EDITORIAL: City’s camping rules reasonable

Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, April 27, 2022

The proposed Baker City ordinance regulating overnight camping in parks and some other public places is reasonable and sensible.

On Tuesday, April 26, the City Council approved the first two readings of the ordinance that Police Chief Ty Duby brought to councilors April 12. The City Council could pass the final reading at its next meeting.

Duby told councilors that the ordinance, which is modeled after existing regulations in other Oregon cities, including Coos Bay, is designed to address problems with homeless people camping on public property.

The ordinance states, in part: “It shall be unlawful for any person to set up tents or any other temporary shelter or to use house trailers, campers or automobiles for the purpose of overnight camping in any city park, nor shall any person remain in any city park after closing hours; provided, however, organized youth groups under competent adult supervision may be permitted overnight camping privileges.”

The ordinance defines parks as including the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway. The ordinance also prohibits camping in several other specific public properties, including within 150 feet of any school, preschool or childcare center, or at the Baker Heritage Museum at 2480 Grove St., the Baker County Courthouse, Sam-O Swim Center, the YMCA gym on Church Street and the YMCA Fitness Center on Pocahontas Road.

The ordinance also states that if someone is living in a vehicle, it must be moved at least every 24 hours and for at least the distance of a city block.

The ordinance also bans camping on public property in residential zones, while it would be allowed, with time restrictions, on public property in the general-commercial, general industrial and light industrial zones. The ordinance prohibits camping during the period 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The ordinance applies only to public property. People are not allowed to camp on someone’s property, at any time, regardless of the zone.

Duby was prompted to propose the ordinance after the Oregon Legislature passed a bill in 2021 which states that cities and counties with ordinances regulating camping on public property must ensure those ordinances are “objectively reasonable as to time, place and manner with regards to persons experiencing homelessness.”

The state law also allows homeless people to challenge in court such city or county ordinances.

In other words, Baker City’s new ordinance, along with those in effect in other cities, are on somewhat shaky legal ground.

But while we wait for the situation to play out in the courts, it’s wise for Baker City to have an ordinance in place that gives police officers the authority to deal with people camping in parks and the other public property listed in the ordinance.

Without that ordinance, the city wouldn’t be able to prevent people from camping on some public property if the person wasn’t violating another ordinance, such as the one prohibiting people from blocking a sidewalk or other public right-of-way.

Duby got to the heart of the matter when he told councilors on April 12 that the 2021 state law, “while offering compassion and support to those experiencing homelessness, can fail sometimes to protect both the citizens of our community and the very homelessness the law is designed to protect.”

The city’s ordinance strikes an appropriate balance. It doesn’t outlaw homelessness — something that could hardly be enforced — but it also rightly recognizes that having city parks become camps is not acceptable.

—Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor