Citizen Portal's May 20 meeting roundup reports that, at the Historic Zoning Commission's May 20 meeting, a business owner at 335 Main Street asked for four things: remove a second storefront door, add shutters to the upper story, install planter boxes, and update the signage and lighting. The commission said no to the door because removing it would erase the appearance of what were once two separate buildings. It said no to the shutters because there was no historic evidence they had ever existed on that facade. It said no to the planter boxes. It said yes to the signage and lighting, on the condition that the applicant submit a physical sample of the patinaed finish for staff to review before installation.
Four requests, four separate outcomes, all on the same building, all decided in the same twenty minutes. That is what design review looks like on Main Street, and it is something buyers in Franklin's historic core should understand before planning exterior work.
Two Approvals, Not One
Franklin's Historic Preservation Overlay covers the buildings and blocks that make downtown Franklin recognizable, and exterior alterations inside that overlay, except for minor in-kind repairs of siding and roofing, need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Zoning Commission before they need a building permit. The commission is nine citizen appointees representing architecture, history and historic preservation, the Planning Commission, and the general community, and its job is to weigh proposed changes against the city's own design guidelines and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.
The sequencing is the part that catches people. A COA is not a formality that runs alongside your building permit. It runs in front of it. If you are planning new windows, a different roofline, an addition, a fence, or a repainted masonry wall, that plan has to clear the HZC before Building and Neighborhood Services will issue the permit to build it. The submission deadline matters to your timeline. If your project changes after you have already submitted, a request for more information from the board can affect timing.
Before assuming a renovation scope on a historic-core property, the city's own preservation planner, Emily Huffer, is the person to call.
What the Board Is Actually Weighing
The May 20 meeting is a useful window into how narrowly the commission reads its own guidelines, because the same session covered several properties with very different outcomes.
At 109 Everbright Avenue, a small accessory structure, a pool, and a driveway were approved with conditions, but a larger accessory structure was deferred because it exceeded the zoning ordinance's 50 percent footprint limit for accessory buildings. The applicant was told a variance would be required to build it as drawn.
At 1010 Fair Street, a proposed chimney was approved only after discussion of how visible it would be and how it would sit against the massing of the existing structure, not whether a chimney belonged on the house at all.
At the Old Ice House, 251 2nd Avenue South, Citizen Portal's account reports that the commission cleared a partial demolition and a two-story addition for adaptive reuse as a hotel, but only after removing a staff recommendation that would have prohibited cutting a new opening into the brick, and only with a requirement that the new guardrail read visually as a parapet rather than a railing.
And at 234 4th Avenue North, the commission split on whether to allow demolition of a noncontributing accessory structure. Staff had recommended denial. The motion to deny failed, and a subsequent motion to approve carried, alongside a separately approved addition to the main house that required a stoop cover to be modified before it passed.
None of these are about whether the applicant's taste was good. They are about evidence, footprint math, sightlines, and how a proposed change reads against the specific building next to it. An earlier meeting made that last point explicit. When the commission reviewed a subdivision plat touching a contributing building on Main Street, one commissioner pushed for a 10-foot setback from that structure before voting to approve. Citizen Portal's account of the meeting quoted him explaining:
"to allow a little more protection from that building to anything that may happen in the future on 68."
That is a board thinking about a lot that has not been built yet, on behalf of a building that already exists next door. It is worth knowing that kind of reasoning is in play before you assume your renovation is a formality.
The Ordinance Underneath the Overlay
Franklin's citywide Zoning Ordinance was rewritten and took effect January 13, 2026, under Ordinance 2025-25. That rewrite sets the baseline zoning rules for the entire city, lot coverage, setbacks, use categories, the general framework everyone in Franklin builds against. The historic overlay review is a separate track layered on top of that baseline for properties inside the HPO, and it does not go away because the underlying zoning changed. Clearing the new ordinance's baseline rules and clearing the Historic Zoning Commission's design guidelines are two different approvals from two different reviewers, and passing one says nothing about the other.
Reading Historic-Core Price Figures
The price figures offer one way to describe the historic core's market. Downtown Franklin's historic core, the most walkable, most photographed address in Williamson County and the district that earned American Express's "America's Favorite Main Street" recognition, has carried a lower median sale price than the city of Franklin overall. Over the most recent 12 months of MLS-tracked sales through May 2026, the historic core recorded 401 closed sales with a median around $675,000 and an average near $927,000, while Franklin's broader typical home value has run closer to $843,000 to $923,000 depending on the source and month.
A lower median price does not, by itself, mean the historic core is less desirable: median price combines different properties sold under the same zip code. Price per square foot in the historic core has ranged from roughly $185 to $886. For buyers considering exterior work, the commission's design review and meeting calendar are part of planning the project. The May 20 decisions illustrate that review can differ by proposed change and building.
Before You Write an Offer
A few questions are worth answering before you get attached to a specific address inside the HPO:
- Is the structure listed as contributing or noncontributing to the historic district, since that status shapes how much latitude the HZC has on demolition and additions.
- Has any part of the exterior you plan to change already been the subject of a prior COA application, approved, denied, or deferred.
- Does the change you want fall under the "in-kind repair" exclusion the city's own guidelines carve out for siding and roofing repairs, or does it count as an alteration that triggers full review.
- What is the HZC's next meeting date and submission deadline relative to your closing and any contingency timeline.
A Few Questions Worth Asking
Is every repair subject to review? Not if it is genuinely in-kind. Franklin's own design guidelines exclude minor in-kind repair of siding and roofing from the alterations that trigger a COA, though replacement or a material change does not qualify for that exclusion.
Franklin's preservation story is also carried by a long-running nonprofit, the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, which has worked since 1967 to protect the buildings and streetscapes that make this particular address worth the extra step. The HZC review is another part of the context for buyers considering an address in the district.
If you are weighing a specific address inside Franklin's historic core, I can pull what is publicly known about its design-review history and walk through what the HZC has and has not allowed on that block before you write an offer. Reach out to Suzanne McMillan to talk through the property, the timeline, and what the exterior work you're picturing would actually require.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
