A. It is hereby determined that:
1. Uninvited visits to private residential properties and privately owned businesses for the purposes of soliciting funds, goods, wares, merchandise or services by persons and organizations have been occurring and continue to occur within the village.
2. Residents and business owners have complained that these activities are intrusive upon their privacy and disruptive to their daily activities.
3. A variety of misrepresentations and other frauds are at times employed in such activities.
4. Burglaries and attacks on persons in their homes have occurred by persons claiming to be solicitors.
5. The village has a legitimate and substantial interest in promoting the public health, safety, and welfare of its residents by preventing fraudulent or criminal activities which may result from unregulated solicitation.
6. Noncommercial speech is entitled to broader protection under the first amendment to the United States constitution than commercial speech, affording the village a greater ability to regulate commercial speech than noncommercial speech.
7. An effective way to promote and protect persons' safety and privacy is by reasonably limiting the hours of solicitation and requiring solicitors to obtain permits in a content neutral manner. Allowing individuals to determine their level of comfort with privacy and whether or not they want to receive solicitation will promote the village's interest in promoting public safety and protecting individuals' privacy, while respecting solicitors' interests in effective distribution of information. A reasonable accommodation of these competing interests can be achieved by adoption of this chapter, which regulates the time, place and manner of solicitations.
B. Based on the findings described above, it is further found that there is a need for narrowly tailored reasonable, time, place and manner restrictions regarding soliciting within the village so as to accomplish the following, to the extent reasonably possible:
1. Prevent crime, including burglaries and fraud, and deter such fraud and crime by determining the identity of solicitors by requiring solicitors to obtain a permit prior to soliciting within the village;
2. Protect the health, safety, welfare and privacy of the citizens of the village;
3. Ensure that the police department is aware of the number and identity of persons who will be soliciting for commercial and noncommercial purposes, and the geographical areas and time periods during which such activities will occur within the village;
4. Prevent the imitation of noncommercial purposes by persons and organizations who would defraud the public, and thereby cause noncommercial purposes and organizations to be endangered by the suspicions engendered by such practices;
5. Protect the welfare, safety, peace, privacy, comfort and convenience of the public in its homes, from unwanted disturbances and intrusions; by reasonably restricting the hours of solicitation activities;
6. Prohibit the solicitation of occupants of property when the occupant has posted a sign prohibiting such activities; and
7. Respect the solicitors' interests in effective distribution of information. This chapter is expressly not intended to interfere with the exercise of free speech and free exercise rights protected by the first amendment (e.g., religious proselytizing, anonymous political speech, and the distribution of handbills). (Ord. 2012-967, 7-12-2012)