The Knoxville City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission held a joint work session Monday evening to discuss camping within the city limits. While no action was taken, the two bodies agreed that standards should be in place to protect residents. Mayor Brian Hatch says that while camping is welcomed in the city, they want to make sure it is held in check with or without special events.

“We know that we’re a camping community with the races here. We support that, we want to support that, we want to be a part of that. And so we do allow for those special events, we do allow camping anywhere outside of the right-of-way basically. If you can find a place to camp, that’s great. We want to welcome those people. Outside of those special event times, we want to make sure we’re protecting the best interest of the residents as well, so we don’t have a campground popping up in a residential area. So it’s just basically putting some parameters on where we would like to see camping on a permanent basis.”

Hatch adds that the new parameters, when approved, will provide clearer guidelines on camping within city limits, particularly during large race events. To hear a complete interview with Knoxville Mayor Brian Hatch, tune into today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.