The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County has been hit with a class action lawsuit filed over a city ordinance that created a stormwater capacity fee to fund improvements to the city’s stormwater system.
The stormwater fee, passed by the Metro Nashville Council in 2023 and implemented at the beginning of 2024, charges individuals seeking a development permit a fee to fund capital improvements to the city’s stormwater system.
The ordinance is being challenged by the Nashville-based think tank Beacon Center of Tennessee on behalf of Nashville homeowner Peyton Pratt, who paid a stormwater capacity fee of over $6,000 when he rebuilt a larger house on his already-owned property.
In the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the Beacon Center argues that Metro’s fee places the burden of funding stormwater improvements “squarely on people who are seeking a permit to build” rather than “distributing the costs of the improvements evenly among all residents who ostensibly benefit from the stormwater system.”
The 28-page complaint asks the Court to certify a class consisting of Nashville residents who have paid the fee required by the city’s ordinance, as Metro’s website suggests that over 300 stormwater availability permits have been issued in 2024.
Beacon Vice President of Legal Affairs Wen Fa said the think tank’s lawsuit “seeks to force Nashville to refund not just Peyton, but all Nashvillians who have had to pay the unconstitutional stormwater capacity fee.”
“Housing affordability is a big problem in Tennessee, and Nashville is only making it worse by making it harder for people to build,” Fa (pictured above) added.
The Beacon Center’s legal challenge to the fee comes after the think tank successfully challenged another Nashville law, which saw homeowners hold their building permits hostage unless they paid for public sidewalks.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Wen Fa” by Beacon Center of Tennessee.
