La Vergne’s permit, borrow pits included
The City Engineer issues La Vergne’s land disturbance permit. It applies to an acre or more of disturbance, to less than an acre within a larger common plan, and to any site the engineer judges a threat to water, health or safety. The city also requires it for borrow pits.
That last rule matters on fill jobs. Digging soil out of one spot to build up a pad somewhere else is a borrow operation, and in La Vergne the pit itself is a permit matter.
Creek, river and lake edges
La Vergne was settled along Hurricane Creek and the Stones River, and it borders Percy Priest Lake, with boat launches at Hurricane Creek and the Poole Knobs Recreation Area. It also borders Antioch and Smyrna, with I-24 and US 41/70S running through.
Near water, the engineer’s discretion clause is the one to watch. A small site that threatens a creek can be pulled into the permit even under an acre. Hurricane Creek runs to the lake, so a muddy site beside it is the kind of job that clause can reach. The clause covers health and safety as well as water. Across the line in Antioch, Metro’s rules take over; in Smyrna, the town’s.
The state’s largest subdivision is here
Lake Forest Estates, with more than 3,100 homes, is the largest subdivision in Tennessee. The city counted 38,719 people in 2020 and an estimated 41,430 in 2024, about 2,700 more in four years. New homes on that scale mean pads, driveways and drainage built one phase after another. A lot inside a planned subdivision falls under the larger common plan rule, so its size alone doesn’t settle the permit question.
We plan where fill comes from and where it goes before we put a number on a pad, and we go over the permit side at the free estimate.