Vandalism, encampments and piles of trash big enough to raise concerns about train derailments – those are some of the challenges that have prompted City of Reno maintenance and operations to request a new city ordinance that cracks down on trespassing within 100 feet of the railroad corridor.
Reno City Council voted to move forward with the trespassing law on Wednesday, approving the first reading. Council members will need to vote on it a second time to enact the law.
Police chief Kathryn Nance said that the ordinance will allow officers to ask people to leave, without having to reference trespassing signage. She said the ordinance will improve safety for police and the public.
“Let’s keep in mind that people are sleeping with their heads right next to railroad tracks,” she told council on Wednesday. “People are going to get hurt if we are not proactively stopping this.”
Councilmember Jenny Brekhus was the sole vote against the law. She said she felt it was being portrayed as a “save-all” for business owners in the area who are being impacted by blight along the train tracks and Fourth Street.
“It’s not so easy to solve the real complex problem,” she said, later suggesting that the city instead use funding to open subsidized housing to get people off the streets.
Several business owners have, in fact, thrown their weight behind the new law, in the hopes that cracking down on encampments along the tracks will benefit them as well.
Tamme Atherton, owner of FW Trailers, says that homeless people camping on the train tracks just outside the front doors of her business have driven away customers.
“There’s trash and drug paraphernalia, and our customers and employees get harassed every day,” she said.
She added that she closed the feed store side of her business this year because customers stopped coming. Her company has also lost thousands of dollars to theft and vandalism.
“We have to remove the batteries from our dump trailers in our yard because they’ll come into the yard and steal them,” she said.
Atherton says she hopes the law is a step in the right direction toward cleaning up the tracks and Fourth Street, and that the homeless people camping there can find help.
