City of Asheville Passed Updated Ordinance To Limit Panhandling
Last night, the Asheville City Council passed an update to the City Ordinance addressing panhandling and solicitation in high traffic zones. The update increases high traffic areas to include areas that experience a large among of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, previously this applied only to areas of downtown and Biltmore Village.
Over the past twelve months, the city received over 430 calls for service in the new expansion areas, over issues related to panhandling, suspicious persons, and trespassing. The city used a data-driven approach to balance the need for maintaining a safe environment, while “respecting a culture of giving.”
Here are the guidelines on giving from the City of Asheville:
Though the designation of high traffic zone now applies to additional areas, an individual’s right to solicit or panhandle on public property remains protected, though regulated.
In general, panhandling and solicitation are allowed on sidewalks.
Verbal solicitation and panhandling is prohibited anywhere within the high traffic zones.
Panhandling and solicitation are prohibited on a median, in the street and/or on a roadside shoulder.
However it is prohibited to carry out solicitation or panhandling activities under the following circumstances:
By forcing yourself on another or accosting them
Within 20 feet of a financial institution or ATM
Within an outdoor dining area, or to solicit from anyone seated or working in the outdoor dining area
Within 8 feet of a transit stop or bus station, or on a public bus
Soliciting someone who is standing in line to enter a business
By touching someone without their consent
By blocking someone’s path, or blocking the entrance or exit to a business or vehicle
By using obscene or threatening language
By using a threatening gesture or action
After dark
While under the influence of alcohol or drugs
