An ordinance the Hot Springs Board of Directors will consider Tuesday would prohibit camping on city property that's in a flood plain, making it illegal to camp along the Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail or at the Hot Springs Farmers & Artisans Market.

According to the ordinance, the city would give violators 24-hour notice to vacate prohibited areas. Their belongings would be stored at a secure location for up to 30 days. No storage fees would be assessed, City Attorney Brian Albright told the board earlier this week.

"If we know who left it, we'll provide them with a receipt they can use to come and retrieve it," he said.

State law authorizes cities to take measures that reduce flood damage in flood plains. The ordinance the board will consider next week amends the city's building and construction code, making it illegal to camp on any city property on the Flood Insurance Rate Map. The map outlines special flood hazard areas where land use activities are limited.

The city said the ordinance doesn't relate specifically to homeless people camping on city property. It would not allow anyone to camp in the prohibited areas. According to the ordinance, in addition to tent and sleeping bag camping, "the parking of a motor vehicle, motor home or trailer or mooring of a vessel for the apparent purpose of overnight occupancy" would be illegal.

As it applies to homeless encampments, the ordinance is supported by an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, the city said. In Frank vs. City of St. Louis, the court denied a homeless woman's request to enjoin the city from enforcing an ordinance that prohibited camping in certain areas of downtown St. Louis.

The plaintiff cited Martin vs. Boise, Idaho, a ruling from the 9th Circuit that invalidated Boise's anti-camping ordinance on the grounds it violated the Eighth Amendment by criminalizing a person's status rather than their conduct.

The 8th Circuit said St. Louis' ordinance was more limited, as it banned camping in certain areas of downtown and wasn't a citywide prohibition such as Boise's.

"The city of St. Louis is therefore not criminalizing the state of being homeless or its unavoidable consequences, such as sleeping in public," the 8th Circuit said. "At most the city is criminalizing sleeping in public at a particular location."

The city said the anti-camping ordinance before the board Tuesday is limited in that it applies only to city property located in flood hazard areas.

Albright cited the St. Louis case when talking last month to residents of the Beverly Hills subdivision about homelessness in the city.

"Envision the Farmers Market," he said. "We say no encampments around the Farmers Market. You can do that, but you can't say anywhere."

An emergency clause is included with the ordinance, which would put the new law into immediate effect if adopted by the board.

Print Headline: Proposed ordinance would ban camping in flood plain

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