Not Metro, even on the Davidson side
Goodlettsville’s southern half is in Davidson County and its northern half in Sumner. It kept its own government when Nashville and Davidson County merged in 1963, so Metro’s grading permit doesn’t apply on either side of the county line. Commercial ground around Rivergate Mall, where Rivergate Parkway meets Gallatin Pike, and residential lots across the city’s 14.3 square miles answer to the same city office.
For anyone used to Metro’s 10,000-square-foot test, that is a real change. Goodlettsville’s line is an acre, more than four times that area, and the administrator can set it lower. A lot north of the county line and one south of it get the same city permit and the same fee schedule.
The city permit and what it costs
Community Development Services, which shares an office with Public Works on Cartwright Street, handles the Land Disturbance Permit, and contractors complete the application at that office. The city’s stormwater policy calls for it on development disturbing more than one acre. The published fees:
- $400 for the first acre, then $75 for each additional acre
- $400 for plan review
- $250 per disturbed acre for inspection
What two acres adds up to
On a two-acre site, those fees come to $1,375 before any work starts. A five-acre site comes to $2,350 by the same schedule. Plan review is a flat $400 at any size, so it weighs most on a small permitted site; inspection is the line that grows fastest on a big one. The per-acre inspection charge also tells you the city checks erosion controls while the job runs, so they have to be built to last the whole project.
The discretion clause
Under an acre is not automatically permit-free here. The policy lets the administrator call for a permit on a smaller site, which in practice means asking before you clear. That is a conversation we have at the free estimate.