Zoning › State preemptions › Tennessee

Tennessee Short Term Rental Unit Act — Statewide STR Grandfathering (TN)

Tracked preemption from the Tennessee overlay bundle.

Overview

← All state preemptionsTennessee overlay roll-upTennessee zoning wikiTennessee building codesFederal overlaysGlossaryFederal-conflict: Not flagged
Effective
2018-05-17
Sunset
—
Authority
state
Scope
state:TN
Other Tennessee preemptions
Tennessee State Building Code — 2021 I-Codes via State Fire Marshal SBCOTennessee Voluntary Attainable Housing Incentive Programs — IZ Ban Carve-OutTennessee §6-54-127 — Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning & Rent Control BanTennessee Heritage Protection Act — Memorials on Public PropertyTennessee Agricultural District and Farmland Preservation ActTennessee Industrial Development Board TIF — Economic Impact Plan DistrictsTennessee NPDES Stormwater & Riparian Buffer — Construction & MS4 PermitsTennessee Public Chapter 1101 (1998) — UGB / PGA / RA Growth Plan Regime

Trigger predicate

When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.

AND
  • parcel.short_term_rental_use_lawful_pre_ordinance == True

Preempted fields

3 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.

FieldOpValueNote
str_regulations.prohibition_of_pre_existing_strwaive—§13-24-102: cities cannot enact/enforce any ordinance prohibiting use as STRU where property was lawfully used (or licensed) before the restricting ordinance
base_districts[*].allowed_usesaddshort_term_rental_grandfatheredGrandfathered STRs continue as nonconforming use in perpetuity per §13-24-103
str_regulations.functional_denial_via_registration_or_feeswaive—2024 Public Chapter 963 bars locals from structuring registration/fee/definitional regimes to functionally eliminate grandfathered STRs

Citation

Authority source
Tenn. Code Ann. §§13-24-101–103 (2018 Public Chapter 814), recodified at §§13-7-601–606; amended by 2024 Public Chapter 963
§ §§13-24-101 et seq. / §§13-7-601 et seq.
https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-13/chapter-7/part-6/

Research notes

Marquee TN preemption. Anderson v. Metro. Gov't of Nashville (Tenn. Ct. App. 2019) struck Nashville's 2017 ban as applied to pre-existing licensed STRs. Cities retain authority to: regulate prospectively (registration, occupancy, noise, parking, tax), prohibit STRs in new developments, cap going forward, revoke for repeated violations of reasonable rules (§13-24-103(b)). Cities may NOT retroactively prohibit, redefine to back-door eliminate, or condition grandfathered status on owner-occupancy. 'Transfer of title' clause (§13-24-103(c)) generally preserves grandfathered status with property, not owner.