Big Bear Lake Municipal Code Ch. 12.80 Camping and Loitering Within City Limits

This chapter is intended to protect the public health, welfare, and safety by reserving open spaces and facilities within the city limits for their intended purposes. Public property within the city should be readily accessible and available to residents and the public at large. The use of these areas for camping purposes or storage of personal property or loitering interferes with the rights of others to use the areas for their intended purposes and is deleterious to the public peace, health, safety, and welfare. The use of these areas for camping or loitering obstructs the intended uses for the public at large, contributes to blight, and can cause damage to public property. This chapter is intended to avoid unsafe and potentially disorderly conditions, unsanitary and unhealthful conditions, and the degradation or destruction of open spaces and facilities within the city.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

A. "Camping" means residing in or using any public property for one or more nights for living accommodation purposes, such as sleeping activities or making preparations to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping), or storing personal belongings (including but not limited to clothing, sleeping bags, bedrolls, blankets, sheets, luggage, backpacks, kitchen utensils, cookware, and similar material), or making any fire or using any tents, and regularly cooking meals, or living in a parked vehicle. These activities constitute camping when it reasonably appears, in light of all the circumstances, that a person is using public property as a living accommodation for one or more nights, with the intent to camp.

B. "Camp facilities" include, but are not limited to, tents, huts, or temporary shelters.

C. "Camp paraphernalia" includes, but is not limited to, tarpaulins, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks, or non-city designated cooking facilities and similar equipment.

D. "Public property" means any publicly owned property in the city, whether improved or unimproved, including, but not limited to, any of the following: public alleyways; public parking lots; public passageways; public streets; public rights-of-way; publicly owned, maintained, or operated parks; publicly owned, maintained, or operated landscaped areas or greenbelts; publicly owned drainage canals or other water ways; publicly owned, maintained, or operated open spaces including, but not limited to, public facilities or buildings of any kind; public sidewalks, curbs, and gutters; public educational institutions; or other government owned, maintained, or operated properties located within the city.

E. "Store" means to put aside or accumulate for use when needed, to put for safekeeping, to place or leave in a location.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

It shall be unlawful for any person to camp, occupy camp facilities, or use camp paraphernalia on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein or mandated by applicable law.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

It shall be unlawful for any person to store personal property, including camp facilities and camp paraphernalia, on any public property within the city, except as otherwise provided herein or mandated by applicable law.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

Any personal property or possessions located on public property that are unattended and whose owner cannot be readily identified are presumed to be abandoned. Whenever possible, enforcement officials shall make a reasonable effort to ascertain whether the unattended personal property or possessions have actually been abandoned. If enforcement officials decide the property is abandoned, they shall provide three hours advanced notice upon the expiration of which they shall impound the property. Upon impounding the property, the enforcement officials shall provide written notice detailing contact information and instructions on how the owner may recover the property. The city shall wait at least ninety (90) days before destroying any impounded property with the exception that impounded property deemed to present a serious and immediate health or safety risk or to be contraband shall be destroyed immediately.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any individual camping by necessity because every shelter in the local area is at capacity and there is no available option for sleeping indoors.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

It shall be unlawful for any person to willfully stand, sit, or lie across any path or public right-of-way or in front of the ingress or egress of any building in a manner that obstructs a reasonable person from safely traversing said path or public right-of-way or safely entering or exiting said building.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)

Any person violating the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed guilty of an infraction and, upon conviction, shall be fined in an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00) for the first offense, not exceeding two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the second violation of the same provision within one year, and a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each additional violation of the same provision within one year. However, the citing official or prosecuting attorney may prosecute the offense as a misdemeanor if it is determined that doing so would be in the interests of justice. An individual convicted for a misdemeanor violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be fined in an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Nothing in this article shall limit or preclude the enforcement of other applicable laws.

(Ord. No. 2019-468, § 1, 5-13-2019)