Stormwater commission defers variance request after debate over 4-foot freeboard at 5909 A & B Carl Place

The Metro Nashville Stormwater Management Commission on an otherwise routine agenda deferred for one month a request from a contractor to allow finished floor elevations that fall 0.7 feet below the commission’s 4-foot freeboard requirement for two attached homes at 5909 A and B Carl Place.

The developer’s representative, Jordan Lee, owner of JCL Construction, asked for a variance from Section 5.5.1 of the stormwater development checklist after an as-built elevation certificate showed the first-floor elevation was 0.7 feet below the locally required minimum. “I will say this is a screw up on my part,” Lee told the commission, explaining he relied on a survey stake and an out-of-date flood map when setting the foundation and that raising the floor now is practically and financially difficult.

The commission’s staff, represented at the meeting by Logan of Metro Stormwater, recommended denying the variance because granting it would designate the site as noncompliant with…