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Council discusses new ordinance to shut down illegal activity at motels

Two dead in shooting on Jacksonville's northside

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Following a shooting at Gold Rush Inn on Jacksonville’s Northside, Councilmembers Reggie Gaffney and LeAnna Cumber called a public meeting to discuss creating a public nuisance ordinance for the city.

Gaffney said that he reached out yesterday to the State and the Governor about the problems going on at the Gold Rush Inn. He has previously said that the motel contributes to prostitution, drugs, and murders in the area. During the meeting Wednesday morning, it was announced that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation had officially pulled the license for the Gold Rush Inn. However, Gaffney believes this isn’t a long-term solution.

His proposal is to create an ordinance that would fine businesses that are aware of illegal occurrences that go on at their locations, but do nothing to stop it. They want to base the ordinance off current public nuisance ordinances in the State and other cities. One example is the ordinance in Orange Park. If a business allows a public nuisance, and doesn’t stop it after receiving a notice from the city, the business could be shut down.

“The purpose is to stop the criminal activity and if we can stop it and improve the property, then that’ excellent. If there’s a market for having a hotel there, then excellent. But we can’t survive continuing to have these nuisances,” Cumber said.

Deputy General Counsel Jason Teal said that the state law does not allow for the city to shut down the business just because they are a motel, but to give them a chance to stop the illegal activity, and if that doesn’t happen, then they can be shut down. The idea proposed by Cumber and Teal is for there to be a city board that would monitor these public nuisances, hear the evidence, and then give the business a timeline to shut down the business. If they don’t solve the issue, the City could sue them.

The details on the ordinance will be worked on after the City Council’s Winter Break that began on Monday.

There is a scheduled press conference at 3 p.m. today outside of the Gold Rush Inn of Harts Road with Gaffney and State Representative Wyman Duggan that will go into more detail of the motel’s closure.

Hannah Lee

Hannah Lee

Hannah Lee is a General Assignment Reporter for 104.5 WOKV.

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