East Nashville blow-up doll deemed not obscene, no strike

Hanging an inflatable blow-up doll in the window won’t count as one of three strikes against an East Nashville homeowner's short-term rental permit.

By a 4-2 vote Thursday, the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals overturned the city’s zoning administrator's determination that display of the sex toy was obscene and therefore a violation. Nashville has a three-strike system with the short-term rental permit taken away after a third.

At previous meetings over the past two months, the Board of Zoning Appeals' vote was 3-2. That left homeowner Jason P. Wiley, who's listed on the deed along with Jeffrey Stoner, one vote short of a favorable outcome.

Attorney Jamie Hollin, who represented Wiley, argued including on First Amendment grounds that the novelty doll wasn't obscene and the disorderly house ordinance under the Metro Code is unconstitutional.

"The BZA made the correct decision based on years of constitutional law," he said after Thursday's vote. "Short-term rental enforcement will work as long as it's valid enforcement. This was an invalid and unconstitutional attempt to take away property rights of the owner."

But Metro Councilman Brett Withers, who in a Facebook post last August first recommended that the blow-up doll incident count as one of three strikes, said Thursday's zoning appeals board's decision sets a bad precedent.

"What this tells neighbors is that there's no enforcement for disruptive behavior and the only solution is to phase out non-owner occupied short-term rentals out of residential zoning," he said. "The Board of Zoning Appeals consistently abdicates their responsibility to uphold Metro Council ordinances on these issues."

In other business Thursday, the Board of Zoning Appeals also voted 4-2 to grant the developer planning the 12-story Graduate Nashville hotel on West End Avenue a variance from Metro's parking requirements. A previous 3-2 decision fell short of the four concurring votes Chicago-based AJ Capital needed to be allowed to have 117 parking spaces instead of the required 202.

The 203-guestroom upscale Graduate Nashville is on the drawing board for just over an acre at 2000 and 2004 West End. That site includes a former Checkers Drive-In location and a Taco Bell restaurant, which will close at year's end.

Meanwhile, a hearing related to the Germantown Commons Homeowners Association's challenge of the Metro zoning administrator's determination in regards the restaurant/bar concept formerly Germantown Bar (now The Germantown Depot) was deferred to the commission's Dec. 21 meeting.

The cohousing community's homeowners association challenged the zoning administrator's determinations that there are not two bars on the same premises and that parking requirements had been met in the mixed-use limited district.

The Germantown Depot opened a month ago at 1318 Sixth Ave N. in Nashville's historic Germantown neighborhood.

Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.