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On Tuesday night, Harrisonburg City Council voted  to approve the Planning Commission’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. A vote on the plan had been postponed from the previous council meeting on July 13 for further review.

Council also voted to enact Section 16-4-19 of the Harrisonburg City Code. The Commonwealth Attorney’s office had recommended that the city enact the ordinance, which allows property owners or leasees to designate the police department as ”a person lawfully in charge of the property”  to determine when someone is trespassing on their property. Under the previous law, property owners or leasees would have to be present to declare a person as a trespasser before they could be arrested by police. Under the newly approved ordinance, property owners can file a letter with the Harrisonburg Police Department that declares the department in charge of the property in terms of declaring a person to be unlawfully trespassing.  Harrisonburg Police Chief Don Harper explained that the new ordinance will streamline the process by which the police can remove unauthorized people from private property.

City manager Kurt Hodgen also noted that the city was still looking to other localities for possible new ordinances that would help the city in the future to better deal with events like the April 10 block party riot. 

Other notable actions of the council included:

• Vice Mayor Richard Baugh presented the 2010 Governor’s Transportation Safety Law Enforecement award to city police officer Mike Gangloff. While the awards were originally presented at the Governor’s Mansion on July 14, Gangloff could not be present. Baugh, who serves on the Virginia Board of Transportation Safety, also noted that Harrisonburg received two of the 15 Governor’s awards, the other one going to the JMU Safe Rides program.                                  
• Council voted to endorse the city’s Tiger II grant application. The grants, awarded through the Federal Department of Transportation, would be applied to the city’s Erickson Avenue-Stone Springs Road/Southeast Connector project. 
• Council ended in a closed session for the discussion of legal matters.