The zoning fiasco
Davidson County has made a mockery of zoning laws in an effort to build their Sportsplex "by all means necessary"
6/1/20262 min read
Davidson County Commissioners wanted to build a "Southeast Destination" Sportsplex in rural Southmont. The cost was only $̶7̶5̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ $65 million (the Commissioners decided $65 million "sounds better") and they could reprioritize schools and other needs to and pay cash to do it without needing citizens approval. So in March of '25 the Commissioners approved spending the $65 million with NO notice to adjoining property owners. Then apparently someone thought about zoning laws and figured out that maybe they couldn't build such a monstrosity on land zoned Rural Agricultural.
OOPs! No worries. The county created a NEW zoning district called Community Recreational (CR) in April of '25 to fix that little problem. They claimed it was so people could find parks on maps, but the CR zoning district included the right to not only build massive tournament ball destinations like the Southmont Sportsplex, but also hotels, restaurants, convenient stores, and more on any property rezoned to CR.
In May of '25 they sent out rezoning notices (required by law) to the adjoining property owners of the Sportsplex property. An angry community showed up at the hearing in opposition to the rezoning and packed the room. The Commissioners voted AGAINST the rezoning. At the end of that meeting Commissioner Todd Yates defianantly said that it didn't matter, the County could build the Sportsplex anyway!
Outraged citizens across the county rallied, gathered more than 1500 petitions against the Sportsplex, put out hundreds of yard signs, attended and spoke at almost every Commissioners meeting for a solid year, and still the Commissioners DIDN'T listen to them.
Then came the primaries and the citizens voted out two of the current Commisisoners largely because of their position on the Sportsplex.
Despite the clear community opposition, the County Commissioners awarded contracts for construction of the $65M Sportsplex in March. The community responded by raising close to $30,000 and sued to stop construction based on the argument that the County's claim that this monstrosity with 18 ballfields, 3,500 parking places, a 5 acre water park with multiple water slides and a lazy river, and an RV park is far, far more than a "Community Center" (which is allowed under the current rural agricultural zoning) so it is not permitted under the current zoning.
What's the next clumsy move by the county? In June of 2026 the Commissioners are going to start the process of changing the zoning regulations in Davidson County to allow a Sports Complex of this size and scale to be built on rural agricultural land ANYWHERE in the county. Davidson County wants to amend the zoning ordinances to create a new use "Recreation Center" that would allow a "sports complex" on ALL Rural Agricultural (RA) property in Davidson County. For the past year they've been saying the county can build the Sportsplex in Southmont on land zoned RA because it will be a "community center". The community filed a lawsuit and appealed permits challenging that the Sportsplex is way more than a "community center" and now the county wants to make a new law that allows "sports complex" on land zoned rural agricultural.
The proposed text amendment to the zoning can be found here: https://agendasuite.org/iip/davidson/agendaitem/details/10700