Concern: Too many people are moving to Franklin, is Franklin growing too fast?

Franklin’s approach: Smart and Thoughtful Planning leading to well-managed, high-quality growth

If you look at the chart below from the U.S. Census, you can see the number of people coming to our City has grown at a consistent level since the mid-1980’s – a rate of approximately 20,000 people per decade. In

 fact, the highest decade for population growth was  the 1990-2000 decade.  (LINK AVAILABLE)  In relative terms, Franklin’s growth rate has consistently declined since the “high water mark” of the 2000 Census at over 100% for the decade or more than 10% per year compared to the most recent Census (2020) at 33.6% for the decade or just over 3% per year.

Franklin works hard to plan for growth and make developments pay their fair share for updated infrastructure needs in the form of impact fees.

The city utilizes impact fees to help finance the infrastructure needs that come along with growth. Impact fees are charged on new developments, so that the costs of expanding infrastructure are more equitably distributed. The City was one of the first municipalities in Tennessee to implement an impact fee program on new development in the 1980s. Today, there are a total of four main impact fees – roads, water, sewer, and parks.

The intentionality behind implementing impact fees has allowed Franklin to address infrastructure needs that accommodate continued growth. As new developments are permitted, impact fees are charged based on the infrastructure capacity the new development will utilize. In the last decade, new development has contributed roughly $152 million in impact fees to expand infrastructure in Franklin (Figure N).

Figure N.

There has also been diligent work to update impact fees to keep up with rising construction costs. In the last year, the City has increased the water and sewer impact fees to complete the Claude Yates Water Reclamation Facility expansion/upgrade and help fund future water and sewer capacity. The City is also working to update the road impact fees which will help fund the City’s 10-year Capital Investment Program. Updates to the parkland impact fee will come forward later this year.

Recently the City worked with the Williamson County and the other cities within the county to update the county-wide growth plan including each City’s urban growth boundaries.  In the update, the City of Franklin reduced our boundary by 361 acres and put priority on areas we could better serve with planned infrastructure and land use.  See image below.