The Eugene City Council voted 6 to zero last night (Monday,) to enable property owners to enforce trespass laws on planter strips-- the areas of land between the curb and sidewalk. As KLCC’s Tiffany Eckert reports, the new provision will take effect immediately.
Homeless advocates decry the action saying it further limits where the unhoused can be downtown. But, at the end of the day, property owners argued in favor for the planter strip ordinance. They after all, are responsible for upkeep of that space.
Councilor Emily Semple had mixed feelings about the vote.
“It was hard to say ‘yes.’ But we had a very large outpouring of people who wanted it,” Semple says. “But I think it also gives us more impetus to get that day center in the day and some downtown, accessible overnight place to sleep. Because I don’t know where people are gonna go.”
Semple says the ordinance doesn’t require property owners to have people cited. But it does give police another tool to enforce trespassing laws.
