SPRINGFIELD — A map unveiled Monday of the area included in a proposed ordinance limiting homeless shelters shows the restricted area covers nearly the entire city.
If eventually approved, the ordinance will effectively extend a current moratorium against shelters permanently.
The ordinance, which was approved by the Springfield City Commission on first reading Monday, prohibits homeless shelters and halfway houses within 1,000 feet of 10 major road rights of way, including 11th Street and Business 98, and 2,000 feet from a school, daycare, church or residential area. The ordinance will return to the commission for final approval at a date to be set later.
Commissioner Carl Curti clarified that halfway houses are included in the definition in the ordinance.
There was no discussion from the public at the meeting about the ordinance.
The ordinance is similar to the city’s ordinance restricting adult entertainment, a designation that includes porn shops and tattoo parlors. Adult entertainment businesses are not allowed within 1,500 feet of a school, daycare or church.
The only places in the city someone could open a homeless shelter are a small sliver of Transmitter Road and a section of Avon Road.
The city originally approved a moratorium on May 24, 2013 in response to public outcry concerning expansion plans of Bethel Village Battered Women’s shelter, previously located at 1313 E. 11th St. Bethel Village has since moved outside of the city. The commission renewed the moratorium earlier this year.
“We’re concerned not with Bethel but with who hangs around outside,” Mayor Ralph Hammond said in May. “You have a battered women and children facility, the husband is going to be somewhere. Most of the time they follow where the wife and children are.”
The commission has discussed a permanent ordinance for months and there has been no public response against it.
In other business, the commission:
-Approved the submission of a grant application through Tamco BV LLC for $770,000 worth of water pipe and meter improvements off Santee Drive and David Avenue. If the grant is approved by the Northwest Florida Water District, Tamco would receive 9 percent of the total grant. The commission will consider a long-term contract with Tamco later this month.
-Approved a plaque given to Zana Ireland of Digitrax. Digitrax donated five Android tablets to the fire department. The department will use the tablets to gather information, such as building plans, en route to calls and as teaching tools for the public.
-Approved immunization shots for 55 employees who work outside. The immunization shots for Hepatitis B, Typhoid and Tetanus, through the Bay County Health Department, cost $15,000.
-Approved a mutual aid agreement with the Parker Police Department.