During the 2025 legislative session, the General Assembly passed significant legislation impacting AIA TN’s priority issue areas. Below is an overview of the types of bills we track, new laws, and proposals that didn’t pass but will likely be back in some form again next year.
Main topics of legislation that impact the profession are:
- Design & Construction Procurement
- Housing
- Disaster Preparedness & Recovery
- Building Codes
- Historic Preservation & Revitalization
- Codes Adoption and Enforcement
Highlights of particular interest include AIA TN’s successful initiative to update the school safety statute and legislation expanding attainable housing opportunities. Additionally, there were revisions to wetland mitigation policies and additional exemptions added to the recently adopted 2021 International Energy Conservation Code 2021 relative to thermal reflectivity of low-sloped roofs. The topics of procurement, purchasing and project delivery methods were discussed and will be ongoing into 2026.
This year was the first year of the two-year 114th General Assembly. There were 1500 bills filed with 621 becoming law. Every bill that was filed and deferred remains viable when the legislature returns in January and we anticipate an additional 1200 to be filed at that time. AIA TN tracked 89 bills this session that had potential impact the profession. Some of the more common categories of legislation we track include:
View the complete list of tracked legislation below:
School Safety Glass Standards & Guidelines | SB899 (Massey) | HB964 (Hawk) | AIA Sponsored Legislation
As enacted, updates the standard for entry-resistant window treatment for school buildings constructed or remodeled on or after July 1, 2025; requires the state-level school safety team to issue guidelines to the state fire marshal for inclusion in rules
In response to the tragic Covenant School shooting in 2023, the Tennessee General Assembly passed much-needed school safety legislation. This law created a school safety team tasked with considering appropriate building code requirements for new and remodeled school facilities. There were two areas within the original statute requiring clarification to ensure schools, designers, and local education agencies (LEAs) could implement effective safety measures without confusion or delay.
This legislation was drafted in partnership with stakeholders that included Dept of Education, State Fire Marshal’s office, THEC, etc.
The bill provides the necessary housekeeping to strengthen school safety efforts by:
- Ensuring glass security standards are clear, tested, and enforceable.
- Granting the school safety team the clear authority to issue guidelines and initiate rulemaking through the State Fire Marshal.
- Creating consistency across Tennessee schools, reducing design delays, and stabilizing project budgets.
The school safety team and fire marshal’s office are reviewing recommendations from AIA TN on specific guidelines for inclusion in rules and we expect official guidance soon.
The changes to the original 2023 statute are in the text below in red:
For any questions related to policies or acceptability of specific material types, AIA members should contact Philip Cameron, Plans Examiner Manager with the SFMO, at 615-741-7190 or philip.cameron@tn.gov.
As enacted, clarifies that certain definitions concerning housing facilities and developments with regard to industrial development corporations include affordable and workforce housing; authorizes a municipality or county to approve amendments to an economic impact plan when approving the plan
As passed, the legislation:
- Amends that “real property” will be included in the total property tax evaluation for land that will be used for tax increment financing projects
- Expands the definition of industrial development projects to include single family, condominiums, and townhomes for affordable and workforce housing projects
- Allows for industrial development corporations to develop, purchase or finance affordable or workforce housing projects
- Amends the economic development planning public meeting requirements to allow for a more expedited timeline
- Broadens the submission criteria for economic impact plans for the redevelopment of brownfields
As enacted, requires the division of water resources in the department of environment and conservation, in collaboration with U.S. army corps of engineers, as necessary, to annually report information concerning compensatory mitigation provisions in aquatic resource alteration permits (ARAPs) issued during the prior fiscal year to the governor, the comptroller of the treasury, and the chairpersons of the commerce committees; and to establish four categories of isolated wetlands for regulatory purposes.
A broad coalition consisting of the Chamber of Commerce, roadbuilders, housing advocates, developers, homebuilders, the ABC and policy thinktanks brought a bill to address what they described as an overly burdensome and complicated permitting and mitigation process within TDEC. (TN was an outlier in how it classified certain types of wetlands outside the federal criteria and out of sync with peer states.)
As passed, the bill:
- Requires TDEC to report the number of credits sold, mitigation credit sponsor, and amount of money received by the sponsor for each permit requiring mitigation
- Expands the criteria for a general aquatic resource alteration permit so that more non-federally regulated (“isolated”) wetlands will qualify for a less burdensome and more expeditious permit
- Exempts the alteration of “artificial isolated wetlands” such as tire tracks and roadside ditches from permitting as well as other isolated wetlands up to ¼ or 1 acre in size, depending on quality
As enacted, clarifies that, as of July 1, 2025, the roof solar reflectance and thermal emittance requirements of the International Energy Conservation Code for low-sloped roofs do not apply to the 2021 International Code Council adoption; authorizes the state fire marshal to promulgate rules to that effect.
This legislation was brought by the Coalition for Sustainable Roofing (COSUR), representing manufacturers of diverse roofing products, to address an unintentional byproduct of the recent adoption of 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).
Section C402.3: Roof Solar Reflectance and Solar Emittance limits roofing products in Tennessee by mandating the use of highly reflective materials. This provision was introduced into the IECC in 2012 when Tennessee was classified in climate zone 4. However, a 2021 update to the climate zone map reclassified Tennessee as part of climate zone 3. The new version of the map separated TN into different categories that would result in varying standards and prohibitions applied on a county by county level.
It was the preference of the legislature and Lee administration to allow the historically permissible roofing products to remain as options. AIA TN worked with the proponents and relevant entities to ensure rulemaking occurs for clear implementation and that future code adoptions specifically revisit the issue for future policy decisions. In the meantime, there is certainly no restriction for designers to recommend and use highly reflective materials. A shift in the utilization/demand would likely result in a change in the market landscape.
Legislators passed a $59.8 billion budget that included just over $1 billion in bonds dedicated to capital projects to add to the $135 million in the state appropriations. For information related to specific funded projects, please refer to the state architect’s website. The annual list for this year does not show the final action of the legislature, but should be updated soon.
As introduced, authorizes local governments to purchase goods and services directly, without bid or quotations, from vendors awarded general services administration (GSA) schedule contracts at prices equal to the vendor’s current GSA schedule price.
- Under current law, local governments are authorized to make purchases of goods and services included in GSA contracts or other applicable federal open purchase contracts either directly or through the appropriate state agency; provided that no purchase shall be made at a price higher than that which is contained in the contract between the GSA and the affected vendor.
- Currently, goods are defined as all personal property, including, but not limited to, supplies equipment, materials, printing, and insurance, and does not include real property.
- The proposed legislation sought to expand the definition of goods to also mean all improvements to real property, including, but not limited to, buildings, structures, equipment, fixtures, and anything else permanently attached to real property, but not real property.
SB307/HB1054 – Construction Project Delivery Methods
Authorizes a local government having a population of 100,000 or more and having centralized purchasing with a full-time purchasing agent to use any project delivery method that the local government determines most effectively meets the needs of the local government for the construction of local projects or additions to existing buildings. This legislation was brought by the Tennessee Association of Public Purchasing and sought to expand delivery methods to include:
- Construction manager at-risk
- Design-bid-build
- Design-build
- Design-build-finance-operate
AIA raised concerns about departure from QBS in the second pair of options and the sponsor postponed discussion of the bill until next year.
*The following local governments meet the population threshold of 100,000:
(1) the cities of Chattanooga, Clarksville, Knoxville, Memphis, Murfreesboro, and Nashville; and
(2) the counties of Blount, Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Maury, Montgomery, Rutherford, Shelby, Sullivan, Sumner, Washington, Williamson, and Wilson.