City Council will revisit and vote on proposed changes to the panhandling regulations on the Downtown Mall at it August 16 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 Mall’s two traffic crossings, at Second and Fourth streets.
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 zone around outdoor cafes, too. Jim Tolbert, director of the city’s Neighborhood Development Services, however, told Council “it might be overreaching going that route,” he said.
Stroh feels differently. “We have not given up talking to Council about this,” he told C-VILLE. “We believe it still makes perfect sense and it seems to be within reasonable protections that are allowed by the Constitution.”
Stroh says that DBAC, with The Haven (a Downtown day shelter), PACEM (an overnight shelter system), and other local agencies are joining efforts to try to “deal with the situation.” The groups are in the process of creating a program geared toward educating the public about panhandling.
“If you want to make a donation, and you feel like you want to support these folks, which we think it’s totally appropriate, there are wonderful social agencies in our communities that do tremendous amount of good,” says Stroh.
