Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Forest Hills
Forest Hills is a separately incorporated city of about 9.3 square miles and roughly 5,000 residents, south-southwest of downtown Nashville, where most homes sit on one to two acre wooded parcels. Like Oak Hill, it charges no city property tax, but it does run its own building department and its own hillside and tree protections.
- County
- Davidson, satellite city
- Property tax
- Metro GSD $2.782 only, no city tax
- Minimum lot
- 1.25 acres at the smallest, up to 6 acres
What’s actually there
- A city of about 9.3 square miles and roughly 5,000 residents
- Boundaries of Old Hickory Boulevard south, Granny White Pike east, Harding Place north, and Chickering Road with Belle Meade west
- Residential districts with minimum lot areas ranging from 1.25 acres up to 6 acres
- A hillside protection zoning overlay and a tree conservation chapter in the city code
- City hall at 6300 Hillsboro Pike, which is where building permits are issued
The housing stock
Large-lot wooded residential, with minimum lot areas that start at 1.25 acres in the smallest district and run to two, three and six acres in the estate districts, alongside minimum lot widths of 250 feet and front setbacks of 150 feet in the estate zones. Those figures come from a 2016 ordinance and may have been amended, so confirm the exact district with the city building official before you rely on a number. Subdividing is largely off the table at these minimums. Sales volume is low, so published medians here rest on very few transactions.
Getting around
Roughly eight to nine miles from downtown, about eighteen to twenty-two minutes off-peak by Hillsboro Pike. There is no commercial core inside the city, so the Green Hills retail everyone uses is a short drive outside the line.
Things to do in Forest Hills
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
City of Forest Hills City Hall
At 6300 Hillsboro Pike, where the city issues its own building and zoning approvals.
Radnor Lake State Natural Area
Walking-only preserve immediately adjacent to the city, shared with Oak Hill.
The Mall at Green Hills
2126 Abbott Martin Road. The regional mall anchored by Nordstrom, and the shopping most Forest Hills addresses drive to.
Char Restaurant
3988 Hillsboro Pike, a steakhouse at the Hillsboro Pike and Old Hickory Boulevard corner.
Cheekwood Estate and Gardens
1200 Forrest Park Drive. The 1930s mansion with 55 acres of gardens and an art museum, just west of here.
Bison Meadow Park
On Tyne Boulevard, a small native plant park with trails inside the city limits.
Checked against each business as of August 14, 2026. Nashville loses restaurants faster than most cities, so if something here has closed since, tell me and I’ll get it corrected.
Subdivisions and named developments in Forest Hills
Once you are actually looking, you stop searching by city and start searching by subdivision. These are the names that come up, and what is true about each one that will still be true in three years. No prices, no dues, no days on market, because those change and this page would go stale telling you about them.
Westwood
A 1936 loop road off Hillsboro Pike that drew Nashville’s best architects before the city existed.
- Platted in 1936 with 55 lots by Stanford and Criswell Developers, and built out through the late 1930s.
- Laid out as a single loop, Stanford Drive, which is why it reads as self-contained. That geometry is permanent.
- Architect Edwin Keeble built his own house here in 1936 and designed the International Style Dr. Cobb Pilcher House, Deepwood, at 5335 Stanford Drive the same year. Warfield and Keeble houses stand at 5400, 5403 and 5520 Stanford Drive.
- The Pilcher House is individually listed on the National Register. There is no district designation, so the individual listing protects that house and nothing else on the street.
Tyne Meade
Carved out of the Thomas J. Tyne property in the 1940s, along the boulevard that still carries his name.
- Developed between 1940 and 1947, with additional sections added by 1947, and more than fifty lots.
- The land came out of the estate of Thomas J. Tyne, a founder and senior executive of National Life and Accident Insurance, the company that started WSM radio in 1925 and launched the Grand Ole Opry.
- Tyne’s own house, Longleat at 5819 Hillsboro Pike, was redesigned between 1928 and 1932 by New York architect Bryant Fleming and was listed on the National Register in March 1984.
- Runs along Tyne Boulevard, Hemingway Drive and Wayland Drive. A documented contemporary house by Tisdale and Tisdale stands at 3902 Wayland Drive, built in 1951.
Harpeth Valley Estates
Fourteen lots, platted in 1951. Small enough that the name almost never appears in a listing.
- Platted in 1951 with 14 lots, which makes it one of the smallest named plats in the city.
- Sits south of Tyne Boulevard between Arco Drive and Harpeth Hills Drive.
- Early 1950s housing, from the period when ranch houses first arrived in Forest Hills.
- No historic designation and no overlay. Nothing reviews a rebuild here.
Chickering Hills
Assembled in December 1954 and expanded twice, on land that carries a name older than the county’s suburbs.
- The initial tract of 78 acres was formed in December 1954 by George Henry Tyne, expanded by 19 acres in 1956 and another 52 acres in 1957. Later development ran through John V. Scales and W.L. Bainbridge Jr.
- The Chickering name traces to Charles B. Chickering, who owned 300 acres near what is now Chickering Road.
- Chickering Road is the city’s western boundary against Belle Meade, and the land immediately west of it is Warner Parks, 868 acres donated in 1927 by Col. Luke Lea. Warner Park Historic District was listed on the National Register in January 1984.
- That park adjacency is publicly owned and cannot be built out, which is a durable thing to own next to.
Chickering Valley, Chickering Park and Chickering Estates
One development wave, 1956 to 1958, sold under three names that buyers still search separately.
- All platted between 1956 and 1958. V.S. Campbell Realty developed Chickering Valley, Chickering Park and Chickering Estates; Balbade Estates, the firm of William Bader and Howard Ball, also developed in Chickering Estates.
- Assembled from the Compton estate and the James W. Boyd lands. The Compton holdings ran from Belle Meade plantation on the west to the Lealand estate on the east.
- Two family cemeteries survive on the former estate land, including a Compton family cemetery of roughly 25 graves at 1645 Tyne Boulevard. Cemeteries are permanent and non-developable, which matters when you are reading a lot line.
- Two individually listed National Register houses sit on Chickering Road: the Mrs. Edward B. Craig House at 1418, a 1935 French Chateau by architect Herbert Rogers, and the Dubuisson-Neuhoff House at 1407.
Otter Creek Estates
Platted in January 1957, within weeks of the vote that created the city, on the creek that made Radnor Lake.
- Platted January 1957 across 145 acres, northeast of Otter Creek Road.
- Otter Creek’s headwaters were impounded in 1914 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which is how Radnor Lake was created. This plat sits downstream of what became Tennessee’s first State Natural Area.
- Otter Creek Church of Christ is the durable anchor here. First services were held in 1929 in a home on Otter Creek Road, the first building was begun in 1930, and the church erected in January 1950 still stands.
- Two schools that once stood on this ground are gone: Hopewell School at Hillsboro Pike and Otter Creek Road, and the Otter Creek School east of Granny White Pike, which operated until consolidation in the 1940s.
Castlewood
A hilltop court built around a 1931 Tudor Revival house that gave the whole pocket its name.
- Built around Castlewood, the Richard E. Martin House at 30 Castlewood Court, a 1931 Tudor Revival by Warfield and Keeble with a central tower, casement windows, stone and half-timbering.
- Martin was a building contractor who bought the land from Thomas J. Tyne, and the broad lawn of his house was later developed as the surrounding neighborhood.
- The Martin House is individually listed on the National Register.
- Sited on a hilltop overlooking Hillsboro Pike, on a cul-de-sac court. Both the elevation and the dead-end geometry are permanent.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Forest Hills does not run its own school district. Addresses here are served by Metro Nashville Public Schools, and Percy Priest Elementary sits inside the city limits. The zoned school is set by address and Metro’s choice and magnet applications run on their own calendar alongside it. Confirm both for the specific address rather than the street.
I publish district and school zoning as published fact and nothing more. No ratings, no rankings, no comparisons. School zones are set by the district, assigned by address rather than by subdivision or city name, and they change. Confirm any address with the district itself, and evaluate the schools yourself against what matters to your family.
What a buyer needs to know here
Same tax headline as Oak Hill: Forest Hills levies no city property tax. You pay the Metro general services rate, $2.782 per hundred of assessed value for the 2025 tax year, and nothing more. The city funds itself from sales tax, permits and franchise revenue. What is different here is the permitting path and the land. Building applications must be approved by the city’s own building official and city manager, who can require additional review by the city engineer, and the city issues its own certificates of use and occupancy and letters of compliance. That is a materially different and often slower route than Metro Codes, and it should be in your timeline before you buy something you intend to renovate. On the land itself, two overlays matter. Forest Hills maintains a hillside protection zoning overlay, which on a city this steep can reduce the buildable area of a lot, and the zoning code contains a tree conservation chapter, so clearing a wooded lot is regulated. I am not quoting you a slope percentage or a tree threshold, because I could not verify either from the city’s own published code and the figures that circulate online are not reliable. If you are buying to build, that is a phone call to the city before you write, not after.
Common questions
Is there a Forest Hills city property tax?
No. Forest Hills levies no city property tax. You pay Metro’s general services rate, $2.782 per hundred of assessed value for the 2025 tax year, and nothing beyond it. The city funds itself from sales tax, building permits and franchise revenue.
Can I build on a steep lot in Forest Hills?
Often yes, but with review and with cost. The city maintains a hillside protection zoning overlay, and on this terrain that can cut the buildable area of a lot meaningfully, before you even get to engineered foundations, retaining walls and rock excavation. There is also a tree conservation chapter, so clearing is regulated. I will not quote you a slope threshold because the number circulating online is not one I could verify from the city’s own code. Call the city before you buy a lot to build on.
Do I get permits from Metro or from Forest Hills?
From Forest Hills. Applications go to the city’s building official and city manager, who can send them to the city engineer, and the city issues its own certificates of use and occupancy. It is a different office and a different pace than Metro Codes, and it is worth telling your builder before they quote you a schedule.
Thinking about Forest Hills?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?