Birth of an ordinance?

Resident seeks nuisance relief

By SARAH KOENIG

DAMASCUS — At the November 19 Damascus Township meeting, a concerned citizen (who asked to remain nameless) read from a letter she’d written to the board about bonfires and parties that she’d witnessed at Damascus Forest, and called for the supervisors to write an town ordinance that would prevent such activity in the future.

“I called the state police to tell them about it one night, and they came to investigate,” she told them. “But since all parties involved were over 21, there was little he could do about it.”

If the “public nuisance and common sense” ordinance she called for were to come into being, it wouldn’t be overnight, according to planning commission member Jennifer Canfield.

Canfield said the first step would be for the supervisors to request the planning commission to review sample “public nuisance” ordinances and make a recommendation.

At their next meeting, the planning commission would come up with recommendations as to whether or not to adopt the sample ordinances (many of which are available over the Internet), or whether the ordinances encompassed all the issues that needed to be addressed or if it would be better to draft an ordinance of their own.

After discussion of the options, the commission would vote on which recommendation to present, then present it to the board of supervisors, who would make the ultimate decision to adopt it.

Once an ordinance is passed and adopted, the question still remains of how it can be enforced. The zoning officer, Ed Lagarenne, has the authority to investigate and address suspected ordinance violations. However, the state police, who most people call on in case of an emergency situation, can’t enforce local township ordinances, only state laws.

In the best of all possible circumstances, however, and contingent upon several circumstances, a “public nuisance” ordinance might help the problem.

“A nuisance ordinance wouldn’t necessarily prevent the fires being set in Damascus Forest,” Canfield says, “but it would definitely fall under the jurisdiction of one. If they were causing a nuisance.”