Green Building Chroncile reports that the Atlanta City Council will hold a public hearing tonight at 6pm on permitting rainwater harvesting systems designed provide water inside the home.   The city is hoping to come up with a permitting process and establish fees on “potable rainwater catchment systems for residential use.”

“Charge me for harvesting rainwater?!  That’s ridiculous!”, you say.

Well, slow down there Rainy Jane.  This isn’t about the rain barrel you use to water your vegetable garden.  Uncle Sam isn’t interested in getting between you and Mother Nature when it comes to that.  I’ll let Mr. Edelstien explain…

What the ordinance would do is set up a permitting system to treat rainwater and to use it inside the house. The potentially controversial part regards what happens next: Household water must then be disposed of through the sewers and treated as wastewater, which means there’s a public cost.

In Atlanta, as well as other municipalities in Georgia, potable rainwater systems currently live in a sort of purgatory: They’re not illegal to install, but there’s no permitting system that allows them to be operated.

If approved, Edelstein says that Atlanta’s ordinance could become a model for the rest of the country.

Photo ripped from Creative Loafing since I can’t find the “City of Atlanta” source file.

Unlike the Atlanta City Council, which has gotten itself into some hot water recently trying to rename a couple streets after an Atlanta broadcaster and an architect, neither Decatur’s City Commission or its school board seem all that into renaming things recently.

Not that there haven’t been opportunities.

I recently openly wondered whether the Decatur School Board had plans to rename the 5th Avenue school once it was rebuilt as the 4/5 academy.  Nope.  And with all the recent street improvements, you’d think if a name change was in the works it would happen in tandum.  But nothing.  Sure we’ve recently named the MARTA plaza after Roy A. Blount, but why does Atlanta still have a “penchant” for street name changes while Decatur sticks to historic street names?

There certainly was a time when the Decatur City Commission renamed Oliver Street to Commerce Drive, but that era seems long past.  (In fact, that decision should be reversed if at all possible.)  Nowadays, famous Decatur locals are left fighting amongst new public buildings and civic spaces if they want eternal glory.  But in Atlanta, apparently anything and everything is still up for grabs!

Is there a reason for this?

The AJC reports this morning that Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commish – and gubanitorial candidate – John Oxendine announced Monday that the city of Atlanta’s fire safety rating had fallen from a “2” to a “4” in a recent insurance services report.  As a result the city has nine months to improve services or the city’s rating will drop to a “3”.

Aside from suffering from poorer service, city residents would also see insurance premiums rise.

Aside from just imparting the news, Oxendine took the opportunity to slam the city for recent cuts in service and asked them to consider making “life safety a priority.”  The Atlanta City Council returned the complement by pointing out the fact that the Fire Safety rating in Oxendine’s own county of Gwinnett was currently a “4.”

Happily, as Steve pointed out in an email this morning, Decatur’s fire safety rating remains a solid “2.”  According to Steve, Alpharetta is the only other entity in the metro area with such a high rating.