Eugene City Council voted unanimously to move forward with a new camping ordinance proposal. The work session concluded after roughly an hour, when the Council agreed to the date of a public hearing regarding the ordinance to be May 15.
The updated ordinance proposal includes a restriction on camping within 1000 feet of an educational facility, extending the prohibited camping zone for classified waterways to 100 feet from top of bank and clarifies wetlands as protected areas.
City Attorney Kathryn Brotherton outlined the three primary objectives of the ordinance to improve accessibility through the strategic prohibition of camping to certain well-traveled locations, public health through waterway protection and sewage management, and safety by keeping campsites away from areas with high levels of vehicular travel.
The council discussed a new waterway proposal that would require camps to be 100 ft away from the of top high bank for the Willamette river, and 60 ft away from the top high bank for Amazon creek. Top of high bank is the highest point in which a bank meets the surrounding topography marked by grade changes.
This addition to the ordinance is designed to reduce the amount of pollution in waterways.
Council member Alan Zelenka raised the question of whether new ordinances would be effectively enforced. Zelenka said that fining people for camping violations who have no income is nonsensical, and that the City could not reasonably arrest all violators.
Brotherton and Chief of Police Chris Skinner said violators would be directed towards Eugene’s Community Court, which is designed to dismiss the charges of nonviolent offenders and direct them to local organizations such as the White Bird Clinic, Shelter Care, and Work Force Nation.
A point of discussion in the meeting was in whether a list should be released and made available to the public where camping is legal. However no member of the council fully supported this, citing the matter that any map release could unfairly direct campers to certain neighborhoods.
Councilors Leech, Yeh and Keating floated the idea of releasing a guide to help unhoused people navigate their available resources.
Council member Randy Groves said that Eugene’s homelessness crisis “is a metro-city size problem that we’re trying to handle with a small-to-medium-city size budget and staff.”
“This is a big part of our budget deficit this year,” Groves said. “Services are going to be impacted, it’s here and we have to deal with it. We have to have places for people to go.”
The ordinance will be published no later than Friday, April 28th, allowing time for examination before the May 15th public hearing.
