The Durango City Council is planning to legalize commercial door-to-door solicitation in town this winter because an outright ban on it may be unconstitutional, according to city officials.
A lawyer for several businesses in Durango sent a letter to the city in the spring of last year suggesting that the law was unconstitutional, city attorney Dirk Nelson said.
The letter challenged the city’s law based on the First Amendment and federal court rulings on the issue, he said. The lawyer was contacting other towns with similar ordinances, as well.
Nelson advised the City Council to update the regulations to be more in line with what is common with other communities. He said he did not have an opinion about whether the law was overly restrictive.
The current law also prohibited city staff members from hanging door tags to notify utilities’ customers that there was a planned water outage, said Sherri Dugdale, assistant to the city manager.
“This significantly limited our ability to communicate with our customers,” she said.
It is likely that if the law is approved, it would go into effect in mid-February.
The current law, approved in 1992, does not interfere with noncommercial door-to-door activities such as campaigning or proselytizing.
Under the updated law, businesses that have a license with the city to operate will need to obtain another license to do business door to door, Nelson said.
Those people who do not want anyone coming to their door can opt out.
“They can still prevent it by putting up a sign that declares they don’t want to be solicited,” Nelson said.
The draft law states that no solicitor, commercial or not, should remain on any private property if a “no solicitation” or “no trespassing” sign is posted.
There was no comment on the proposed change in the law at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
