City Council will revisit and vote on proposed changes to the panhandling regulations on the Downtown Mall at its next meeting. The proposed amendments to the current ordinance would include changing the term "panhandling" to "soliciting." The ordinance would prohibit solicitation "from and to any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart," and within 50′ in any direction of the two Downtown Mall crossings, at Second and Fourth streets.
In a C-VILLE cover story, Acting City Manager Maurice Jones said that "there has been some discussion [of updating regulations] from a public safety perspective."
"We have some concerns about the intersections, the cross streets that we have on the Mall, because you have a convergence of vehicles, pedestrians and potential panhandlers who are right here," says Jones.
Currently, the ordinance prohibits panhandling within 15′ of a bank or an ATM. Robert Stroh, co-chair of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville (DBAC), told Council that he would like to see the 15′ buffer around outdoor cafes.
Jim Tolbert, director of the city’s Neighborhood Development Services, said that the proposed buffer would not add to the existing ordinance that prohibits panhandling from people seated at outdoor cafes. "It might be overreaching to go that route," he told Council.
Read more in next week’s C-VILLE.