ZONING ORDINANCE & MAP

The Franklin Zoning Ordinance has been awarded the 2008 Outstanding Planning Award for Project, Program, or Tool by the Tennessee Chapter of the American Planning Association.

• Zoning Ordinance
• Zoning Map (will open in new window)

What is the Zoning Ordinance?

The Franklin, Tennessee Zoning Ordinance, effective July 1, 2008, was adopted to implement the 2004 Franklin Land Use Plan and Central Franklin Area Plan. The land use plan is a policy document developed by our community to guide growth in a manner that will accomplish the highest quality of life for the citizens of Franklin by striving for constant improvement of the built environment and the conservation of natural and historic resources.

 

The new ordinance includes modern development standards, implements the Franklin Land Use Plan and related policies, and incorporates standards found in a variety of other documents such as the Franklin Design Standards and the Columbia Avenue Design Standards. The zoning ordinance sets out the types of uses allowed within each zoning district as well as the review process used to approve proposed development.

Zoning Map

The zoning map consists of a group of maps that as a whole set out where uses are allowed or prohibited, and geographically depicts how the traditional and conventional development standards in Chapter 5 of the zoning ordinance are applied. The Zoning Map can be thought of has having four main layers of data.

1. Base zoning districts (depicted in blue),
2. Overlay zoning districts (depicted in yellow),
3. Character area overlay districts (depicted in red), and
4. Traditional or conventional development standards (depicted in green)

Base zoning districts (depicted in blue) are the residential and nonresidential zoning districts defined by density, general location, and use. As their name suggests, these regulations are the minimum or base set of standards that shall apply for the zoning district where located.

 

Overlay zoning districts (depicted in yellow) include standards that apply in addition to or supersede the applicable base district standards.

 

The character area overlay districts (depicted in red) correspond to the character areas in the FLUP and have different purposes that range from rural preservation to economic development and residential compatibility. All of these districts are further divided into sub-districts or special areas to provide more targeted regulations at a finer scale.

 

The development standards address aspects like parking, landscape, building and site design, exterior lighting, fencing, and similar features. In many cases, the zoning ordinance applies different development standards based upon a lot’s location within a conventional or traditional portion (depicted in green on the zoning map) of the city.

How to Use the Web Map: Courtesy of ESRI GIS

 

Working with layers and map contents

A mapping application can use one or more content sources. Each content item corresponds to a service, such as an ArcGIS Server service or ArcIMS service. Each source contains one or more map layers. A map layer is a type of data shown on the map, such as roads, cities or a satellite image.

 

If the mapping application allows it, you can view the list of the contents of the map, turn on and off layers, and examine the symbols for layers.

To examine the map contents:

• In the Console, display the Map Contents item, if necessary, by clicking the down arrow for Contents. If Contents is not present, then this mapping application does not allow viewing the contents list.
• When Map Contents opens, only the top-level content items are visible. Your content item(s) will probably differ from this graphic.
• Click the plus button next to a content item to display the layers within it.
• The check-box next to the layer indicates whether the layer is currently turned on.
• If enabled, you can click the check-box next to the layer name to turn the layer on or off. The map automatically redraws to reflect the changes in layer visibility.
• Some layers may not be visible at the current map scale (zoom level). These layers are called scale dependent. You may need to zoom the map in or out to see a particular layer displayed, even if its check-box is checked to draw.
• If layers have a plus button ( ) next to the name, you can expand the layer to display a legend for the layer. The legend may display a single symbol or multiple symbols for the layer.

 

To contact the Planning Department with development questions, click here.

 

To contact the Codes Department with construction permit and review questions, click here.