UPDATE: The City of Erlanger has announced the official time of the second reading of the new parks ordinance. The relevant lines have been been updated. –LINK nky editorial, July 14, 2023
A dispute over organized sports in Erlanger parks could soon come to a resolution with the potential passage of a new ordinance.
The Erlanger City Council completed the first reading of a revision of the city’s parks ordinance at their meeting on July 11. Erlanger
The proposed ordinance states, “No Athletic Team shall practice or compete on any field or at any Erlanger Park without receiving a permit by the City of Erlanger and no Athletic Team shall receive a permit in any Erlanger Park that does not have the required field or facilities for the specific sport.”
In other words, if a team wishes to practice in an Erlanger park, the park must have an established field for the sport, like a soccer field or a basketball court, and the team must obtain a permit from the city clerk.
The reading follows months of discussions among the city’s parks task force members, which set about changing the ordinance following a controversy about organized sports teams using Flagship Park to practice.
No members of the public spoke about the ordinance at the meeting, and Council Member Jennifer Jasper-Lucas proposed holding a special meeting next week to complete a second reading.
“I just feel like we need to just go ahead and get it finished,” Jasper-Lucas said.
The controversy over park regulations stemmed from a conflict between some residents of the Lakemont and Deer Chase neighborhoods and members of the Blessed Sacrament Cross-Country team.
The city’s original parks ordinance prohibited organized sports teams from practicing in the park, but Blessed Sacrament had been using the field for about five years before a city employee informed them of the law.
The new ordinance establishes a universal permitting process that would conceivably allow Blessed Sacrament to practice in Flagship, but the timing of the law’s writing and passage failed to coincide with the beginning of the cross-country team’s season.
Blessed Sacrament’s Coach Joe Niedlander told LINK nky that they will not be practicing in Flagship this year. Instead, the team has moved its practice to Pride Park in Taylor Mill.
Despite the conflict that’s been dragging on since at least August of last year, Niedlander’s “still trying to stay in good faith with [the city],” he said.
He added that he was “not upset or angry” and that he wanted to maintain a good working relationship with the council and the city.
Neighborhood residents who opposed the new ordinance felt that the team’s presence overcrowded the paved walkways in Flagship. They also expressed concerns about parking.
Even though the new ordinance applies to every park in the city, the debate surrounding the use of Flagship has inflected much of the conversation relating to the ordinance.
At least one council member, Rebecca Reckers, expressed disappointment that the team had to leave.
Erlanger will hold a special council meeting on Tuesday, July 18 at 6:45 p.m at the Erlanger City Building on Commonwealth Avenue.
