Rocky Top OKs ‘master’ water meter requirement
The Rocky Top City Council meets in regular session on Thursday, May 21, at City Hall, with Mayor Kerry Templin, center, presiding. In front is City Manager Mike Ellis. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
According to Ordinance 623, the property owners would be held responsible for the total water bill for all mobile homes or apartments in their parks or complexes, and face cutoff of water by the city if the master bill is not paid.
It would be the property owners’ responsibility to install individual water meters to each apartment unit or mobile home, and collect the appropriate amount for water use from each tenant.
The conversion to master water meters would be required to be completed no later than 24 months after the ordinance passed on final reading.
This setup is intended to prevent the city from having to chase down former tenants of these properties to collect unpaid water bills after they move out.
The ordinance passed on a unanimous (5-0) vote, as it did on first reading in the April council meeting.
Also during Thursday’s meeting, the council:
• Passed 5-0 on first reading and ordinance to amend the city’s zoning ordinance to add a detailed definition of “data centers.”
In April, the council had unanimously passed on second and final reading Ordinance 620, which amended the city’s zoning regulations to include provisions for data centers.
The vote came during the regular April council meeting, following a public hearing a half-hour before the meeting – during which several people in attendance expressed concerns about allowing the centers in the city.
But Mayor Kerry Templin told them that by law, the city can’t ban data centers – although it can regulate them.
And even though he said no one had yet approached the city about bringing one to Rocky Top, he said the ordinance was necessary because without it, a data center could be built “anywhere in town.”
Templin reiterated Thursday night that before the change last month, the zoning ordinance did not mention data centers, so there were no regulations to limit them.
The zoning change was recommended by the city planner, Templin said, to allow the city to stay ahead of the issue of data centers, which are popping up all across the nation as AI (artificial intelligence) development continues its rapid growth.
He noted that usually these data centers are very noisy, and draw huge amounts of power from the electrical grids where they operate.
Templin reiterated in the pre-meeting hearing that “nobody has yet told us they want to bring a data center here,” but he also noted that “you can get a lot of [tax] revenue out of them.”
The city can limit how close the centers could be to schools, residences and certain other facilities, he said.
“We’re not promoting data centers,” Councilman Jeff Gilliam said during debate on the zoning change in April.
• Tabled until the June meeting a proposed ordinance that would change the zoning designation of a property on North Main Street to C-1 (General Commercial) from its present R-1 (Low-Density Residential) designation.
Council members said they needed more information about the proposed zoning change before voting on it.
