City Council makes revisions to proposed sit-lie ordinance

Colorado Springs City Council made revisions to the proposed sit-lie ordinance, at their third public meeting Tuesday night.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit people from sitting, lying, reclining or kneeling on streets, sidewalks, trails and objects in the right-of-way in two districts.

Revisions announced Tuesday include changing the penalty. Originally, violators would be ticketed right away if they were found sitting or lying in a certain place. Now, violators would be given a warning and cited on their second offense.

Another revision includes times. The sit-lie ordinance would be in affect from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week and until 3 a.m. on the weekends. During all other times, it would not be an offense.

Tuesdays meeting was designed to gather public input on the matter. The city argues the ordinance is necessary to maintain pedestrian safety, economic vitality and public rights-of-way.

“It’s a safety issue for the people who want to walk on the sidewalk. They have a right of way and must be able to pass by the people,” said Keith King, City Council member.

King says City Council has received hundreds of complaints from business owners and concerned citizens.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union is strongly against the proposed ordinance. It says the city of Colorado Springs is illegally issuing citations and in some cases arresting people under the city’s solicitation laws.

“We’ve been paying a lot of attention to communities that are using the criminal law to target homeless people. I think the real solution is to put resources into housing and services,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director at ACLU.

Council members say this is not meant to target the homeless or any specific group but they agree more needs to be done to accommodate them.

If the ordinance does pass, portions of downtown and Old Colorado City would be affected. In downtown, the ordinance would affect St. Vrain to Cimarron Street and I-25 to Wasatch Avenue on the east/west. In Old Colorado City, the ordinance would affect Colorado Avenue between 21 st and 31 st Streets and Pikes Peak Avenue to Cucharras Street between 23 rd and 28 th Streets.

City Council will meet again in November. If the ordinance does pass, it could go into effect as early as December.