Filming was about to start on a project in Downtown Nashville, when Metro’s legal department stepped in. “Hey, we don’t know if we as NDOT can issue film permits right now,” the department said, according to NDOT interim deputy director Derek Hagerty.
The hold-up: uncertainty over what Metro can and can’t do downtown thanks to a new law passed by the Republican supermajority legislature.
The law gives the state more oversight and power in Tourism Development Zones or TDZs across Tennessee. One of those zones stretches from Downtown Nashville and along West End Avenue to I-440.
“This bill helps to protect jobs and local businesses in the tourism hotspots of our state by making sure that local governments do not choke off economic activity,” State Representative David Hawk said in defense of the bill earlier this year, according to WKRN.
“With the TDZ rules, there’s potential that everything will require coordination with the state,” Hagerty told a Metro Council committee. “We just don’t know at this point.”
In the case of the film permit, Hagerty said the state’s tourism commissioner “had to personally intervene” to keep things moving. “Just kind of an example of the lack of clarity that’s out there right now,” he said.
Emergency rules released by the state last month to comply with the new law limit Metro’s power to block roads, including roadblocks that cause “business interruption,” while requiring coordination with Tennessee Highway Patrol.
The rules also ban “unlawful loitering,” “obstructive sitting” at business entrances and exits or covering more than a third of the width of a sidewalk, “camping,” and “obstructive sleeping.” Broadway bar owners have complained about homeless people in the area for years.
Tennessee Highway Patrol received “concurrent law enforcement authority” with Metro Police in the TDZ under the new law.
“So it’s still unclear exactly how they’re going to execute that,” Metro Council member Jacob Kupin said at a Monday meeting to address homelessness. “But that does give the state a lot more power to deploy THP and to arrest people for camping and existing and takes away a lot of the city authority.”
Metro Legal is currently reviewing the emergency rules and “providing feedback to the [Metro] departments,” Hagerty said.