Corrections and clarifications: The Bremerton City Council will vote on a proposed camping ordinance on Wednesday, Sept. 20. The initial headline and story incorrectly said the council was going to wait to make a decision.

Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler said he’s received dozens of emails over the past week and heard from Bremerton residents personally, including during neighborhood meetings, in wake of a city plan to not enforce rules against public camping at around two dozen sites around the city.

That list of sites was released at a city council meeting on Sept. 6, and a week later, after a Wednesday study session on the topic, officials said a vote on the proposal will come at next Wednesday’s council meeting.

Wheeler heard concerns from residents about wetland sites near Kitsap Lake Park, proximity to the Olympic College campus and neighborhoods in East Bremerton, among others. Many residents felt like the proposed locations were sprung on them with little warning, and even City Council President Jeff Coughlin said the timing of the announcement -- part of an ordinance created to provide the city with an option to clear growing homeless encampments by detailing alternative areas where homeless campers could set up instead -- left the council little time to actually assess the viability of each site.

More: A look at areas in Bremerton that may be authorized to allow public camping

For now, discussion will continue among elected leaders and residents to address questions about safety, viability of alternatives to the encampments that have developed particularly downtown, and the need for shelter beds as the fall and winter approach.

Neighborhoods react to potential camping sites

One site that drew significant attention was a forested 40-acre parcel behind the Pinewood neighborhood, the list’s largest site.

“I was rather shocked, actually, because this particular 40-acre wooded site is, for so many reasons, just totally inappropriate for any kind of encampment for homeless folks,” said neighbor Steve Green, who worries about sanitation in the relatively inaccessible location and the possibility of fire and theft.

The neighborhood hosted a Monday meeting to express their concerns about the site. Wheeler, councilmember Jennifer Chamberlin and Bremerton Police Chief Tom Wolfe were in attendance.

“We're concerned about a wholesale move of all those people out here,” said neighbor Wayne Nelson. “There's no real access for them to get in there, there's no vehicle roads for them to go in, and several of the homeowners indicated that any easements and stuff going into those woods would go through their private property. And then to go out for services, (campers) would have to walk through Pinewood neighborhood where there's children around there that are catching school buses.”

Bill Thoren, another neighbor from Pinewood, worried that the location wouldn’t even be suitable for campers, as the area is almost a canyon.

“It's almost like a punishment to send them there, because it's out in the middle of the woods and during the winter time it's going to be very wet,” Nelson said. “At least in the downtown area, people don't like it down there of course, but they've got services that are very near, they've got police, they've got fire protection.”

Many neighbors felt like the map of camp-able sites was haphazardly created and wanted the city council to postpone voting to enact the ordinance until the Salvation Army opens up its overnight cold weather shelter, scheduled for Nov. 1.

Wheeler agreed, wanting to see the council take a “step back” to consider community feedback. But at least one councilmember suggested that the city's administration should have put community sentiment into the proposal before the recent outcry.

“Three months now, council has been actively soliciting public feedback and working on this ordinance and we've unfortunately been having to craft this ordinance without any input or assistance from the mayor,” Coughlin said. “I'm encouraged that we're getting a lot of public feedback from folks who are meeting with their council members and the mayor and writing into us.”

Background: Homeless could lose proximity to resources, safety as Bremerton plan heads for a vote

Hearing more viewpoints on encampments

The uproar of complaints about the draft ordinance’s list of camp-able areas seems to have grabbed the interest of Bremerton residents that haven't previously been heard from, highlighting the tension between neighborhoods confronted with the issue of homelessness.

“The other inputs have just been in one area; from folks who are homeless advocates and then, of course, the businesses and residents and the community center on MLK Way and just general people concerned when they drive by Broadway and Martin Luther King Way,” Wheeler said. “This is much bigger. These are neighborhoods that are going to be impacted and real people.”

The concerns voiced about the new parcels are the same concerns the council has been hearing for a long time from residents near the encampments on MLK Way and Broadway Avenue, near the city center, Coughlin said.

“And so crafting this ordinance, we're trying to balance the concerns of citizens across the city and also the concerns of citizens we've been hearing from for years, especially lately as encampments have grown and gotten larger,” Coughlin said.

“Early on, we heard mostly from folks that really advocate for unhoused folks, and now we're hearing folks that are concerned about their communities and where they live,” said councilmember Michael Goodnow on Wednesday. “We can't expect everybody to move on one end or to the other. We have to find something and share that responsibility.”

Council makes changes, moves to vote next week

At a study session on Wednesday to discuss the draft ordinance, the council made way in honing the enforcement mechanism and definitions, but made little ground in addressing the list of available parcels.

“We tweaked a lot of people, we triggered a lot of fear and maybe that's a good thing,” said councilmember Denise Frey. “But I just don't like to see wasted energy.”

Related: Bremerton council removes neighborhood maps from potential camping ordinance

Councilmember Quinn Dennehy expressed his gratitude for the public’s engagement and remarked that the ordinance has seen the most public comments among any issue in his two and a half years in office.

Going into the meeting, the council had options to move forward with the draft ordinance as-is, Coughlin said, or take time to analyze the list and remove parcels that they had concerns about, as long as there was a minimum acreage among the properties to satisfy the Martin vs. Boise Ninth Circuit Court ruling that prohibits cities from clearing encampments if no overnight shelter is available.

“We're here to represent our people and what they want and so in that regard, please don't keep that giant piece of land on there for unregulated camping,” Chamberlin said of the 40-acre parcel at the meeting. “Because my folks don't want it.”

Councilmember Eric Younger suggested the mayor’s office select one area for a designated campground, rather than the council having to pick “winners and losers” among the undeveloped parcels on the list. A designated camping area would require the city to provide amenities like restrooms and drinking water, and would actually qualify as an available overnight shelter under the draft ordinance.

Regarding the locations of many spread out parcels or a singular designated location, Dennehy’s main concern was the homeless campers’ ability to easily access mental health services, hotels and shelter beds, grocery stores, restaurants, employment opportunities and transportation.

Dennehy suggested delaying enforcement of the ordinance until the Salvation Army opens up for overnight shelter so as to displace as few campers as possible. Chamberlin similarly suggested delaying the vote to allow for more public comment.

Ultimately, the council decided to vote on the ordinance at its next meeting, set for September 20.

During the study session, the council did agree to amend the ordinance’s penalty mechanism upon request from Wheeler to make one violation a misdemeanor immediately, rather than requiring three infractions before a camper would be guilty of a misdemeanor.

In response to another suggestion from Wheeler, the council updated the ordinance to account for homeless persons who’ve been banned from overnight shelters or won’t be taken in due to their behavior. Drug use, belligerency and other behavior deemed unacceptable by an overnight shelter would be considered voluntary actions that would bar them from what is otherwise legally available overnight shelter.

“This ordinance alone just addresses the enforcement side – it does not address the critical need we have for shelter space and other resources,” Coughlin said. “The council stands by ready to assist if needed, but we've been waiting on the mayor for over six months now to have available shelter space, and it's because shelter space is not available that the current ordinance cannot be enforced.”

If the council reaches no decision on a new ordinance, encampments will remain unclearable until the overnight winter shelter opens at the Salvation Army.

“We need to find some path forward to get this ordinance established so that there is some reasonable middle ground where we have some areas that are off limits all the time in the city,” Coughlin said. “Right now, because of the lack of shelter space, there is no enforcement city wide. It is effectively, de facto, legal to camp anywhere in the city on public property and I personally don't think that's okay.”

Wheeler said he is actively looking to create a new shelter and is meeting with future partners to site, operate and fund the facility.

At the council's next public safety committee meeting, representatives will discuss adopting an ordinance to allow residents responsible for maintaining planting strips to trespass campers setting up on the sidewalk-adjacent locations.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton camping ordinance coming after neighbors react