Franklin’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen has kicked off a high-stakes debate over what should, and should not, be built on one of the city’s most sensitive hillsides. In a 5-1 first-reading vote this week, the board advanced a rezoning centered on 354 Franklin Road and scheduled a public hearing for May 12. The proposal would redraw the city’s Hillside Hillcrest Overlay boundary, and at least one alderman is warning it could leave nearby Roper’s Knob more exposed to development. The developer has tweaked plans to lean heavily on conservation, but the clash is fast turning into a test of how Franklin and the rest of Williamson County balance growth with historic character.
What the plan would change
The request, filed by Gamble Design Collaborative, targets a tract of just over 200 acres around 354 Franklin Road. The applicant has revised the concept to use a conservation design approach that aims to protect floodplains, steep slopes, and wooded areas, while still allowing new construction. The Historic Zoning Commission has given a preliminary nod to adjusting the Hillside Hillcrest Overlay line, as long as any future development does not increase what can be seen from Franklin Road or other nearby resources, according to WSMV.
Local preservation worries
Alderman Jason Potts cast the lone no vote and did not mince words in his warning about what moving the overlay line could mean. “If we move that line now, we can open ourselves up to something that we don’t want there,” he told the Williamson Herald. Potts argued that leaving the Hillside Hillcrest Overlay boundary where it is helps “protect that side of the hill and that portion of Roper’s Knob,” and he warned that shifting the line could make the Civil War-era site more vulnerable to visible development creeping into the viewshed.
A Civil War landmark at stake
Roper’s Knob Fortifications are not just any hilltop. The site, which once served as a Civil War signal station, includes surviving fortifications and archaeological features. It was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 6, 2000, a designation recorded in the federal log of new additions kept by the National Park Service. Preservation advocates frequently point to that listing when calling for strict limits on what can be built in and around the area.
Next steps and public comment
Because the ordinance cleared its first hurdle with a 5-1 vote, the proposal will come back for a full public hearing at the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting on May 12. Residents will get a chance to address the board before aldermen take a final vote on whether to shift the Hillside Hillcrest Overlay, a schedule detailed by WSMV. City records show that a neighborhood meeting on the project took place in August 2025 and that applicant Greg Gamble filed pre-application materials in early April 2026, notices that are posted on the planning pages for the City of Franklin.
What happens next will largely come down to whether city leaders decide the conservation measures on the table are enough to justify moving the overlay line, or whether keeping it fixed is the safest way to guard one of Franklin’s most storied hilltops. Either way, the May 12 hearing is shaping up as the next big public showdown over how the city grows while still honoring its Civil War-era landscape.
