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Category: Knoxville

LandTechNews/BlogKnoxville

Stormwater Management Design in the City of Knoxville

Due to increasing regulatory requirements, stormwater management is often a primary element of the civil engineering design process for land development projects. Important aspects of stormwater management requirements in the City of Knoxville are outlined in two primary sources:

1. The City of Knoxville Best Management Practices (BMP) Manual, found on the City’s website: http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/bmp_manual/knoxvilleBMP.pdf

According to the BMP Manual:

The purpose of this manual is to establish minimum standards for the design and implementation of measures to prevent and control erosion, sediment, and other forms of stormwater pollution. The BMP Manual is intended primarily to assist developers, engineers, contractors, inspectors, and property owners in the selection and use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for the design of new facilities.

2. The Knoxville Municipal Code, Part II, Chapter 22.5: http://library.municode.com/HTML/11098/level2/PTIICOOR_CH22.5ST.html#TOPTITLE

The stormwater management site development criteria includes stormwater detention pond requirements outlined in Section 22.5-23, and first flush water quality requirements outlined in Section 22.5-36.

http://library.municode.com/HTML/11098/level3/PTIICOOR_CH22.5ST_ARTIISIDECR.html#TOPTITLE

We’d be happy to discuss any questions you have about stormwater management for your project. For more information on LandTech and contact information, please visit our website here: http://landtechco.com/home

Jay Lewis Civil Engineering, East Tennessee Region, Knoxville, Land Development, TN 0 Comments

Civil Engineers face changes to Stream and Wetland Regulations?

Impacts to streams and wetlands can be a serious regulatory challenge to civil engineers and other land development professionals, not only in Knoxville, but around the country. There have been recent court cases challenging EPA’s authority, with the result being a potential clarification of the term “waters of the United States”.

The EPA took a giant step toward finally defining which bodies of water are subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act last week, when it filed a draft rule with the White House regulatory czar designed to settle the confusion created in recent years by a series of court decisions.

The legal battles have centered on the definition and scope of a seemingly innocuous phrase — what exactly are “waters of the United States”?

Judges and regulators have wrestled over how to interpret the term in the absence of legislative action to clarify it. Now, the EPA is not only proposing a regulatory solution — which is not yet publicly available — but is also conducting a scientific review to accumulate evidence to back up the penultimate rule.

See more at: http://cdn.rollcall.com/news/epa_seeks_definition_of_bodies_of_water_for_clean_water_act-227853-1.html?popular=true&pos=oplyh&cdn_load=true&zkPrintable=1&nopagination=1

If you have any questions about local stream and wetland regulations, contact LandTech’s civil engineering staff for a discussion about your project. You can find our contact information on our website here: http://landtechco.com/home

Jay Lewis Civil Engineering, Knox County, Knoxville, Land Development, TN 0 Comments

Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission sees growth in residential apartment development

I am cautiously optimistic that the economy, and the real estate sector in particular, is beginning to recover. We at LandTech Engineering & Surveying have seen a significant increase in surveys done for residential and commercial retail clients during 2013. I was therefore pleased to learn that there is some objective support for my optimism. The Knoxville- Knox County MPC recently posted a news update that indicated that residential subdivision and building permit applications are showing a slow rise. However, the most immediate growth appears to be in apartment construction. As the MPC states, “If all apartment projects currently on the drawing board make it to construction, Knoxville will see an increase of more than 2,000 units in the next two years.” This is certainly good news! If you would like to read the artical, you can access it at the following link:

http://www.knoxmpc.org/news/2013/08_07_2013.htm

If you have need of any civil engineering, land surveying, land development or planning services, please go to our website at www.landtechco.com for more about our company and what we do or to find our contact information.

Mike Lewis East Tennessee Region, Knox County, Knoxville, Land Development 0 Comments

Knoxville’s Tupelo Honey Cafe floods

The Tupelo Honey Cafe at Knoxville’s downtown Market Square suffered a broken water pipe that flooded the basement with 100,000 gallons of clean water. The line that burst was a burst 60-year-old main pipe that had been capped off but was still pressurized by municipal drinking water. The damage was such that the restaurant will remain closed through the end of August for repairs at a cost of approximately $250,000.

The restaurant is one of Knoxville’s most popular places to eat, and it is an offshoot of the famous restaurant of the same name that has been a fixture of downtown Asheville, North Carolina for many years. It is also one of our favorite Knoxville restaurants, and we wish the owners and staff the best as they work to get it reopened as soon as possible.

If you want to know more, here are links to a local television news story about the flooding http://on.wbir.com/1deCvLT and the retaurant’s main website: https://tupelohoneycafe.com/.

Mike Lewis Knoxville 0 Comments

Site Layout Planning and Design for Land Development

The LandTech land surveying and civil engineering design team works with our clients to define project needs and objectives as an initial step in the land development design process. Project objectives could include a required building area, parking space needs, and street advertising signs, just to name a few.

A review of the local zoning ordinances is an important element of the site layout planning and design process. The Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission website is a good resource for zoning regulation information; see their website here: http://www.knoxmpc.org/zoning/zonhome.htm.

For a project in Knox County, Tennessee we would refer to their specific zoning ordinance here: http://archive.knoxmpc.org/zoning/KnoxCounty.pdf.

The zoning ordinance describes different zones, or the “part or parts of Knox County for which the regulations relating to the use of land and buildings are uniform.” Examples of Zones include General Residential Zone (RB), Office Park Zone (OA), and Industrial (I).

Requirements for development in the RB zone include building setback distances for front yards (35-feet), side yards (8-feet for single story dwellings) and rear yards (25-feet for buildings less than three stories).

There is a wealth of information in the zoning ordinance documents, such as off street parking requirements, sign and advertising structures, and descriptions of administrative review processes.

If you have any questions about local zoning ordinance requirements in the locality for your project, please call or contact us using our website http://landtechco.com/contact_us.

For more information bout LandTech Engineering & Surveying, please visit www.landtechco.com.

Jay Lewis Civil Engineering, Knoxville, Land Surveying 0 Comments

LandTech Announces Civil Engineering Services in Knoxville and East Tennessee Region

We’re happy to announce as of July 2013 LandTech is offering civil engineering design as part of our professional services, and we’re excited about serving the land development community in the Knoxville and East Tennessee region.

Our civil engineering design services will include Land Development Design, Land Surveys and Mapping, Erosion and Sediment Control, Site Layout Planning and Design, Roadway Plan and Profiles, Grading Plans, Stormwater Management, Domestic Water and Sanitary Sewer Utilities, and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPP) and Associated Permits.

In future blog posts, we’ll describe our civil engineering design services in more detail.

If you’re planning a land development project in the Knoxville or East Tennessee region and need civil engineering design services, or if you have questions about our professional service offerings, we are happy to discuss your project and ways we can help you. Here is the contact link from our company website: http://www.landtechco.com/contact_us.

Jay Lewis Civil Engineering, Knox County, Knoxville, LandTech News, Uncategorized 0 Comments