One office for the city and the state
In most towns, a site of an acre or more deals with the city for grading and with TDEC for construction stormwater coverage. Franklin has been a TDEC Qualified Local Program since August 1, 2017. The city processes the Notice of Intent and the stormwater pollution prevention plan, and it issues the Notice of Coverage on the state’s behalf. The Notice of Intent and the SWPPP still have to be written; Franklin reviews them in place of the state. TDEC’s general permit wants coverage requested at least 30 days before construction, and here that request goes to the city.
The city’s own permit is the Stormwater Management and Grading Permit, written under Title 23 of the municipal code. It covers clearing, grading, filling and excavating of one acre or more.
What Franklin charges up front
The city’s published figures for that permit:
- $100 for the permit itself
- $600 for plan review
- Erosion prevention and sediment control inspection, with a $1,000 minimum
A river town that grew five times over
Those fees sit on top of the site work, so on an acre-plus job they belong in the budget from the first conversation. Inspection is billed with a floor, so a long job can run past $1,000 in inspections alone.
Franklin was built on both banks of the Harpeth River. It had 12,407 people in 1980 and 62,487 in 2010, and the city now covers 41.4 square miles, The Park at Harlinsdale Farm among them.
Growth on that scale near a river means two things for land work. Runoff from a cleared lot heads toward the Harpeth, so drainage and silt control get planned with the grade. And because the city inspects erosion control on permitted sites, those controls belong in the plan from day one, ahead of the clearing.