Athens committee reviews expanded sidewalk-and-public-areas ordinance, asks staff to revise draft

The Right of Way Use Committee met Oct. 10 to review proposed changes to the city’s obstructing sidewalks ordinance and related approaches to abandoned personal property on public rights of way. Committee members directed staff to revise the draft ordinance to reflect suggestions raised during the meeting and to return with additional research and options at a future session.

The draft ordinance under review would expand local code section 3-5-23 beyond “public sidewalks and streets” to include other public areas and to describe prohibitions on storing personal property in rights of way. Committee members and staff discussed definitions, enforcement procedures, exceptions, and how the county currently handles abandoned items.

Why it matters: The draft would give officers a clearer local ordinance to address situations—from belongings left at bus stops to encampments under bridges—that staff and police say affect pedestrian safety, infrastructure risk and transit access. The committee emphasized balancing enforcement with protections for free speech and for people experiencing homelessness.

Solicitor summary and data limits The committee’s solicitor reviewed municipal-court data requested by the police department and said the municipal clerk provided “all of the cases in municipal court for someone who had been cited” under section 3-5-23 during the review period. The solicitor cautioned that citations that led to state- or superior-court charges (for example when a person was arrested on additional charges) would not appear in the municipal-court list and would require a separate records request.

“Those citations that were listed by the PD were all the citations issued under the entire code section … that went to…