With the Knoxville City Council giving the go-ahead for city staff to come up with a rental inspection program, the first step is to devise a plan which can act as a starting point for discussions on whether to have one, and what form it should take.

City Manager Aaron Adams says this process began as a way to ensure the city’s available housing is safe, and of enough quality to attract renters to an area which has a noticeable lack of housing.

Adams says they will begin by looking at what’s being done in other cities similar to Knoxville. Oskaloosa and Newton are two such places, but he tells KNIA/KRLS News they do not plan on simply copying what those cities are doing.

“Of course, both those communities are a little larger but similar in size, similar in demographics, similar again, ratios of renters to those folks who own. So I think we’ll definitely borrow from them; I just don’t think we’ll blanket take the Oskaloosa-only approach, or the Newton-only approach. I think we’ll look to a lot of different communities, and see what things might make sense for us in Knoxville,” Adams says.

A number of property owners attended Monday night’s City Council meeting to hear the initial idea, and Adams would like to get them involved as much as possible as development of a plan proceeds.

For more information on development of a rental inspection program, tune in to today’s edition of Let’s Talk Knoxville.