The city council finds that sex offenders who are required to register under state law present a threat to the health, safety and welfare of children. It is the intent of this article to serve the city’s compelling interest to promote, protect and improve the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the city by creating areas around locations where children regularly congregate in concentrated numbers wherein certain registered sex offenders and sexual predators are prohibited from establishing temporary or permanent residency.
(Ordinance 2010-038, sec. 2, adopted 9/27/10; 1988 Code, sec. 21-200)
For the purposes of this article, the following terms, words and the derivations thereof shall have the meaning given herein:
Child
means any person under the age of seventeen (17).
Child-care facility
means a facility licensed, certified, or registered by the state department of family and protective services to provide assessment, care, training, education, custody, treatment, or supervision for a child who is not related by blood, marriage, or adoption to the owner or operator of the facility, for all or part of the twenty-four-hour day, whether or not the facility is operated for profit or charges for the services it offers.
Child-care institution
means a child-care facility that provides [care] for more than twelve (12) children twenty-four (24) hours a day, including facilities known as children’s homes, halfway houses, residential treatment centers, emergency shelters, and therapeutic camps.
Child safety zone
means public parks or playgrounds, private and public schools, public libraries, public swimming pools, child-care facilities, child-care institutions, day-care centers, public or private youth soccer or baseball fields, crisis centers or shelters, skate parks, public or private youth centers, and offices for child protective services.
Database
means the state department of public safety’s sex offender database or the sex offender registration files maintained by the sex offender registration officer of the city police department.
Day-care center
means a child-care facility that provides care at a location other than the residence of the director, owner, or operator of the child-care facility for seven (7) or more children under fourteen (14) years of age for less than twenty-four (24) hours a day, but at least two (2) hours a day, three (3) or more days a week.
Park or playground
means any land, including improvements to the land, that is administered, operated or managed by the city for the use of the general public as a recreational area.
Permanent residence
means a place where the person abides, lodges or resides for fourteen (14) or more consecutive days.
School
means a private or public preschool, private or public elementary school or private or public secondary school, which shall include private or public home-schools.
Sex offender
means an individual who has been convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for a sexual offense involving a person under seventeen (17) years of age for which the individual is required to register as a sex offender under state law.
Temporary residence
means a place where a person abides, lodges or resides for a period of fourteen (14) or more days in the aggregate, during any calendar year, and which is not the person’s permanent address, or a place where the person routinely abides, lodges or resides for a period of four (4) or more consecutive or nonconsecutive days in any month and which is not the person’s permanent residence.
(Ordinance 2010-038, sec. 2, adopted 9/27/10; 1988 Code, sec. 21-201)
It is unlawful and an offense for a sex offender to establish a permanent residence or temporary residence within one thousand (1,000) feet of the real property comprising a school, child-care facility, child-care institution, day-care center, park or playground or other places defined herein as a child safety zone.
(Ordinance 2010-038, sec. 2, adopted 9/27/10; 1988 Code, sec. 21-203)
(a) 
It shall be prima facie evidence that this article applies to such a person if that person’s record appears in/on the database and the database indicates that the victim was less than seventeen (17) years of age.
(b) 
The distance of one thousand (1,000) feet shall be measured on a straight line from the closest boundary line of the sex offender’s residence to the closest boundary line of the school, child-care facility, child-care institution, park or playground or other places defined herein as a child safety zone.
(c) 
In the case of multiple residences on one (1) property, measuring from the nearest property line of the residences to the nearest property line of the school, child-care facility, child-care institution, park or playground or other places defined herein as a child safety zone.
(d) 
In cases of a dispute over measured distances, it shall be incumbent upon the person(s) challenging the measurement to prove otherwise.
(e) 
A map depicting the prohibited areas shall be created by the city and maintained by the city police department. The city shall review the map annually for changes. Said map will be available to the public at the city police department or available on the city website or city police department website.
(Ordinance 2010-038, sec. 2, adopted 9/27/10; 1988 Code, sec. 21-204)
(a) 
The following exceptions shall be an affirmative defense to prosecution for a violation of this article:
(1) 
The person required to register in/on the database established the permanent residence or temporary residence and residency has been consistently maintained and the person has complied with all of the sex offender registration laws of the state, prior to the date of the adoption of this article;
(2) 
The place defined herein as a child safety zone and within one thousand (1,000) feet of the permanent or temporary residence of the person required to register on/in the database was opened after the person established the permanent or temporary residence and complied with all sex offender registration laws of the state;
(3) 
The information on/in the database is incorrect, and, if corrected, this article would not apply to the person who was erroneously listed on/in the database;
(4) 
The person required to register on/in the database was a minor when he or she committed the offense requiring such registration and was not convicted as an adult;
(5) 
The person required to register is required to serve a sentence at a jail, prison, juvenile facility or other correctional institution located within one thousand (1,000) feet of the real property comprising a school, child-care facility, child-care institution, day-care center, park or playground or other places defined herein as a child safety zone;
(6) 
The person required to register is under eighteen (18) years of age or a ward under a guardianship, who resides with a parent or guardian;
(7) 
The person required to register has been exempted by a court order from registration as a sex offender under state law;
(8) 
The person required to register has had the offense for which the sex offender registration was required reversed on appeal or pardoned; or
(9) 
The person’s duty to register on/in the database has expired.
(b) 
Nothing in this provision shall require any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any real estate or home acquired or owned prior to the conviction of the person as a sex offender.
(Ordinance 2010-038, sec. 2, adopted 9/27/10; 1988 Code, sec. 21-205)
(a) 
Definitions.
For the purposes of this section, the following terms will have the following meanings:
Applicant
means a registered sex offender subject to the provisions of this article who applies with the chief of police for a waiver of the restrictions of this article for the purposes of establishing a short-term or permanent residency in a long-term care facility for the purposes of receiving medical, rehabilitative, or hospice services or for the purposes of receiving long-term care due to the infirmities of age.
Chronic care hospital
means an institution where those persons suffering from generally permanent types of illness, injury, deformity, deficiency or age are given care and treatment on a prolonged or permanent basis and which is licensed by the state.
Convalescent home
means any structure used for or customarily occupied by persons recovering from illness or suffering from infirmities of age.
Hospice residential care facility
means a freestanding licensed hospice facility which provides palliative and supportive medical and other health services to meet the physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and special needs and/of terminally ill patients and their families in a residential setting.
Long-term care facility
means a convalescent home, hospice residential care facility, chronic care hospital or residence home for the aged as defined herein.
Non-ambulatory
means bedridden and incapable of walking without assistance from another person.
Residence home for the aged
means a home where elderly people are provided with lodging and meals with or without nursing care.
Short-term residency
means an admission to a long-term care facility for the purposes of physical rehabilitation for a period of less than six (6) weeks.
(b) 
Procedure for obtaining waiver of residency restrictions.
(1) 
A registered sex offender subject to the provisions of this article may apply to the chief of police for permission to establish a short-term or permanent residence in a long-term care facility. The chief of police shall implement an application procedure which will require that the applicant submit the following:
(A) 
A completed application form verified by the applicant or by the applicant’s legal guardian or next of kin if the applicant is incapable of verifying the application.
(B) 
A statement by a physician licensed to practice medicine by the state certifying:
(i) 
The condition or conditions for which admission or residency in a long-term care facility is necessary.
(ii) 
That the applicant is non-ambulatory and otherwise incapable of moving from place to place unassisted, or, if the placement in the long-term care facility is to be for less than six (6) weeks’ duration (short-term residency), that the applicant’s mobility is impaired to the extent that it would be difficult for the applicant to leave the facility unassisted.
(iii) 
The length of time the applicant is likely to require residency in the long-term care facility.
(C) 
Documentation in the form of medical records supporting the allegations in the application and physician’s certification. The chief of police, at his or her discretion, may limit the forms of documentation required to clinic notes, history and physical reports, admission notes, discharge notes or similar documents.
(2) 
The application shall be deemed received when the application, physician’s certification, and supporting medical documentation have been submitted to the satisfaction of the chief of police and certified by him as received and adequate upon which to base a decision for approval or denial. The chief of police shall then have ten (10) business days to either approve or deny the application.
(c) 
Criteria.
(1) 
Short-term residency in long-term care facility.
A properly submitted and documented application to establish a short-term residence in a long-term care facility will be granted if the mobility of the applicant is impaired to the extent that it would be difficult for the applicant to leave the facility unassisted as certified by physician licensed to practice medicine in the state.
(2) 
Permanent residency in long-term care facility.
A properly submitted and documented application to establish a permanent residence in a long-term care facility will be granted if the applicant is non-ambulatory as certified by a physician licensed to practice medicine in the state.
(Ordinance 2017-018, sec. 2, adopted 5/22/17; 1988 Code, sec. 21-206)