Thursday March 28th, 2024 4:46AM

Gainesville City Council to address downtown panhandling and loitering issues

GAINESVILLE – The Gainesville City Council will vote next week on a pair of ordinance amendments that will help law enforcement better control and mitigate two growing problems in the downtown area: urban camping and aggressive solicitation.

City Manager Bryan Lackey said at the city council’s work session Thursday morning, “Over the past several months we’ve seen some increases in people sort of lingering for long periods of time in certain public spaces in the city, and also an increase in what we call ‘aggressive solicitation’.”

Lackey said the current ordinances covering such activity need clarification and better definition of terms.  “In addressing this with Abb (Abb Hayes, City Attorney) and Chief Martin (Police Chief Carol Martin) we felt we need to give our officers a few more tools to make them more effective in dealing with this, to make sure that we’re covered legally.”

Lackey pointed out that the ordinances are not meant to be applied citywide, rather they are designed for situations in the downtown area primarily.

“On the urban camping ordinance I think it is important for me to note to you that we’re not banning urban camping within the city, it’s not a citywide ban as other communities have taken on,” Lackey explained.  “It’s really banning urban camping in public places.”

Lackey explained the intent of the ordinance amendment, “What this is designed to do is to is allow our officers to move these people to the resources within our community, our partner organizations…to be able to get the help that they need, the services that they need.”

“It’s not designed to issue citations; it’s not designed to take people to jail; and again it’s not designed to take people to the city limits and dump them out and get them out of Gainesville.  It’s truly designed so that when we have a complaint and our officers see a situation we can work with our partner agencies to get them the help they need.”

Lackey said the ordinance provides for officers to issue oral or written warnings before taking action.  Those warnings would be recorded so repeat offenders would be known to other public safety personnel.

“The aggressive solicitation (ordinance)… is so our officers can really feel comfortable stepping in and stopping those situations,” Lackey said of the second ordinance amendment under consideration. “We really don’t want to charge people with that unless they push the situation.”

Some of the specifics included in the aggressive solicitation amendment include prohibition within fifteen feet of any financial institution or ATM machine, blocking free passage on a public walkway, solicitation after sunset or before sunrise, creating an environment likely to cause reasonable fear of harm, and an array of other particular circumstances.

To view the two ordinance and their details click here.

Both ordinance amendments will be considered by the city council Tuesday evening at their voting session in the Public Safety Complex beginning at 5:30 p.m.  Public comment is welcomed at that time.

MAYOR NAMES CITY'S LAND BANK REPRESENTATIVES

As Hall County and the City of Gainesville prepare to convene the new Land Bank cooperative Mayor Danny Dunagan announced the three individuals who will represent the city.

“I’d like to appoint Doug Carter, Carlyle Cox and Willy Mitchell to the Land Bank.  I think they’d be a good group,” Dunagan said.  He said all three men agreed to serve if approved Tuesday evening.

The Hall County Commission has yet to name their two representatives to the Land Bank.

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