This guide covers farms, estate tracts and horse properties in north and west Davidson County, around Joelton, Whites Creek and the edge of Bellevue, and in Cheatham, Robertson, Sumner, Wilson and Rutherford counties. Every rule is stated at state, county or district level with its source, never as a statement about a particular parcel.

Greenbelt: what a sale does to the classification

Greenbelt is Tennessee’s Agricultural, Forest and Open Space Land Act of 1976, Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-1001 through 67-5-1050, which values enrolled land at its current use rather than its highest and best use. The rules below come from the statute and the Comptroller’s Greenbelt Handbook, revised May 2025. How an appraisal becomes a tax bill is covered in The 2025 Davidson County Reappraisal Explained.

Applications go to the county assessor by March 15, and enrollment is capped at 3,000 acres per person per county. Agricultural land must be a farm unit engaged in production, or have been farmed by the owner or the owner’s parent or spouse for at least 25 years and be the owner’s residence. An intention to farm does not qualify land, and land not being farmed on the January 1 assessment date cannot qualify for that tax year. Gross agricultural income averaging at least $1,500 a year over any three-year period creates a presumption of farm use. Whether farming is the primary use, on a horse property or any other, is the county assessor’s determination.

The buyer has to file

Greenbelt does not pass with the deed. The new owner must file their own application by March 15, because land that qualified the year before under different ownership is disqualified if the new owner does not apply on time. A new owner who misses March 15 can file within 30 days of the assessor’s disqualification notice with a $50.00 late fee; otherwise the land is disqualified and rollback is assessed. The seller, as the applicant, must promptly tell the assessor about the ownership change.

What rollback is, and what triggers it

Rollback taxes recapture the property taxes saved under greenbelt when land is disqualified, and the Handbook is explicit that they are not a penalty. Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-1008(d)(1) lists six triggers: the land stops meeting its classification; the owner withdraws in writing; a recorded plat or unrecorded plan of development covers the land and any portion is being developed; a required application is not filed; the acreage limit is exceeded; or a conveyance makes the land exempt. Recording a plat does not by itself disqualify land. Once any portion is being developed, the whole platted property is disqualified, or only the phases being developed if the plat is phased.

Who owes rollback when the land sells

If the sale results in disqualification, for example because the buyer converts the land to an ineligible use, Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-1008(f) makes the seller liable unless a written contract provides otherwise. Unusually for a tax, personal liability for rollback can be shifted by contract.

A conservation easement is a separate instrument under the Conservation Easement Act of 1981, Tenn. Code Ann. 66-9-301 through 66-9-309, recorded with the county register so that it appears in the title search. It needs no greenbelt application for its valuation reduction, but an easement that prohibits all farming disqualifies greenbelt land and triggers rollback.

Zoning: the district sets what a buyer can build

In Davidson County, outside the satellite cities that adopt their own zoning codes, Metro’s two agricultural districts are AG and AR2a, with minimum lot areas of 5 acres and 2 acres under Metro Code Table 17.12.020A. A specific parcel’s zoning is on the Nashville Parcel Viewer at maps.nashville.gov. Elsewhere, each county zones its unincorporated land and each city zones its own. The table quotes each county’s own document. It is not a Middle Tennessee rule and says nothing about any parcel.

Confirm with the county planning office for a specific parcel. Sumner’s minimums assume the lot meets Tennessee’s wastewater requirements, and Cheatham’s building-codes FAQ does not match its zoning text on lot size, so ask the county which governs.

Tennessee’s county zoning law, Tenn. Code Ann. 13-7-114, does not authorize building permits for structures incidental to an agricultural enterprise, apart from listed exceptions, and does not control agricultural uses of land. Sumner applies this to buildings used exclusively for agriculture on land meeting the greenbelt criteria, which are exempt from bulk and yard requirements and need no building permit. Flooding is the exception: a county in the National Flood Insurance Program must still regulate buildings and development in its mapped special flood hazard area, to the minimum extent the program requires, even on agricultural land.

Dividing a tract before or during a sale

Metro’s Subdivision Regulations, last amended June 27, 2024, define a subdivision as a division into two or more lots of less than five acres, excluding land partitioned by owners among themselves in court or by deeds. A partition is no more than two lots on an existing standard street with no new street, and needs neither a concept plan nor a final site plan. A major subdivision involves a new or extended public street, among other triggers, and needs a concept plan, and a minor subdivision falls between the two. Each new single-family lot must front a public street or, where permitted, a private street or a common open space, and residential flag lots need a Planning Commission exception. Lots on a natural slope of 20 percent or more, with natural floodplain, or with limited soil for a private sewage system are platted as critical.

Sumner County’s Subdivision Regulations, adopted September 19, 2023, reach divisions needing new street or utility construction and any division under five acres. A flag lot there needs 50 feet of physical road frontage, which an easement does not satisfy, and a stem of no more than 500 feet, and every new lot needs room on site for an approved septic system. Ask each county’s planning office before promising a buyer a number of lots.

Outside Davidson, dividing land into two or more lots for future building where septic will be used requires a TDEC Subdivision Evaluation, based on a survey and a soils map from a Tennessee-licensed soils consultant, unless every resulting tract is 5 acres or larger. County review still applies. If the likely buyer is a builder, see Builders and Developers and New Construction in Middle Tennessee: Builder Contracts, Warranties and Who the On-Site Agent Represents.

Floodplain, creeks and stream buffers

Start with the effective Flood Insurance Rate Map at FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center, msc.fema.gov, where the Special Flood Hazard Area is the 1-percent-annual-chance flood area. Nashville Flood Zones: How to Read the Map for One Address walks through the map. Metro Water Services says properties outside that area are not guaranteed safe, so no pasture or creek bottom should be marketed as flood-free.

In Davidson, Metro Water Services’ Development Services Division, 615-862-7225, provides the FIRM zone, base flood elevation, floodway status and elevation certificates. A residential structure built in the floodplain needs its lowest finished floor four feet above the 1-percent-annual-chance flood elevation, floodplain fill must be offset by an equal volume of cut, and floodway development is prohibited with few exceptions. Development proposed on undeveloped land that was encumbered by natural floodplain on April 5, 2003 must leave at least 50 percent of that floodplain, including all of the floodway, or the floodway plus 50 feet on each side, whichever is greater, in its natural state. Grading over 10,000 square feet needs a permit.

Metro’s 2026 Stormwater Management Manual also sets water quality buffers on community waters, as its Section 6.10.1 defines them, for regulated development. Zone 1 of every buffer is no-disturb, and whether a creek is a regulated water is Metro’s determination.

Outside Davidson, ask the county planning or building office who administers floodplain permits. Statewide, altering a stream, lake or wetland, including bank stabilization, road crossings, dams and fill, needs a TDEC Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit or Section 401 certification first. Any such permit belongs in the sale file, and so does any FEMA Letter of Map Amendment; FEMA says a LOMA may mean the owner is no longer required to carry flood insurance, but the lender decides.

Septic systems: the records that exist

In Davidson County, septic is handled by the Metro Public Health Department’s Septic and Sewage Disposal Systems division, 615-340-5630, not by Metro Water Services. Its ‘How Many Bedrooms?’ request returns the approval dates, inspection dates and approved bedroom count for an existing residence. In the other five counties, septic services run through TDEC’s Division of Water Resources.

A septic system cannot be constructed, altered, extended or repaired without a valid construction permit, which expires three years after issuance, and site suitability turns on soil absorption rates, soil conditions, groundwater and topography. TDEC will not evaluate a site for an alternative system without an extra-high intensity soils map from a Tennessee-licensed soils consultant, and it requires a Septic System Modification Permit when new construction, such as added bedrooms, a pool, a shop or a barn, will affect an existing system.

What the state does and does not require at sale

No state rule makes a septic inspection or certification a condition of sale. TDEC describes its Inspection Letters as routinely requested when a property is sold or financed, and TREC Rule 1260-02-.37 requires the licensee preparing an offer to make the buyer aware that a letter is available from TDEC for a fee. A lender or the contract may require an inspection. Separately, Tenn. Code Ann. 66-5-212(a) requires a residential seller, before contracting, to disclose in writing any known exterior injection well and the results of any known percolation test or soil absorption rate determined or accepted by TDEC. Whether that reaches bare land with no dwelling is a question for a real estate attorney.

Private wells: the paper trail a seller can pull

Tennessee has no requirement to sample or test a private well, at sale or otherwise, though TDEC strongly recommends annual bacteria testing. Licensed drillers file a Tennessee Water Well Drillers Report, form CN-0825, which a seller can get from the TDEC field office at 1-888-891-TDEC (8332) with the driller tag number, or find in TDEC’s Water Well Web Application. An abandoned well must be closed by a licensed water well driller.

Lenders can ask for more. For FHA-insured loans, HUD Handbook 4000.1, in its January 18, 2023 revision, requires a well water test in listed cases, including properties close to farms, sampled by a disinterested third party, never the owner, and has the appraiser check any septic system and, when available, obtain a survey showing the well-to-septic separation. Other loan programs are not covered here; ask the buyer’s lender early.

Disclosure on a land sale

Tennessee’s Residential Property Disclosure Act covers residential property with one to four dwelling units: the seller gives a disclosure statement or, only if the buyer waives it, an as-is disclaimer. Exclusions common with farms include transfers by a fiduciary administering an estate or trust, property sold at public auction, and transfers where the owner has not lived on the property in the three years before the transfer. Tennessee REALTORS removed its vacant-lot disclosure form in 2019 because disclosure reports are not required by law for vacant land. That does not make a land sale disclosure-free. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 62-13-403 a licensee must disclose adverse facts of which the licensee has actual notice or knowledge, and since July 1, 2024 a residential seller must disclose a known sinkhole in writing before contracting; whether that reaches bare land is a question for a real estate attorney. See Selling a Home in Nashville: The Complete 2026 Guide to Pricing, Costs, and Timing.

Easements, access and barns

The buyer’s title examiner will find every recorded easement, so find them first: access, utilities and any conservation easement. A current survey showing boundaries, frontage, easements, structures, the well, the septic area and the distance between them answers many questions on one sheet.

For horse properties, two counties set standards for a listed Equestrian Facilities use. Rutherford County requires a 5-acre minimum lot, with outdoor corrals, riding areas and manure, feed and bedding piles set back at least 100 feet from the property line, and Sumner County requires a 10-acre minimum lot. These are standards for that use, not rules for keeping horses. Document which barns and arenas were permitted, which were built under an agricultural exemption, which needed a septic modification permit, and where each sits relative to property lines, floodplain and the septic area.

Step by step: preparing one tract for sale

1. Confirm the district: the Nashville Parcel Viewer in Davidson, the county planning office elsewhere.
2. Pull the recorded greenbelt application from the county register of deeds and confirm the classification with the assessor.
3. Ask the assessor how rollback would be computed, so you know the number before negotiating who pays it.
4. With your attorney, set the contract’s rollback allocation and decide whether to ask a continuing buyer for the written declaration at the sale.
5. Order a survey showing boundaries, frontage, easements, structures, the well, the septic area and their separation.
6. Print the effective FIRM panel, request Metro’s flood data if the land is in Davidson, and add any LOMA or stream permit.
7. Pull the septic record: the Metro Health bedroom record in Davidson, a TDEC Inspection Letter or permit file elsewhere.
8. Pull the CN-0825 well report, and have a licensed driller close any abandoned well.
9. Put any known perc or soil results and any known sinkhole in writing for the buyer before contracting.
10. Price from comparable land sales read through these constraints, never from the greenbelt value.

Pricing and marketing acreage

A tract whose district, frontage, floodplain and soils allow one homesite reaches a different buyer, at a different price, than a tract of the same size that can be divided. Settle the rollback position before the first offer, because it changes how a developer’s offer compares with a farm buyer’s. The realty transfer tax, by statute, falls on the grantee under Tenn. Code Ann. 67-4-409(a)(1)(F). For an estate tract, see Nashville Luxury Real Estate: The Estate and Penthouse Guide 2026, and the team’s Luxury Portfolio.

If you cannot hand a buyer the greenbelt application, a current survey, the septic and well records and the flood map panel on the day you list, the buyer’s due diligence will supply those facts, on the buyer’s timeline and at the buyer’s estimate of the risk. Acreage is not priced by its size. It is priced by what can be proven about it.

Frequently asked questions