Rocky Top ordinance targets slum cleanup
Slum properties can now be cleaned up by the city of Rocky Top – with the costs charged to the property owners, under an ordinance passed on second and final reading last Thursday evening by the City Council.
Under Ordinance 600, called the Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Act, city staff will soon begin identifying and cleaning up derelict commercial and residential properties within the city limits and billing their owners for all expenses associated with the work.
Passed on a 4-0 vote, with Councilman Mack Bunch absent, the measure technically is an update of Title 13 of the city’s municipal code, adding the legal mechanism to allow for such cleanups.
“This city needs this ordinance,” Mayor Kerry Templin said during the February council meeting when the measure came up for a vote on first reading. “It gives us the tools to deal with these decrepit properties. We can hire contractors to do it, or we can do it ourselves.”
Under the policy, the city will also be able to place liens on the properties in the amounts of the cleanup costs.
If any such bills aren’t paid to the city, Rocky Top can eventually foreclose on the properties and take ownership of them, the mayor said.
The city has long been plagued by run-down properties that are not kept maintained by their often absentee owners, Templin said.
No criteria were discussed for how such properties would be identified and targeted.
In other business Thursday, the City Council:
n Gave the contractor on the $6 million sewer improvement an extra 21 days to complete the work without incurring penalties for going over the allotted time.
The contract, awarded early last year, called for the project to be completed by March 27. But Templin said unforeseen issues that were found as the project progressed had caused delays that were not the contractor’s fault.
City Manager Mike Ellis said the project was 86% complete as of last week.
Council members voted 4-0 to approve the extension.
n Passed on first reading Ordinance 604, which would amend the city’s zoning ordinance to allow single-family homes to be built in general commercial zone (C-1) districts, which now allow only commercial operations or multi-family housing.
The change was requested by the city’s Planning Commission, which approved the measure on March 18 to accommodate a property owner who wants to build a home in a C-1 zone area.
To take effect, the ordinance must be passed on second/final reading.
n Passed on second and final reading Ordinance 601, to change the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee from seven members to just five, in order to try to get enough members to show up to meetings to constitute a quorum, so the board could officially conduct business.
At least four members must be present out of a board of seven to constitute a quorum, while it would take only three to have a quorum with a five-member board.
n Appointed Christina Duff, wife of Councilman Richard Duff, to serve as the city’s representative on the Anderson County Library Board.
She replaces Debbie Shaw, who resigned.
n Appointed Fire Chief Anthony Braden to serve as the city’s floodplain administration, a position required of the city by the state of Tennessee.
