Franklin has a long history of preserving its historic resources. Preservation has been a decades long initiative using tools that range from recognition to regulation. The Preservation Plan and Battlefield Plan are Guiding documents that assist in directing and using these tools to ensure the community’s vision for the preservation of Franklin is in line with the community’s goals.

The City of Franklin is seeking to comprehensively update the Preservation Plan through a public planning process. The update will be inclusive of a high level of detail across a broad scope of preservation goals.   With needing to balance the past and the future, the need to update the existing Preservation Plan is evident. The City's current Preservation Plan dates back to 2001, while a separate Franklin Battlefield Preservation Plan dates back to 2004.  They are both 20+ years old and many of the goals and action items in both plans have been achieved. A historic preservation plan is the result of a process through which a community establishes its vision, goals, and priorities for the preservation of its historic resources. A historic preservation plan is a city planning document that will guide the city’s historic preservation program and provide a roadmap to achieving its goals. 

The Preservation Plan update will utilize a proactive approach to maintain the unique character that is seen throughout the City of Franklin. Preserving historic places (buildings, structures, objects, sites) highlights what’s already valued in Franklin by both residents and visitors. A historic preservation plan is the result of a collaborative process to understand the current program, identify what works well and what can be improved, and form a vision, goals, and an action plan for historic preservation in a community.

The purpose of a community historic preservation plan is to clearly articulate the many ways in which the community's historic resources contribute to the city's well-being, to outline the preservation goals, and to develop a set of strategies that will help achieve those goals. With the update to the Preservation Plan, the goal is to cover a broad spectrum of preservation priorities and strategies, inclusive of Civil War and Battlefield-related preservation efforts and action items to create one comprehensive plan, rather than two separate plans.

This process will include extensive community and stakeholder engagement to update the priorities and to develop a set of strategies and action items intended to enhance and continue the success of Franklin's Preservation Program. The community is highly engaged and has shown support for historic preservation during the City’s outreach for input in recent updates to Envision Franklin, the City’s long-range plan.

An updated plan may reinforce growth management strategies by identifying areas that are appropriate for preservation through Historic Preservation Overlay expansion or character and diversified housing conservation through Neighborhood Conservation Overlay creation.