Commissioners,
At Monday’s meeting…
I am planning on keeping R-25-9-902 on as is and ask for your support on this resolution. It simply requests the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) leadership team to incorporate a comprehensive utility permitting process into the existing UDO efforts. It is exploratory work to bring us back recommendations.
I plan to make a motion to defer R-25-9-903 for 30 days to continue discussion and deliberation. This is a resolution granting EPW the authority to withhold future utility/telecom permit applications of utility providers that do not comply with County procedures or promptly address matters such as the removal of surplus equipment/facilities, remediation of hazardous facilities, and the relocation of facilities in conflict with Knox County road projects.
There is a real-time example of this going on as we speak in Knox County. I encourage you to drive to West Emory Rd, just west of Clinton Hwy (District 7) near the Belltown development where the entire road-widening project is at a standstill because of one telecom company (Frontier) that is completely unresponsive in transferring their lines, which is preventing the utility poles from being removed, and therefore the construction project from moving forward. In addition to the time delays, this is increasing every part of the contracting / construction and unnecessarily impacting valuable resources. If Frontier were to come to EPW for a permit for new line / pole / telecom service installations somewhere else in the county, EPW would have to issue that permit.
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