Town of Telluride, Colorado (Town), a Colorado Home Rule Municipality, has the authority and power to regulate, restrain and punish disorderly persons, to regulate, restrain and punish the use of sidewalks, streets, parks and other public places, to prevent and suppress disorderly conduct and disturbances, to otherwise protect the safety and convenience of its residents and visitors and to maintain order in public places, all of which are valid and reasonable governmental objectives and interests.

The Town makes no distinction nor expresses a basis of opinion as to any message or content conveyed or delivered with solicitation or panhandling, but rather is attempting by the provisions of this Article to regulate, restrain and punish behavior based upon the time, place and manner of the conduct of the speaker and not upon the content of the message they carry. Specifically, the Town by passage of this Article intends to regulate, restrain and punish panhandling activities that are done in an aggressive, threatening, intimidating, coercive or obscene manner by means of regulating panhandling through reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, which will serve to protect property, public safety and will otherwise benefit the general health, safety and welfare of residents and visitors to Telluride.

The Town by passage of this Article intends to leave sufficient alternative means and methods of communication available to all residents and visitors to Telluride, provided such conduct is consistent and not in violation of the limited panhandling prohibitions imposed by this Article. To this end, the Town does not intend, by passage of this Ordinance, to interfere with the exercise of constitutionally protected rights of freedom of expression, conduct, speech or association, and the Town Council recognizes the constitutional rights of every person to express beliefs and opinions on any subject and to lawfully associate with other individuals. The Town is not intending to limit any person from exercising their constitutional rights to solicit funds, picket, protest or engage in other constitutionally protected activity; rather, it is the goal of this Article to protect residents and visitors to Telluride from fear and intimidation accompanying certain kinds of aggressive solicitation that have become an unwelcome presence within the Town of Telluride.

Furthermore, the Town wishes to protect certain captive audiences by enactment of this Article, which individuals are less capable of resisting or avoiding unwanted panhandling activities and/or have fewer means available at their disposal to avoid or resist unwanted panhandling. The Town also finds and declares that it is the right of every person to be secure and protected from intimidation and physical harm resulting from activities associated with certain panhandling activities prohibited by this Article.

Residents and visitors of the Town of Telluride have expressed concern as a result of an increase in disturbing behavior by individuals and by groups of individuals who have engaged in certain panhandling activities in an aggressive, threatening, intimidating, coercive or obscene manner, who accost captive audiences and who create safety risks and concerns for residents and visitors, which behavior has contributed to a loss of access to and enjoyment of a variety of public places and also which has enhanced a sense of fear, intimidation and disorder in Telluride and which panhandling activities, and the manner in which they are engaged in, are not constitutionally protected forms of expression, conduct, speech or association. (Ord. 1424, 2015)