Once upon a time Nashville looked like this.
Luckily, our city has blossomed and things are a little more interesting now. Maps are no longer main streets with arrows pointing towards the next town. Instead our thriving community is filled with more complex maps and a little something called overlays. Unless you deal with real estate on a regular basis, you probably don’t know about these tricky little guys. Especially since there are so many. In a quick search I found the following overlays, or maps within a map.
- Nashville historic overlay
- Nashville conservation overlay
- Nashville urban zoning overlay
- Institutional overlays
- Airport overlay
- Urban Design overlay
- Planned Unit Development overlay
- 440 Overlay
The idea behind many of these overlays is to protect the architecture and existing character of some of Nashville’s communities. This is a great idea. The only problem is that many homeowners are unaware of the fact that they may be in an overlay. Being in a certain overlay may prevent the homeowner from adding on to their home, adding a garage, or making other changes to their property.
Before you make that purchase, give us a call. We would love to help you in the home buying process and let you know if you home is part of one of these many specific overlays. It’s always better to be in the know.