Clarksburg City Council Poised To Pass Camping Ban

Clarksburg’s City Council is poised to pass a camping ban aimed at addressing homelessness in the city Thursday night. 

The City Council voted 4 to 2 – with one councilmember absent – to advance a new article of City Code to ban camping on all public and private property without owner approval at their last meeting Oct. 17.

In contrast to a similar ordinance passed in Morgantown earlier this year, the Clarksburg ordinance does not carry the threat of imprisonment for repeated violations but does carry fines as high as $500 per day.

Councilmember Marc Jackson brought the ordinance to the council. At the Oct. 17 meeting he said it’s time to take action on the issue.

“We’ll just have to work with this thing from both sides,” Jackson said. “But it’s time that we put some things in place and we start to move this thing forward. And you know, let’s stop normalizing homelessness.”

The ordinance is written to require that shelter and other resources be offered to a homeless individual before any enforcement action can be taken, but advocates say there is neither enough room at local shelters nor resource providers in the area currently.

Morgantown’s Camping Ban

Similar camping bans have been approved in Parkersburg, Wheeling and Morgantown over the past year. Morgantown passed its camping ban ordinance on Sept. 4, but it has yet to be implemented due in large part to a petition to repeal the ban.

The petition was deemed insufficient by the city clerk of Morgantown Oct. 23 after less than half of the submitted signatures were certified as valid. Petition organizers have since amended their petition with more signatures that were submitted to the city Nov. 6, and the city clerk now has until Nov. 12 to certify the new signatures.

Petition organizers declined to give comment to West Virginia Public Broadcasting at this time, citing the ongoing validation process.

In an email to WVPB, Brad Riffee, Morgantown’s director of public relations and communications, said the ordinance’s suspension will remain in effect until at least the next city council meeting Nov. 19.

“Certificate of insufficiency is a final determination (ending suspension) when presented to council,” Riffee said. “If there is a final determination that the petition is sufficient by the city clerk, then the suspension of the ordinance continues until the council repeals the ordinance or 30 days have elapsed after the election on the ordinance.”