Nolensville's New-Home Map Is Already Drawn. A Sewer Line Under Mill Creek Explains Why.

"That's kind of some negative news because developers want to come here and try to develop properties, and that's going to constrain them." Nolensville Town Manager Victor Lay said that at the April 2025 Nolensville Address, as reported by the Williamson Herald. He was explaining why new development approvals in town had, in his words, "essentially halted."

Traffic and politics didn't cause it. A sewer main running along Mill Creek did. If you are comparing new construction in Nolensville with Franklin, Brentwood or Spring Hill, that pipe matters more than any price-per-square-foot chart. It does not shrink the number of new homes you can buy this fall. What it does is lock the list of Nolensville communities that can sell them, and it stays locked until Metro adds capacity through a rebuild scheduled to run into late 2028.

The Memo That Froze the List

On December 3, 2024, Lay wrote up a memo on a meeting with Metro Water Services' chief engineer. His summary was blunt. Capacity in the trunk main downstream of Kidd Road had reached its allowable limit, and Metro would not issue any more sewer Availability Letters until improvements were built. Projects that already held active capacity letters could keep developing.

The memo names two problem segments:

• Kidd Road area to Bluff Road area: a 24-inch trunk main along Mill Creek at 80% capacity, which the memo calls the design maximum. Preliminary estimate to fix: $30 million.
• Stonebrook to Rocky Fork Road area: a 12-inch trunk main, also at 80% capacity, planned for an upgrade to 18 inches. Preliminary estimate: $10 million.

The memo also notes that Metro had collected $20 million in capacity fees from the Nolensville area since the trunk mains were installed.

Under the terms the memo describes, an active capacity letter is what lets a project keep moving while Metro holds back new ones. As of late 2024, the set of projects holding those letters was fixed.

A Fixed List Is Not a Short List

The town's own numbers show a deep pipeline. At the same April 2025 address, Lay said he did not expect the hold to stop growth in the short term, because the town had already approved roughly 2,200 homes to be completed over the next decade.

A year later, at the April 30, 2026 annual address, Lay put the approved backlog at about 2,000 homes. In the same remarks he estimated about 75 building permits by the end of the year. Mayor Halie Gallik noted that the town's peak year for residential building was 2019. The Williamson Herald covered both remarks.

Put those two figures side by side. Two thousand approved homes against roughly 75 permits a year is a backlog measured in decades at the current pace, not years. Approval and construction run on separate clocks. The sewer hold stopped the first clock for new projects. The second clock belongs to the builders who already hold capacity, and they set its speed.

For a buyer, that changes who you are really negotiating against. While Metro holds back new capacity letters, Lay's own account is that new development approvals have essentially halted. The communities already in the pipeline face no new entrants, and each can release homes at whatever pace suits its own plans.

Who Holds the Tickets

The town hasn't published a list of which projects hold capacity letters. Its 2026 presentations and planning documents do show which communities are moving.

Fairington shows how a cap works in practice. When the Planning Commission reviewed a revised Phase 3A plat on July 14, 2026, the revision cut five lots from the previously approved 72, leaving 67. Five lots had been added in Phase 2, and the cut kept the community at its 735-home ceiling. Inside an approved community, lots can move from one phase to another. The total does not grow.

Town Square shows up with two different counts. The town's 2025 development map lists 404 units, while Lay cited 205 dwelling units in April 2026. The two figures may describe different scopes or phases. Ask the developer which one applies to the homes you are looking at.

The Fix Has a Schedule, but Not a Reopening Date

Metro Water Services lists the repair as the Nolensville Sewer Replacement Project, No. 25SC0020. About five miles of 12- to 24-inch sewer main along Mill Creek will be replaced with 18- to 42-inch main "to accommodate the growth in the area." The contractor is Garney Construction, and the posted timeline runs from November 2026 to November 2028. Work will happen along the creek, so no road closures are planned.

So construction is scheduled to start next month. The memo's original estimate of up to three years would have pointed to roughly late 2027. Metro's current schedule runs nearly a year past that. No Metro source says when new Availability Letters will be issued again, whether at completion or at some point during construction. Any newly entitled Nolensville subdivision is therefore several years from selling homes, plus however long planning and site work take after capacity returns.

The Town's Other Growth Revenue Is Also in Question

The sewer hold is not the only constraint tied to growth. The Home Builders Association of Middle Tennessee sued the town in December 2023 over impact fees collected after Nolensville adopted its City Manager-Commission Charter in 2020. The Chancery Court ruled in the association's favor, finding the town had lost its authority to impose those fees, and the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to appeal. Williamson Herald coverage of the appeal vote has the details.

At the 2026 address, Gallik said that if the ruling stands, the town would have to repay $8 million and lose the ability to collect those fees in the future, adding that "there is not a clear way outside of property tax to recoup those funds." The town still posts a construction fee schedule. Given the litigation, a buyer building custom or comparing quotes should confirm which fees currently apply rather than relying on the published sheet.

This also bears on roads. TDOT's 10-year plan includes widening Nolensville Road from Sunset Road to Burkitt Road, with construction targeted for 2036 and a town commitment of $10.5 million toward construction. Nearer-term work is smaller. As of the town's August 21, 2026 capital update, the Rocky Fork Road and Newsome Lane intersection improvements had right-of-way complete and an RFP advertised August 4. Engineering was budgeted for Clovercroft Road and Nolensville Road, including widening Clovercroft from three lanes to four.

Pricing Against a Closed Field

For county context, Greater Nashville REALTORS reported 1,163 residential closings in Williamson County in Q3 2026, covering July through September, at a residential price of $1,075,000. That countywide figure mixes Brentwood estates with Nolensville townhomes, and it says little about any single new-construction community.

In Nolensville, the questions that move a new-construction negotiation are about release pace:

1. How many homes remain in this phase, and when does the next one open? Fairington's Phase 3A, for example, was in final site plan review in September 2026.
2. Is the builder releasing inventory faster or slower than it sells? A community with no new competitors does not have to discount to keep moving.
3. Which sewer segment does this community drain to? The memo names the Kidd-to-Bluff and Stonebrook-to-Rocky Fork segments separately.
4. For land or a custom build, does the parcel already hold a Metro Availability Letter? The memo says Metro is not issuing new letters until improvements are made, so ask the seller and the utility directly.

None of this is legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm sewer availability, fees and contract terms for your own situation with the right professional.

FAQ

Does the sewer hold stop homes that are already under construction? No. According to the December 2024 memo, projects with active capacity letters may continue to develop.

Will existing homeowners notice the Mill Creek work? Metro says customer service will not be affected and no road closures are needed, because the work runs along the creek.

When can new subdivisions be approved again? Metro's construction timeline ends in November 2028. It has not published a date for issuing new Availability Letters.

When I meet with a new-construction buyer in Nolensville, one of my first questions for each builder is which homes in that phase are still unreleased. While new approvals wait on Metro's capacity, that answer shapes your negotiation more than any countywide number. If you want to compare release schedules across Fairington, Sagebrook, Town Square and the other approved communities before you commit, Donna Stumpf can work through it with you. Let's Connect.