by Stephen Elliott, Nashville Banner
January 9, 2026
District 21 Metro Councilmember Brandon Taylor’s push to establish restrictions on certain types of businesses along North Nashville’s Buchanan Street is on hold for now after a lengthy debate Thursday night.
The Metro Planning Commission, after hearing from dozens of residents and business owners at a public hearing, voted to defer a recommendation of Taylor’s bill, which would mark the first use of the new “commercial compatibility overlay” zoning tool that the councilmember worked to add to Metro’s zoning code last year. The commission has an advisory role in the process, and the Metro Council’s binding consideration of the legislation is still set for a second of three votes at its Jan. 20 meeting, though Taylor said he would defer the bill there, too.
The two overlays, if adopted, would apply to certain commercial properties located within 100 feet of residential properties near Buchanan Street, a historically Black commercial corridor. Existing businesses would be exempt from the overlays’ restrictions, which include limits on payday lenders, liquor stores, cigarette markets and auto shops, while also requiring new nightclubs to close by midnight.
Taylor said that residents of the neighborhoods adjacent to Buchanan Street “came to me begging, pleading for me to do something” about disruptive businesses on the strip. Several of those residents showed up to the Thursday public hearing to echo those concerns.
One of the neighbors, Kenya McReynolds, said customers of a nightclub that shuttered last year were “disrespectful to the people who actually live here” and said entrepreneurs should “create something that is truly beneficial to the area.”
But many speakers, including some business owners along Buchanan, said they opposed the plan for a number of reasons: because the restrictions on operating hours would limit business and vibrancy in a district home to Black-owned businesses, because they wanted assurances that this type of overlay would be applied similarly in majority white entertainment districts, and because they wanted to see more community engagement.
“You imposing this overlay on us is going to choke me out,” said Valeria Lopez, owner of an events space.
Elisheba Mrozik, a tattoo artist and business owner in the district, said she agreed that payday lenders and liquor stores were “predatory” but cautioned against applying blanket restrictions, suggesting instead that compromise legislation “deal with nuisance businesses without harming other businesses.”
“We need to be better neighbors,” she told her fellow business owners.
Planning commissioners agreed to defer their recommendation on the legislation.
“This is very restrictive,” commissioner Kathy Leslie said. “There hasn’t been enough dialogue.”
Metro Councilmember Kyonzté Toombs, who represents the neighboring District 2, urged those opposed to the bill to “take into account the folks who live there.”
“You have to weigh their interests with this economic development,” she said. “This compatibility overlay is trying to strike that balance.”
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