Byron passes ordinance following incident last summer

Last summer, the city of Byron was faced with a question: what happens if someone leaves their personal belongings on public property?
“Recently there was a situation in Byron which involved a transient individual placing a significant amount of personal items being moved onto public property for several days,” City Administrator Al Roder wrote in a memo to the City Council.
On May 14, the city’s nuisance ordinance was amended.
“Our nuisance ordinance left a question mark… we just thought it was a good time to clarify definitions,” Roder said.
Totes Full Of Stuff
Roder said one day, an individual who was making their way from Rochester to Minneapolis was able to secure a ride for themselves, and all their personal belongings.
The problem? They were brought as far as a few miles down the road to Byron.
“They were dropped off in Byron with all of their belongings,” Roder said.
City officials became aware the individual had been staying in the park and ride shelter on Highway 14, with all their belongings. In total approximately 30 totes full of stuff were in the shelter.
“We had about 30 totes of personal belongings stacked at the park and ride,” Roder said.
Roder said through Olmsted County and other resources, arrangements were able to be made for the person to have a bed to sleep in but “we didn’t have room for all of their stuff and they wouldn’t leave their stuff behind,” Roder said.
“The question became what is our right to handle these personal belongings,” he said.
Eventually, the individual was able to make their way off city property.
“We tried every resource we could but it took about a week to get resolved,” Roder said.
Roder said while the immediate concerns were handled, it prompted the administration to look into changing its ordinance to help alleviate any future concerns.
“I don’t feel like we should be putting ourselves in that position…likely it’s going to happen again in our foreseeable future,” he said.
‘Wake Up Call’
Until last summer Byron, a bedroom community, never had much of an issue, if any, with unhoused people staying in town.
But Roder knows, Byron, like any other community in the state or the country, could have a problem one day.
“It was a little bit of a wakeup call saying ‘these issues exist there in our community and we should be paying attention to them,” Roder said.
Roder said the main issue officials had was that while there is an ordinance about overnight camping on public property for example, the ordinance wasn’t clear about leaving personal property on public property.
“This incident identified the potential gap in our nuisance ordinance that this amendment is designed to eliminate,” he wrote in a memo. “While we do not allow for overnight camping in city parks, we do not address public spaces in general. If we are able to assist individuals with temporary shelter, we do not currently have a mechanism to address large volumes of personal belongings.”
Amended Ordinance
Roder said as part of the nuisance ordinance, the language wasn’t “sufficiently clear” about the rules for where people can keep their personal property.
“This just clarifies you can’t store them on public property,” Roder said about the amended ordinance.
The language approved by the City Council states:
“ It is unlawful for any person to place, deposit, or display any fence, goods, or other obstructions upon, over, across or under any public property without first having obtained a written permit from the Council, and then only in compliance in all respects with the terms and conditions of such permit, and taking precautionary measures for the protection of the public. An electrical cord or device of any kind is hereby included, but not by way of limitation, within the definition of an obstruction.”
Roder said following the incident, his staff and himself took their time in crafting appropriate language.
“I don’t like knee jerk reactions and I wanted to make sure that we took the time to really think about what we’re doing and what the best course of action is,” he said.
Bigger picture, Roder knows there will be no simple solution to solve the issue of people being unhoused locally, or across the State.
“It’s not a simple fix on anybody’s account,” Roder said.