On October 8, the Williamson County Regional Planning Commission recommended a new Arrington Village zoning district for the crossroads where Murfreesboro Road meets Wilson Pike. It also cut the size of building the district would allow. That vote sets the rules for anything new along the stretch of SR 96 that many people at The Grove use for errands. It does not decide when anything gets built. According to the county's own plan, that depends on wastewater, and the crossroads has no municipal sewer.
What the Planning Commission Changed on October 8
The Williamson Herald reported that the 45-minute public hearing ended in a recommendation of approval. Commissioners adopted a motion from Planning Commissioner Robin Baldree that lowered the maximum building size from 25,000 square feet to 15,000 and the maximum height from three stories to two. Eddie Sanders cast the only vote against it.
The 25,000-square-foot figure had applied only to parcels along Murfreesboro Road. The draft already limited every other parcel to 15,000 square feet, according to the Herald's preview of the hearing. The cut brings the main road frontage down to the same size limit as the rest of the village. That frontage is where a new building would be most visible from the road.
Most of the study area is zoned Hamlet District today, and a few parcels are zoned RD5. The new district would replace both. Compared with Hamlet, the list of permitted uses shifts in both directions:
| Allowed under Hamlet today, not allowed in Arrington Village | Not allowed under Hamlet today, allowed in Arrington Village |
|---|---|
| Apartments | Family subdivisions |
| Bars and taverns | Assisted living |
| Golf courses | Athletic facilities |
| Liquor stores | |
| Warehouses and light industrial services |
Traditional subdivisions would be allowed up to two homes per acre, and conservation subdivisions would be limited to 1.2 per acre. The district would also add design standards covering parking placement, sidewalks and greenways, and which way buildings face the road.
Before the hearing, Community Development Director Mike Matteson said county staff wrote the standards to fit the community, not to encourage more development, the Herald reported. Most of the speakers raised environmental concerns, asked for more impact studies, or urged commissioners to protect the area's rural character. One speaker's main worry was the long-term effect of septic systems.
The Vote That Counts Hasn't Happened Yet
The October 8 vote was a recommendation, and the proposal now goes to the Williamson County Commission.
The schedule has already slipped once. A public notice updated September 1 set a Planning Commission hearing for September 10 and a County Commission hearing for October 12. The September hearing was postponed after a problem with the county email system kept some residents' comments from reaching commissioners. That pushed the planning hearing to October 8, four days before the County Commission's October meeting. The October 12 agenda packet does not include the zoning amendment. Arrington appears in that packet in two places. One is an automatic aid agreement among the county, the Arrington Volunteer Fire Department, the Chapel Hill Fire Department and Williamson Fire and Rescue. The other is "AV - Arrington Village" in a map legend.
The County Commission holds its regular November meeting on the second Monday, which falls on November 9 this year. The county has not published a date for Arrington Village. The County Commission agenda page is the place to check as November gets closer.
The Line in the Plan That Sets the Pace
The zoning puts into effect the Arrington Village Special Area Plan, adopted March 20, 2025. It covers 37 parcels on about 325 acres. Its vision statement describes a pedestrian-friendly village with "small-scale, community-focused businesses and services that meet the daily needs of area residents." It also says a comprehensive wastewater strategy will be pursued "to address current limitations."
The plan states the limitation plainly. Milcrofton Utility District supplies the village's water. Municipal sewer is not available, and on many properties poor soils limit the use of septic systems.
The Williamson Herald covered the final-draft open house in February 2025. When residents asked how anything could be built without sewer capacity, Matteson said the sewer facility planned for neighboring Triune would not be able to serve Arrington. He said developers who wanted to grow the village would likely have to bring in sewer themselves.
"The plan does suggest that it would be appropriate to have small retail and restaurant shops, but it probably would be dependent on there being some sort of sewer solution which there currently is not."
At the same meeting, he said the plan itself "doesn't have teeth" and that zoning is the tool that enforces it. His February 2025 comments are the most recent public account of sewer for the village. Taken together, they explain the current debate. The County Commission vote can settle how large a new building may be, how it faces Murfreesboro Road and what it may be used for. When a café or shop could open depends on someone first solving the wastewater problem.
Three Commercial Parcels and a 1939 Shopping Center
The crossroads is very small, and that helps explain why the details matter to people who use it. The plan counts three commercial parcels in the village, mostly along Murfreesboro Road, on about 3.6 acres. That is 1.1 percent of the village's land. The Arrington Volunteer Fire Department and the Post Office are the only institutional uses, on about 1.2 acres combined. Four vacant parcels add up to almost 16 acres.
The history is short to tell. The settlement was called Petersburg when its post office was built in 1858. It took the name of a nearby creek, Arrington, during the Civil War era. The original store and post office stood on the west corner of Wilson Pike and Murfreesboro Road, and the Paschall Shopping Center on the northwest corner was built in 1939. On the everyday side, Rapid Pak at 4810 Murfreesboro Road had a county food-safety inspection on August 6, according to Williamson Source's October 1 health scores roundup.
The workshop notes in the plan's appendix list what participants asked for when they described the crossroads they wanted:
- "Save Paschall's Store/House and Peachtree Farms"
- "Avoid Chains and Franchises"
- "No chain restaurants / no fast food – prefer they are in Triune"
- "Not to look like Nolensville"
- "Small scale retail"
In a later tally of those comments, "Promote Ag, Farmers' Market, CSA and Horse Trails" received 16 mentions, the most of any item in that category. The October 8 cuts to building size and height match that small-scale picture. The plan's own sewer section shows that even small-scale shops still need a solution that has not arrived.
The Farms That Sit Outside the Lines
The best-known places in Arrington are outside the village boundary entirely. In the Herald's February 2025 story, a resident pointed out that the study area left out Arrington Vineyards and Delvin Farms, two of the area's most successful agricultural operations. Whatever the County Commission decides, those properties are not part of the district.
They will keep their usual holiday schedules. Arrington Vineyards has a Black Friday event on November 27 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with Steaming Goat, Simply Living Life Cottage, and The Derby Coffee & Desserts, plus Johnson Jay performing from 1 to 4 p.m. The winery's calendar shows it closed on December 25.
If your route out of the area takes I-840 after dark, TDOT's resurfacing project between SR 6/US 31 and east of Arno Road has used nightly lane closures since August 9. TDOT expects to finish by December 2026, depending on weather.
Dates Between Now and Christmas
- November 9: The County Commission's regular November meeting. Check the agenda for Arrington Village, which has not yet been placed on a meeting.
- November 27: Black Friday at Arrington Vineyards, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- December: TDOT's target finish for the I-840 resurfacing.
- December 25: Arrington Vineyards closed.
This post reports what the county's proposal and plan say. It is general information, not legal advice, so property owners in the district should confirm how the zoning would affect their parcels with the county planning department or an attorney.
The Luxe Collective is following the Arrington Village process as it heads to the County Commission. If you'd like to talk through what the outcome could mean for a property near The Grove, schedule a free consultation and we'll go over it with you.
