2019 Tennessee Code
Title 66 - Property
Chapter 35 - Rent Control
§ 66-35-102. Rent control by local governments prohibited -- Zoning provisions -- Affordable housing.

(a) A local governmental unit shall not enact, maintain or enforce an ordinance or resolution that would have the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential or commercial property.

(b)

• (1) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a local government unit, or any subdivision or instrumentality thereof, shall not enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance, resolution, regulation, rule, or other requirement of any type that:

  • (A) Requires the direct or indirect allocation of existing or newly constructed private residential or commercial rental units to be sold or rented at below market rates;

  • (B) Conditions any zoning change, variance, building permit, development entitlements through amendment to the zoning map, or any change in land use restrictions or requirements, on the allocation of existing or newly constructed private residential or commercial rental units to be sold or rented at below market rates; or

  • (C) Requires a person to waive the person's constitutionally protected rights related to real property in order that the local government unit can increase the number of existing or newly constructed private residential or commercial rental units that would be available for purchase or lease at below market rates within the jurisdiction of the local government unit.

• (2) This subsection (b) does not prohibit a local government unit from creating or implementing a purely voluntary incentive-based program designed to increase the construction or rehabilitation of workforce or affordable private residential or commercial rental units, which may include providing local tax incentives, subsidization, real property or infrastructure assistance, or any other incentive that makes construction of affordable housing more economical, so long as no power or authority granted to the local government unit to regulate zoning or land use planning is used to incentivize or leverage a person to develop, build, sell, or rent housing at below market value.

• (3) Any person who suffers an ascertainable loss of money or property, real, personal, or mixed, or any other article, commodity, or thing of value wherever situated, as a result of the practices prohibited by this section, may bring an action individually to recover actual damages.

(c) [Deleted by 2018 amendment.]