Thu, Jul 03 2008
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Published March 08, 2008 12:07 pm - Sexual offender law spurs new zoning district By Joy Hampton CLAREMORE PROGRESS (CLAREMORE, Okla.) CATOOSA, Okla. — A new law regarding sex offenders has communities looking at park zoning - or the lack of it.
Six Planning Commission recommendations regarding park signage and zoning have been adopted by Catoosa City Council. A new zoning district for parks is included in those measures. Oklahoma’s sex offender law that went into effect Nov. 1 motivated the Catoosa Council to ask the city Planning Commission to study park zoning. The move may be the first of its kind in Oklahoma. Mayor Rita Lamkin said a park may be either public or private, but as a former city attorney, prosecutor and judge, she was concerned that municipalities such as Catoosa did not have a specific park zone as noted in the legislation language. “Our Planning Commission took action to recommend to the city council that we authorize our zoning code to be revamped to include parks as a zoned area,” said Lamkin. “We will change our zoning code and our zoning maps to accommodate that.” The six recommendations adopted at the Feb. 19 meeting include adequate signage identifying parks, inspections to determine if signage is provided at entrances of city and private parks, notification to owners and property owners associations regarding signage for private parks, possible financial assistance by the city for signage at private parks, and the creation of “a new Zoning District for Parks including a definition of Parks.” “I addressed my Planning Commission during their meeting to tell them my concerns that this was the wording of the new law,” said Catoosa Mayor Rita Lamkin. “When a judge has to decide something they will go by the letter of the law. If we ever had a protest or challenge trying to say that someone on the sexual offender list couldn’t live in a certain area because it was too close to a park, that attorney could make it a huge case that we had not zoned it a park.” Cheryl Dorrance, director of research at the Oklahoma Municipal League said she does not know of any municipalities in Oklahoma that have a specific park zoning. Catoosa may be a first. “The problem with the legislation is that the terminology used is not consistent with the terminology of planning,” Dorrance said. HB 1760 amending Oklahoma Statute, Title 57, Chapter 8B, Section 590 says it is unlawful for any person registered as a sex offender to reside “within a two-thousand-foot radius of any public or private school site, educational institution, a playground or park that is zoned by city, county, state, federal or tribal government, or licensed child care center...” Authored by Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, and Sen. Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, the bill was signed by Gov. Brad Henry on June 4 and went into effect Nov. 1. The new language introduced by the amendment regards the phrase “playground or park that is zoned by city, county, state, federal or tribal government ...” Joy Hampton writes for Claremore (Okla.) Progress. 
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