A. Purpose. This Section is intended to protect the public health, welfare, and safety by reserving open spaces and facilities within the city limits for their intended purposes. Public property within the city should be readily accessible and available to residents and the general public at large. Use of public property for camping or storage of personal property interferes with the rights of others to make use of such shared public spaces for their intended purposes and causes blight, pollution, and damage to public property. This Section is intended to avoid unsafe and potentially disorderly conditions, unsanitary and unhealthful conditions, and the degradation or destruction of open spaces and facilities within the city, and preserve such open spaces and natural resources.
B. Definitions. The following words and phrases, when used in this Section, shall have the below meanings unless it is readily apparent from the context that another meaning is intended.
1. "Camp" or "Camping" means the conduct of more than one of the following activities on public property, when it reasonably appears, in light of all circumstances, that a person is using such public or private property for living accommodation purposes:
a. Sleeping or preparing to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping), including undertaking such activities in a vehicle (including any motorhome, camp trailer, camper, coach, fifth wheel travel trailer, house car, recreational vehicle, mobile home), or obscuring some or all of the vehicle's windows;
b. Erecting or using any tent, camp facilities, or building any other form of shelter;
c. Unattended storage of personal belongings (including but not limited to clothing, sleeping bags, bedrolls, blankets, sheets, luggage, backpacks, kitchen utensils, cookware) or camp paraphernalia;
d. Making or using any fire, for purpose of heating or cooking, or using any flame, grill, portable stove, or similar flame producing device for cooking of meals on public property, except for in city parks with designated barbeque and cooking areas while using city-provided cooking facilities designed for such purposes; or
e. Doing any digging or earth breaking activities for purpose of creating or improving a shelter.
Camping shall be deemed to occur regardless of whether a full night is actually spent occupying any specific location on public property.
2. "Camp facilities" include, but are not limited to, tents, huts, or similar temporary shelters consisting of any material with a top or roof or any other upper covering or that is otherwise enclosed by sides that is of sufficient size for a person to fit underneath or inside while sitting or lying down and includes the use of a tarp or other material tied or affixed to a structure or bush to create an enclosed area.
3. "Camp paraphernalia" includes, but is not limited to, tarpaulins, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks, or non-city designated cooking or heating equipment.
4. Public property" means any publicly owned property in the city, whether improved or unimproved, including, but not limited to, any of the following: public alleyways; public parking lots; public passageways; public streets; public rights-of-way; park playgrounds; state highways; publicly owned, maintained, or operated parks; publicly owned, maintained, or operated landscaped areas or greenbelts; publicly owned fences, trees, light poles, or equipment boxes; publicly owned, maintained, or operated open spaces including, but not limited to, public facilities or buildings of any kind; public sidewalks, curbs, and gutters; public educational institutions; or other government owned, maintained, or operated properties located within the city.
C. Camping Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to camp on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein.
D. Storage of Personal Property Prohibited.
1. It shall be unlawful for any person to store any personal property, including camp facilities and camp paraphernalia, on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein.
2. Before removing any personal property, the enforcement officer, or their designee, shall attempt to provide any readily apparent owners with notice of the intent to remove the personal property and a reasonable opportunity to remove the personal property from public property. If there is no readily apparent owner, or if the readily apparent owner refuses to remove the personal property from public property, then the enforcement officer, or their designee, may cause the personal property to be removed from public property. The enforcement officer, or their designee, shall post a notice on or near the personal property so as to reasonably communicate the notice to the owner the following information:
a. The location of where the personal property was located;
b. The date and time notice was served or posted;
c. A statement that the storage of personal property violates this Section;
d. An advisement that the city has impounded the personal property for at least 30 days, the location where the personal property is impounded, and that the personal property will be discarded after 30 days if not claimed.
e. The address, phone number, and operating hours of the location where the personal property will be stored and may be retrieved, and that the city will charge no fee for storage or retrieval.
f. Information about any housing or shelter and homeless services available for the owners of the personal property, the phone number and address to contact in order to obtain the housing or shelter or other health and human services;
3. The enforcement officer, or their designee, may immediately discard, without impounding or retaining for 30 days, any items which constitute an immediate threat to the health or safety of the public or items that constitute evidence of a crime or contraband that may be seized, as permitted by law.
E. Exceptions. The provisions of this Section shall not apply in the event of a declared state of emergency, nor to any persons participating in an event subject to a permit issued in conformity with this Code, nor to camping in public accommodations that are properly zoned, legally established and designated for camping purposes.
F. Enforcement.
1. Any person causing, permitting, aiding, abetting, suffering or concealing a violation of this Section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may, in the discretion of the City Attorney, be prosecuted as a misdemeanor and upon conviction be subject to a fine not to exceed $1,000.00 or imprisonment in the city or county jail for a period of not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
2. The city attorney, in his or her sound discretion, may prosecute a violation of this Section as an infraction, rather than a misdemeanor, or reduce or agree to the reduction of a previously filed misdemeanor to an infraction. Any person convicted of an infraction under this Section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100.00 for the first violation, a fine not exceeding $200.00 for a second violation within one year, and a fine not exceeding $500.00 for a third violation within one year. A fourth violation of this Section within one year shall be charged as a misdemeanor and may not be reduced to an infraction.
3. This Section may be enforced by injunction issued by the superior court upon a suit brought by the City Attorney.
(Ord. 451, § 2, 2024; Ord. 424 § 1, 2023)