Mayor Brown and the City of Knoxville's Community Development Department hosted a ribbon cutting for it's first-ever EarthCraft Renovation certified home renovation on Wednesday, March 16 at 4705 Plymouth Drive.

The owner of the home is James Griffin, Sr.

Mayor Daniel Brown, Becky Wade - Community Development Director, and the daughter of James Griffin, Sr. spoke at the event. Everyone enjoyed refreshments and toured the home after the ribbon cutting.

The City's Community Development Department Housing Rehabilitation Program is designed to help low- and moderate-income homeowners renovate or in some cases rebuild homes which have fallen into a state of disrepair. The city uses funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to make low-interest loans and grants to ensure that the loan repayment is affordable to the homeowner.

EarthCraft is a green building program that provides guidelines that builders can follow to make new and existing homes less expensive to operate and to reduce the environmental impact of construction. A third-party EarthCraft Technical Advisor inspects, tests, and verifies that the construction meets the program standards. Ken Block for Knox Housing Partnership was the EarthCraft Technical Advisor for this home.

More information about the Community Development Department, including its housing programs, is available at www.knoxvilletn.gov/development.

More information about the EarthCraft House program is available at www.earthcrafthouse.com.