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Board approves special exception for GCA cultural center with neighborhood conditions
Summary
The board granted a special exception for a proposed 84,000 sq ft cultural center on Old Lebanon Dirt Road, approving a two-year extension with conditions to protect neighbors that include urban-forestry review, police traffic control for large events and written notice for major construction.
The Metro Nashville Board of Zoning Appeals on Dec. 4 approved a special exception allowing the Greater Cultural Association (GCA) to proceed with a proposed cultural center and related site work on Old Lebanon Dirt Road, subject to conditions intended to limit neighborhood impacts.
The project team — Daniel Whitley, engineer, and Roshan Patel of GCA — told the board the site plan complies with required buffer yards, includes turn-lane recommendations from a 2024 traffic study performed with NDOT and features a 25‑foot landscape buffer (40 feet where the lot fronts Old Lebanon Dirt Road). Patel said the building would be about 84,000 square feet on roughly 24 acres and that the applicant has held multiple meetings with neighbors.
Council member Erin Evans (District 12) reported on a subsequent community meeting and urged the board to require attention to tree preservation in buffers, better communications about construction (neighbors reported unexpected work on a sewer extension), and reexamination of traffic if the project is delayed and regional development changes occur. Multiple residents testified in opposition or concern, citing buffer loss from grading, construction access without notice, traffic impacts from nearby commercial developments, and safety entering and leaving local drives.
GCA representatives said the traffic study (conducted in 2024 and projecting to 2028) was reviewed with NDOT and that large events would be managed with police direction to help traffic flow. They also committed to urban-forester review, a tree survey to preserve qualifying trees (6-inch caliper or larger), replanting requirements where trees are removed, and adherence to the dark-sky ordinance; the applicant offered to power down site lighting completely when the facility is not in use.
Board members framed their approval around enforceable conditions. The motion approved the special exception while incorporating conditions from the prior order and adding: (1) police or traffic-control measures for large events; (2) urban-forester coordination to preserve and supplement dense buffering where neighbors are adjacent; and (3) written notice to immediate neighbors for major construction activities. The motion passed unanimously.
Applicants were instructed to coordinate with Urban Forestry and the planning and codes departments on final landscape plans, tree surveys and permitting. The board’s action extends the previous two-year approval window and allows the applicant to resume entitlement steps under the specified conditions.
