"Since then, two building permits have been issued," Spring Hill Mayor Matt Fitterer said at Franklin Tomorrow's Breakfast with the Mayors early this year, according to the Williamson Herald. He was describing the months after the city's sewer moratorium took effect. "We think we can be out from under it by 2030."
Most buyers compare Spring Hill to Thompson's Station or Columbia on price per square foot and drive time. For new construction, those comparisons now rank behind a bigger factor. The city has already decided which new homes and buildings can connect to its sewer system, and it decided by name.
The friction appears before a contract does
The rule sits in Section 1 of Ordinance 25-29, which the Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed unanimously on second reading on January 5, 2026. It declares a sewer moratorium "prohibiting issuance of any new sewer capacity commitments, sewer availability letters, or sewer connection approvals, except as authorized through this Ordinance."
An availability letter is the document a builder, developer or lot buyer needs before a sewer-served project can move forward. When the city cannot issue one, a parcel's zoning and street frontage can't get it built. Section 3 of the ordinance lifts the earlier suspension of development applications, but only for existing buildings and for projects that received capacity. A permit application that requires sewer service can be accepted in three cases. The project holds an allocation. Or it sits on a site or in a building with existing or previous flows and doesn't increase them. Or it proposes a decentralized or alternative treatment system that meets the city's design, engineering, financial assurance and TDEC approval requirements. Projects that fit none of those cases stay ineligible until new capacity becomes available or a future ordinance authorizes more allocations.
The ordinance says it was adopted to comply with TDEC Consent Order WPC2025-0093. It also aims to prevent allocating capacity beyond what the system can handle and to provide what it calls "a fair and predictable mechanism for distributing all remaining sewer capacity." Every project that receives an allocation must install flow meters, so the city can check that each project stays within its share.
The list, as adopted January 5, 2026
Section 2 sorts the remaining capacity into two groups. Group 1 covers projects with development agreements and received 207,403 gallons per day.
| Group 1 project | Allocation, gallons per day |
|---|---|
| Legacy Pointe | 62,995 |
| June Lake | 58,000 |
| Spring Hill Commerce Center | 20,000 |
| John Maher Builders | 18,000 |
| Belle Springs | 12,600 |
| Barton Hills | 12,000 |
| Spring Hill Towne Crossing | 10,808 |
| Goodall Homes | 6,000 |
| Patterson Company | 6,000 |
| Smyrna Ready Mix | 1,000 |
| Arbor Valley, multiple builders | No figure shown |
Group 2 covers permit-ready vacant lots and totals 250 units and 62,500 gallons per day.
| Group 2 neighborhood or builder | Units | Gallons per day |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest Point, multiple builders | Not shown | 16,500 |
| August Park, multiple builders | Not shown | 9,000 |
| DR Horton | 48 | Not shown |
| Brandon Woods | 39 | 9,750 |
| Alaina Park | 24 | 6,000 |
| Hardins Landing | 24 | 6,000 |
| Bluebird Hollow | 22 | 5,500 |
| Toll Brothers | 18 | Not shown |
| Richmond American | 18 | Not shown |
| Mountain View | 16 | 4,000 |
| Crystal Creek | 16 | 4,000 |
| Celebration | 14 | Not shown |
| Regent Homes | 4 | Not shown |
| Maebry | 4 | 1,000 |
| Cherry Grove | 3 | 750 |
The Group 2 rows that show both columns use the same conversion. Brandon Woods gets 9,750 gallons for 39 lots, Alaina Park 6,000 for 24, and Cherry Grove 750 for 3, which works out to 250 gallons a day per house. In practice, that figure is how the city measures a new home.
The ordinance then states that the Group 1 and Group 2 allocations use up all remaining treatment capacity and that no additional development capacity is available.
Where the rest of the gallons went
Beyond the two groups, the same ordinance committed capacity in three other places.
- 365,000 gallons per day to building permits already active on the ordinance's effective date
- 65,000 gallons per day to a hospital on Reserve Boulevard and to city Public Works and Fleet buildings
- A 100,000-gallon-per-day reserve that the Board may allocate for nonresidential tenant improvements in existing buildings, but only for properties outside Groups 1 and 2
That reserve is the only flexible capacity the ordinance created, and it doesn't serve housing. It is meant for the Port Royal Road kind of request. The January 5 agenda packet records one for 845 gallons a day for two previously unoccupied spaces there, and another for 187 gallons a day for tenant-space renovations at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. A vacant storefront might find a path through it. A new subdivision would not.
The city's own budget reflects this. When the Board passed its $151.7 million FY27 budget on June 15, 2026, one of the listed items was a "projected decrease in development fee revenue, due to sewer moratorium."
The Columbia pipe adds capacity later, not now
On October 19, 2026, the Board unanimously passed Resolution 26-302 to move ahead with an interlocal wastewater plan with the City of Columbia. Columbia's City Council had already voted in favor on October 8.
According to the city, the project is a 12-inch sewer main running from the Spring Hill Reclamation Plant on Mahlon Moore Road, along Mahlon Moore Road and then several miles of TVA easement, to Columbia's system at its northern city limits. Projected costs are about $12 million: $9 million for the pipeline and $3 million for upgrades to the Carter's Creek Pike Pump Station. Spring Hill pays for the project. Once it's complete, the main would carry at least 500,000 gallons a day and as much as 1.5 million, and Spring Hill would pay Columbia a usage rate.
At the 250-gallon figure from the Group 2 table, the 500,000-gallon minimum works out to about 2,000 houses. That is roughly eight times the permit-ready lots on the current list. The timing is the limiting factor. The agreement makes conveyance conditional on written approval from TDEC, and Columbia's service begins only after its new treatment plant and the required pump-station work are finished. The Williamson Herald reported that the Columbia plant is under construction and expected to be finished in 2027, raising Columbia's treatment capacity to 17 million gallons a day.
The agreement includes one detail that matters for land owners along the route. Spring Hill's interconnection includes about 23,600 feet of force main, and the agreement prohibits future connections or taps to that line. A parcel along Mahlon Moore Road could have the new pipe in front of it and still not be allowed to connect to it.
The mayor has also described a second option. At the same breakfast, the Williamson Herald reported, Fitterer said the city was planning a new system that could hold up to 700,000 gallons. The city's January statement on the moratorium included his commitment to "near term additional water reclamation capacity through public delivery of decentralized systems, interlocal agreements, or both." The Columbia link is the one of those that both city councils have now voted on.
What the list means for buyers and for landowners
If you are buying new construction in Spring Hill, your options are the neighborhoods and builders in the two tables. Each Group 2 row has a fixed number of lots. When Brandon Woods' 39 or Bluebird Hollow's 22 are built, more can't be added until new capacity arrives. A builder's spec home on one of those lots carries an allocation that can't be replaced right now. The Group 1 projects, especially June Lake and Legacy Pointe, account for most of the remaining development-agreement capacity and will produce most of the new supply until the Columbia main or the decentralized system comes online.
If you own land in or next to Spring Hill, the issue is less about price and more about time. Section 1 sets October 6, 2025, the date Resolution 25-238 was adopted, as the tolling date for development review timelines and vested-rights protections under Tennessee Code Annotated § 13-4-310. An unlisted tract with no existing flows can't get a city sewer connection today. Its other route is a decentralized or alternative treatment system, which has to clear the city's standards and TDEC approval before the Planning Commission will consider an application. The timeline for city service depends on a TDEC approval, a Columbia plant expected in 2027, a pipeline Spring Hill has to build, and how the city eventually allocates the new gallons. Both the buyer's offer and the seller's marketing for that tract have to account for the wait. This is general information about a public ordinance, not legal, tax or financial advice, so confirm how it affects a specific parcel with a land-use attorney and the city's planning staff.
Questions about the moratorium
Does the ordinance stop sales of existing homes? Its prohibition applies to new sewer capacity commitments, availability letters and connection approvals. Existing buildings were among the categories released from the application suspension.
Who declared the moratorium, the city or the state? Ordinance 25-29 states that the city declared it under Tennessee law to comply with TDEC Consent Order WPC2025-0093.
When does the Columbia connection open? The October 19 resolution lets the plan proceed, and the agreement ties service to TDEC's written approval and to completion of Columbia's new plant, which is expected in 2027.
Where can I read the allocations myself? They are in Section 2 of Ordinance 25-29, in the January 5, 2026 Board of Mayor and Aldermen agenda packet.
If you own acreage near Spring Hill, or you're comparing a Group 2 lot with an unlisted tract, the allocation ledger and the Columbia timeline should be part of how you set the price. Greg Sanford has worked on Williamson County entitlement and land questions from both the commission side and the brokerage side, and he can review where your parcel stands under Ordinance 25-29. Request a private consultation.
