For the purposes of Sections 680.16 through 680.19 the following definitions shall apply:
(a) “Camp” or “encampment” means use of property for the purpose of unauthorized overnight occupancy, or to reside or dwell in a place on public property with shelter overnight, or the use of public property for the purpose of overnight occupancy or longer occupancy. “Camping” does not include napping during the day or picnicking. “Camp” or “camping” or “encampment” can include using a vehicle for overnight occupancy, where overnight occupancy or overnight camping violates the Greenville Municipal Code, a City rule or regulation, or is not otherwise authorized by the City.
(b) “City” means the City of Greenville, Ohio, its departments, employees, and agents.
(c) “City owned property” means any property owned, leased, or controlled by the City.
(d) “Contaminated property” includes, but is not limited to, property that poses a threat to the health or safety to any person present, the public, or the surrounding neighborhood, which includes, but is not limited to, unsanitary clothing, unsanitary sleeping bags, unsanitary bedding, unsanitary blankets, tents not structurally sound, and temporary makeshift shelters.
(e) “Evidence of unauthorized camps or unauthorized encampments or unauthorized camping” includes, but is not limited to:
(1) Sleeping, or preparing to sleep by laying out personal belongings, bedding, bedroll(s), blanket(s), sleeping pad(s), sleeping bag(s); or
(2) Erecting or occupying a tent, makeshift shelter, lean-to, tarpaulin, enclosure, other structure used for human habitation, or any form of cover or protection from the elements other than clothing; or
(3) Preparing for a fire, or making fire, or an active fire ( except for fires at sites specifically designated or authorized by the Greenville Fire Department), or setting up or using a camp stove, or cooking device (inclusive of fire pits, barbeques, hibachi grills, and other similar devices).
(f) “Garbage” means any rejected or wasted household food, offal, swill, kitchen refuse, and every refuse accumulation of animal, fruit or vegetable matter, liquid or otherwise, that attends the preparation, use, cooking and dealing in or storing of food, or meat, fish, fowl, fruit, or vegetable.
(g) “Immediate threat to the health or safety of the public” means a condition, substance, or object in an unauthorized camp, which creates a risk of injury, serious injury, or death to either the occupants of the camp, city staff or agents, the surrounding neighborhood, or other members of the public. Conditions, substances, or objects that pose an immediate threat to the health or safety of the public may include, but are not limited to:
(1) Evidence of open flames, fire-starters, fires, or fire damage.
(2) Material designed or manufactured for the development of fire outdoors.
(3) Butane cylinders.
(4) Propane tanks.
(5) Hazardous material.
(6) Combustible material or kindling.
(7) Piles of trash, discarded materials, or litter.
(8) Uneaten, rotten, or discarded food.
(9) Evidence of rodent or bird infestations.
(10) Unsanitary or soiled clothing, sleeping bags, blankets, or other sleeping materials.
(11) Human waste including blood and bodily fluids.
(12) Hypodermic needles.
(13) A tent, makeshift structure, lean-to, tarpaulin, enclosure, or other shelter used for human habitation within the 100-year floodplain, within 100 feet of the edge of a watercourse, in/under stormwater infrastructure such as, but not limited to, bridges, pipes, inlets, and culverts, except in locations expressly permitted by the City of Greenville.
(14) Unsafe, not structurally sound, makeshift structures used for human habitation.
(15) Encampments that impede or interfere with stormwater maintenance.
(16) Encampments at risk of being flooded due to an imminent threat of flooding.
(17) Encampments in the path of a wildfire or in a mandatory evacuation zone.
(18) Encampment layouts that prevent emergency services access.
(19) Encampment layouts that have no adequate evacuation route.
(20) Encampments that block or interfere with public use of public facilities such as bathrooms, City maintenance facilities, youth sports facilities, and other public facilities accessed by the public as a matter of course.
(21) A violation of the International Fire Code, International Building Code, or International Electrical Code that constitutes an immediate hazard or a threat to public health or public safety.
(22) A violation of a Public Health Order or Public Health Code that constitutes an immediate threat to the health or safety of the occupants or the surrounding area.
(23) Evidence of an unauthorized connection or access to public utilities.
(24) Evidence of an unauthorized electrical connection or electrical use.
(25) Encampments that physically undermine or erode public infrastructure.
(h) “Litter” means any rubbish, waste material, garbage, trash, debris, or noxious foreign substance, whether solid or liquid, of every form, size, or description, except snow and ice.
(i) “Personal property” means an item that is readily apparent as belonging to an individual and has apparent value or utility in its present condition. Examples of personal property include, but not limited to, structurally sound tents, clothing, shoes, jackets, tarpaulins, sleeping bags, bedrolls, blankets, backpacks, duffel bags, assembled bicycles, tools, watches, jewelry, audio/visual equipment, medications, toiletries, eyeglasses, purses, handbags, family photographs, family memorabilia, books, and baby strollers. Personal property does not include building materials, metal, shopping carts, disassembled bicycles, makeshift shelters, rigid plastic, garbage, trash, rubbish, debris, litter, or waste.
(j) “Private property” includes, but is not limited to, the following locations owned by private individuals, firms, corporations, institutions, or organizations: yards, grounds, driveways, entranceways, passageways, parking areas, working areas, storage areas, vacant lots, and recreation facilities.
(k) “Public property” means, by way of illustration, but not limited to, a highway, highway median, any street, street median, road, road median, alley, sidewalk, strips of land between streets and sidewalks, lanes, catch basins, pedestrian or transit mall, bike path, greenway, public parking lot, or any other structure or area encompassed within the public right-of-way; any park, parkway, mountain park, open space, natural area, trail, beach, playground, or other publicly owned recreation facility; a municipal watercourse, bodies of water, watercourses, stormwater infrastructure such as, but not limited to, bridges, pipes, inlets and culvelts; or any other grounds, buildings, or other facilities owned or leased by the City or by any other public entity, regardless of whether such public property is vacant or occupied and actively used for any public purpose.
(l) “Public right-of-way” means an area of land dedicated to the public and conveyed to the City for drainage, pedestrian, utility, street lighting, landscaping, roadway, or other purposes.
(m) “Reside or dwell” means and includes, without limitation, conducting such activities as eating, sleeping, making preparation to sleep, or the storage of personal possessions.
(n) “Safety Service Director” means the Safety Service Director of the City of Greenville, Ohio, or any designee.
(o) “Shelter” means and includes, without limitation, a tent, tarpaulin, lean-to, sleeping bag, bedroll, blanket, or any form of cover or protection from the elements, other than clothing.
(p) “Temporary storage area” means an unsecured, unmonitored area on or near an unauthorized encampment for the temporary storage of uncontaminated personal property that does not pose a threat to the public health or safety.
(q) “Trash” or “rubbish” or “debris” means all accumulations of waste, refuse, rejected animal, mineral or vegetable matter, manure, ash, wastepaper, cans, bottles, broken china, sawdust, leaves, grass cuttings, shrubbery and tree trimmings, algae or growth of any vegetation that may create a slick surface for pedestrians, shavings and packing material, weeds, partially wrecked, junked, or discarded vehicles, and appliances or parts thereof which are not or cannot be used for their intended purposes, sweepings, liquid or chemical waste, or any other waste material, including construction or demolition waste, or an item that has no apparent value or utility in its present condition, contaminated property, property in an unsanitary condition, furniture, disassembled bicycles, shopping carts, and property that appears to have been discarded. The fact that property is unattended does not necessarily mean that it has been discarded.
(r) “Waste” shall mean the useless, unused, unwanted, or discarded material resulting from normal community activities, or materials which by their presence may injuriously affect the health, safety, and comfort of persons and depreciate property values in the vicinity thereof.
(s) “Watercourse” means a channel, natural depression, slough, artificial channel, gulch, arroyo, stream, creek, pond, reservoir, or lake into which storm runoff and flood water flows either regularly or infrequently. This includes major drainage ways for carrying storm runoff.
(Ord. 22-102. Passed 9-6-22.)