Manitou Springs City Council considers ordinance to limit city park open hours

MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - In a City Council meeting this week, the council heard testimony on a new city ordinance to limit the open hours for public parks in the small mountain town. This comes after they realized they didn't have an ordinance to back up previous signage in parks.

The new city-wide ordinance would limit park hours to 5 A.M. to 10 P.M. year-round.

Right now, those hours are not the same in each park city-wide.

"The citizens are smart. They'll look around and look at signs that don't have any times anymore, 'when can I be here when can I when can't I be here,'" Manitou Springs Police Chief Bill Otto said in the meeting.

Right now, officers don't have something to back them up when they need to ask someone to leave the park. Adding an ordinance would allow them to have the authority they need to do so.

"It does give us something to enforce that is [an] actual ordinance," Otto said.

The current camping ordinance for the city prevents people from sleeping in public places already. Adding cohesive park hours for the whole city and putting it into the City Code gives law enforcement officers something to stand on when they need to boot people out for public events.

The presenters of this ordinance were met with some pushback from Mayor Pro-Tem of Ward 2 Nancy Fortuin.

"I'm failing to see the need for this, other than at least in your packet, it doesn't outline the need other than to standardize hours around the region," Fortuin said.

She was met with stories of early morning City Crews needing to boot people out in the morning while preparing for large events. The Park hour ordinance would simply back up the camping ordinance, allowing officers to keep public parks safer during the night.

City Council will open the ordinance up to a public hearing on Dec. 5, and will vote on it directly after.