Beachgoers enjoy their lunches during the calm weather Tuesday at Incline Beach. According to IVGID's new First Amendment policy, IVGID residents without beach access, as well as other American citizens, can gain access to the parking lots and adjacent walkways to the three Incline beaches, but not the beaches themselves. Bonanza photo-Jen Schmidt
By Kevin MacMillan BONANZA INTERIM EDITOR,kmacmillan@tahoebonanza.com May 7, 2008 PrintEmail Questions arise after IVGID board adopts First Amendment policy A week ago, the Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees adopted Policy and Procedure No. 136, which opens various areas on district property, dubbed “public forum areas,” for the public to exercise First Amendment rights. Since that adoption, questions about the policy, specifically about how it affects Incline Village’s three beaches, have flooded the phones and e-mail inboxes of district officials and trustees. Many of those questions have led to misconceptions about the policy and its aim, said Bill Horn, IVGID general manager, with the most common misconception revolving around whether residents’ recreation passes will be checked at the gates of the respective beaches. Horn said card-checking will continue at the beaches as normal. Residents with beach access will be allowed on the beaches and residents without beach access won’t be allowed on the beaches. “Nothing will be done differently at the gate, other than if someone comes up to express their First Amendment rights,” Horn said. “If a situation like that happens, then staff will direct them as to where to go.” Furthermore, Horn confirmed that everyone, not just IVGID citizens with or without beach access, has access to the parking lots and adjacent sidewalks (as defined in the policy) at the three beaches, as well as other venues outlined in the policy. “Free speech is free speech; it’s not limited to residents in Incline Village and Crystal Bay,” Horn said. “But the main point to clarify here is that they can’t just come in and stand in the parking lot. They have to show that they are coming to express their First Amendment rights.” The policy went into effect last Thursday. According to the policy, “the district designates public forum areas within its real property and facilities, and encourages any individual or group to use such designated public forum areas for the exercise of expression, speech and assembly, in accordance with this policy. The district will not further regulate such exercise except as consistent with applicable law.” Areas designated as public forums within IVGID are: “The parking lots, the walkways within and adjacent to the parking lots and the sidewalks adjacent to any public entrance to any building open to the public, located on such listed real properties and facilities.” Besides the three beaches, the other “public forum areas” in the policy include: The Anne Vorderbruggen Building, Recreation Center, Tennis Complex, The Chateau, Diamond Peak Ski Resort, Preston Field, Mountain Golf Course, Aspen Grove and Village Green. As part of the IVGID board’s April 30 approval, trustees and IVGID legal counsel Scott Brooke, who drafted the policy, agreed that other venues, including the Skate Park, should be added to the policy. Furthermore, the policy reads: “In order to preserve the peace, however, and to promote the significant interests of the district ... the district may make reasonable, lawful rules and regulations with respect to the time, place and manner of any use of its real property and facilities for purposes of expression, speech and assembly.” The entire policy can be viewed in the April 30 meeting agenda packet (available online at www.ivgid.org or in person at the IVGID administration building, 893 Southwood Blvd.). Another misconception Horn spoke to was that residents without beach access, as well as non-IVGID residents who want to express First Amendment rights, can park cars in the beach parking lots. “People who don’t have beach access won’t be able to park their car in the parking lots at the beaches,” Horn said. “They will have to walk up.” Another point of emphasis, according to the policy, is those citizens who want to express First Amendment rights must do so in a civil matter, so as not to interrupt daily ongoings of the public forum areas. “They can’t express their First Amendment rights and get in the way of how IVGID operates its businesses,” Horn said. “And it’s not just the beaches. For example, if someone wants to express their First Amendment rights at The Chateau, they can’t get in the way of how business is operated.” Another question raised since Wednesday’s approval revolves around how the new policy will be policed. Horn said the district doesn’t have plans to post special First Amendment expression zones at various venues, or hire additional staff to thwart potential offenders. “We don’t anticipate anyone will violate the rules ... I do not anticipate hiring any additional staff,” Horn said. “The idea here is for them to express their First Amendment rights.” If someone does violate the policy at the beaches, he or she would be asked to leave the premises, Horn said. If there is a repeat offender, and if that person is an IVGID citizen with recreation privileges, those privileges would be revoked, he said. If a repeat offender is not an IVGID resident, then the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office may be contacted to handle an IVGID trespassing complaint.
The First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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