metro's own zoning administrator having already ruled the data-center use acceptable under the zoning in effect when DC BLOX applied, and frames the subsequent moratorium as violating the company's constitutional equal-protection rights. DC BLOX is asking the court to let its permits proceed and is seeking damages and attorney's fees; Metro's legal department has said it is confident the moratorium and the underlying ordinance were enacted lawfully. As of this page's last review, the case remained unresolved.

For anyone evaluating land in Davidson County for an industrial-scale technology use, or land near a school, hospital, or zoo that such a use might target, the practical upshot is real, current legal and regulatory uncertainty rather than a settled rulebook -- both the exact contours of the size/distance rules and the ultimate fate of any pending large-scale permit application deserve direct confirmation with Metro Planning and Metro Legal rather than reliance on this or any other secondhand summary.