KELLER, Texas — The Keller City Council adopted amendments to Chapter 19 of the city code on Jan. 6 to align local irrigation enforcement with Fort Worth’s updated rules, including progressive administrative fees and the use of AMI metering data to detect violations.

Staff said the changes are required by the city’s wholesale water contract with Fort Worth and add an administrative noncompliance-fee approach in place of immediate fines: repeated violations would result in increasing fees added to the monthly bill (in $25 increments) and — after four months of continued noncompliance — nonemergency termination of irrigation service with associated lockout and restoration fees.

The staff presentation included a two‑week sample from a Keller commercial irrigation meter that showed over 80,000 gallons of total usage and roughly 52,000 gallons occurring on wrong watering days. Officials said the aim is to reduce peak-season demand and avoid costly infrastructure expansions.

What the ordinance does: The changes create a formal progressive enforcement timeline, require updated fee schedules, permit administrative lockout of irrigation service for repeat offenders, and instruct staff to implement templates in the Water Smart AMI system and update billing software to collect administrative fees.

Outcome and next steps: Council adopted the code amendments. Staff will transmit required documents to Fort Worth and proceed with implementation steps, including customer outreach; staff noted only about 3% of Keller accounts are currently registered to view AMI data and encouraged increased registration.