The City Council has postponed a decision on a new ordinance that would ban skateboards, in-line skates and related activities, plus farm animals, from all city parks and city property, pending a study by city staff on similar ordinances in other cities.
"I'd like to look at some alternatives," Councilman Joe Hill said after the proposed ordinance failed to receive enough support for a vote by the council.The ordinance was proposed after city leaders recognized the potential attraction the new Barnes Park Sportsplex will have for skateboard, roller-skate and rollerblade use.
"It's a safety reason. The new park will be very attractive for this type of thing," Mayor H. Arthur Johnson said, explaining the city could be liable for accidents there.
Hill's not certain how the city can best protect itself from liability problems, but he also believes such an ordinance would simply move skaters back to city sidewalks. Near roadways, that's probably a more dangerous location than a park, he said.
Councilwoman Cherie Goodliffe said when she visited Jackson Hole, Wyo., earlier this year, she noticed the city had a small, special skateboard area set aside.
"Maybe we can make an in-line skating park," she said.
Johnson said horses have damaged the new, fragile turf being grown in the sportsplex, which is 90 percent completed and scheduled to open next summer.
"We've had damage down there by horses," Johnson said.
He also said horses have damaged the lawn at the city cemetery.
Residents had plenty to say in opposition to the ordinance.
Marcie Handy, a Kaysville resident who owns horses, doesn't believe the city needs another ordinance on the books that will be difficult to enforce. She also isn't convinced horses are a big enough problem there.
"The average horse owner knows better. . . . There's a few people out there who don't follow the rules," she said.
Handy also believes dogs, off-road trucks and vandalism cause far more problems than horses.
"Where's us country boys going to ride our horses?" Hill asked other council members.
The ordinance would exclude the city's mountain park, where horses would still have access to foothills trails.
Violation of the ordinance would be a misdemeanor, and another councilman, Darrell Horne, also isn't convinced it could be enforced.
Robert H. Rees, who will join the council in January, doesn't believe the city can do much to prevent potential lawsuits.
"I would like to see a park with as wide a use as possible," he said.
Bountiful passed a new ordinance regulating skateboarding in its parks earlier this year, and Kaysville's city staff will be examining how that new law is doing.