Downtown Exclusion Zone may get another 18 months

EUGENE, Ore. - The Eugene City Council took a step towards extending and beefing up the downtown Exclusion Zone ordinance at their meeting Monday night.

The majority of the councilors indicated they want the law to include sex and prostitution crimes.

The exclusion zone allows police and judges to ban people accused of certain crimes from a 20 block area of Downtown Eugene. The law is about to expire, unless the council approves extending it.

In a 5 to 3 vote the council approved having staff rewrite the ordinance to include sex crimes such as statutory rape, sex abuse and promoting prostitution as crimes that people could be excluded for.

However, one of the most controversial issues, banning people who have been accused of crimes but not convicted, would be taken out of this draft. Only people who have been convicted of a crime on the exclusion list could be banned from downtown for 90 days to one year.

The new ordinance would be in effect for an additional 18 months.

The council is expected to debate, hold public comment and vote on those changes next before January.