A sign displaying information about the Erlanger Public Works building. Photo by Nathan Granger | LINK nky

The Erlanger Parks Task Force considered revisions to the city’s parks ordinance at a meeting Tuesday night.

The meeting was uncharacteristically well-attended, as many members from the community came to hear discussion related to organized sports in Flagship Park. As a few weeks ago, the Erlanger City Council voted to uphold an ordinance that would ostensibly ban organized sports at the park. 

The task force attempted to examine the ordinance in its entirety but ran out of time.

Pictured: the meeting room at the Erlanger Public Works building just before the Parks Task Force meeting. Photo by Nathan Granger | LINK nky

Although the task force did not have time to explore the issue of Flagship Park in depth, they made some preliminary revisions to other parts of the city ordinance. The proposed changes were as follows:

  • Revise ordinance language to include the general public rather than citizens, residents and taxpayers of Erlanger
  • Strike definitions for terms which some members felt were overly narrow
  • Remove a portion of the ordinance mandating that park goers would need to apply for a permit to play amplified sound in the parks and, instead, apply the city’s general noise ordinance to the parks, which already prohibits loud sounds
  • Prohibit organized vending in the parks, except at city events. This point stimulated some discussion and may be changed.
  • Prohibit racing of any kind, including vehicles, in the parks
  • Remove language regulating what sorts of balls are allowed in the parks
  • Remove fence climbing prohibition
  • Remove prohibitions against drugs and motor vehicles, which are already prohibited by state and federal laws

Erlanger Councilmember Tyson Hermes collected attendees’ contact information and planned to produce a revised draft of the ordinance for the next meeting. He also proposed a revision related to organized sports, although little discussion on the details occurred.

He proposed that organized sports would only be allowed in parks if they contained standard facilities for that particular sport. For example, if an organized soccer team wished to practice in a park, they would have to practice in a park that had a regulation-sized soccer field specifically set aside for soccer games.

The issue will be discussed more thoroughly at the next task force meeting on May 2 at 5:30 p.m at the Erlanger city building on Commonwealth Avenue.