Coralville avoids ACLU lawsuit by modifying panhandling ban. Here's what new ordinance says.
The Coralville City Council voted unanimously to repeal a ban on panhandling Tuesday, replacing the law with a "pedestrian safety" ordinance aimed at preventing the practice at most intersections without leaving the city vulnerable to a free-speech lawsuit.
The new ordinance prohibits pedestrians from standing on medians that are 10 feet wide or greater in areas with a speed limit of at least 30 mph, and also in a business or school district. This ordinance also requires that people use crosswalks to cross the street when the speed limit is 30 mph or more.
The ordinance lists 29 medians and intersections that fall into this category, plus the aprons or splitter islands at seven roundabouts in the city.
Several people are exempted from the ordinance, including police officers, parking enforcement personnel, fire department personnel, city employees or contractors authorized to perform construction or maintenance on city streets or rights-of-way, or any person responding to an emergency in the street.
The city pursued this change to its code after the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa sent letters to Coralville, Dubuque, Davenport and Bettendorf in April, demanding the cities stop enforcing bans on begging on the street, or panhandling, and take steps to repeal city ordinances.
Coralville's old ordinance, titled "Solicitation from Persons in Motor Vehicles Prohibited," stated that:
"No person shall solicit money or other items from a person situated in a motor vehicle that is located on any public street, alley or other public property."
City Attorney Kevin Olson told the City Council in June that to enforce this ordinance, the city would inform the people standing in the medians that what they're doing is against the law and, usually, people would comply. He said he doesn't believe the city ever issued a citation on the prior ordinance.
A memo to the City Council outlined several statistics about pedestrian traffic that Olson said he found "interesting," including that if someone gets hit by a vehicle going 20 mph, there is a 2% chance of a fatality, while if a vehicle going 30 mph hits a pedestrian, thatjumps to 40% and 60% to 70% if a vehicle is going 40 mph.
"This ordinance is intended to make sure we don't have those type of accidents," Olson said.
Olson said he took a driving tour of the city in order to create the list of prohibited medians.
ACLU of Iowa staff attorney Shefali Aurora told reporters in an April news conference that bans on panhandling, like the one Coralville repealed Tuesday, wrongly block free-speech rights. A news release stated that this argument is based on a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which struck down these types of content-based regulations of free speech.
Since 2015, the ACLU cited more than 25 cases that have successfully challenged panhandling ordinances around the country and at least 31 additional cities that have repealed panhandling ordinances.
Olson said that the new ordinance is modeled after one in Des Moines. Des Moines rescinded its ordinance that banned panhandling without a city license in 2018, and instituted a new ban six months later for standing in the medians at about 200 intersections on the basis of safety.
George Shillcock is the Press-Citizen's local government and development reporter covering Iowa City and Johnson County. He can be reached at (515) 350-6307, GShillcock@press-citizen.com and on Twitter @ShillcockGeorge
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Coralville institutes new panhandling ban, complying with ACLU demand
