Can you see the light?
Rocky Top council approves ordinance to regulate lighting
The Rocky Top City Council gave final approval Thursday (July 15) to an ordinance that would strictly limit “light pollution” and “hazards from poor lighting” for new commercial and multi-family residential developments.
Among other provisions, the ordinance forbids nuisance lighting such as “flickering or flashing lights,” “neon or LED lights [used] to outline doors, windows, architectural features and building facades,” and “any light fixture that can be confused with or construed as a traffic control device.”
Outdoor recreation fields are exempt from most of the ordinance, but must follow certain rules, including a requirement that all lights be aimed at the field of play, and that they be extinguished within 45 minutes after the event ends.
Additionally, the ordinance requires that a proposed “light plan” showing compliance with the ordinance be submitted to the Planning Commission along with other documents for approval of a new development.
New single- and two-family houses are exempt from the requirement of submitting a light plan, but still must follow “applicable lighting requirements.”
The ordinance applies to new projects, as well as to “alterations to existing lighting, excluding routine maintenance.”
Projects that have already been approved by the city are exempt from the new ordinance’s provisions calling for a lighting plan.
In other business, the council:
• Passed on first reading an ordinance to rezone property at 510 North Main St. to C-1 (Commercial District) from R-1 (Low Density Residential District) to accommodate construction of a new Fast Pace Health urgent-care clinic, which is being built on a vacant lot across the street from Glenn’s Pizza.
City Manager Michael Foster said that the property currently has two different zones – one area that’s already C-1, and another that’s R-1.
“It’s commercial property, but at one point there were residences behind it,” Foster said. “The lot was once divided into two tracts, and one of those, we found out, still had the residential zoning.”
• Approved on first reading a zoning ordinance to change a parcel on Sharp Drive from R-1 to R-3 (High Density Planned Residential Development District) to accommodate a potential recreational-vehicle park just off Tennessee 116, Foster said.
• Agreed to apply for a “safety grant” from the city’s insurance company that pays $1,500 toward a $3,000 expenditure for approved items, Foster said.