New Port Richey’s City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday night (Ordinance #2016-2003) prohibiting the placement of “Roadway Memorial Markers” at locations of fatal accidents or collisions in the public right-of-way. The ordinance was proposed after a resident complained about an existing memorial that he said had been up for months.

Deputy Mayor Bill Phillips suggested that in the future “undevelopable” areas could be designated for family members to plant memorial trees or landscaping.

The council also voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance (Ordinance #2015-2075) prohibiting “convenience stores” as a business use in New Port Richey’s “downtown business district.”

Council members on Tuesday were careful not to mention specific businesses, but the Mayor did compare the atmosphere in one such business as “walking into a prison commissary.” One possible suspect drawing their ire is the Main Street Food Mart, located directly across from City Hall.

NewsPortRichey ran a previous article after the first of the two approval votes on this ordinance, including a quote from New Port Richey Police Chief Kim Bogart where he said that one convenience store in town had “Thirty-four suspicious persons calls, we had four batteries, three assaults, four drug violations.” NewsPortRichey sought comment from City Manager Debbie Manns after her original comment on the ordinance made no reference to a crime issue. Manns later said in an email that “the ordinance being discussed has nothing to do with the criminal incidents at the Main Street Food Mart…” The Chief’s comments would relate more to the City’s chronic nuisance ordinance which allows the City to fine or shut down businesses or residences in the City with too much criminal activity. It is unclear why the City Council and City staff felt that banning the convenience store use downtown was preferable to using an ordinance they already have on the books.

Councilman Chopper Davis voiced disapproval for the ordinance, saying that he was in favor of private property rights and that as long as the business isn’t “XXX (pornographic) and is obeying the law” that he would support it remaining a “conditional use rather than prohibited.” He did not, however, vote against the ordinance. In fact, he appeared to abstain from the vote, despite there not being a mechanism in the City code for an abstention unless there is a conflict of interest.

The City’s definition of a convenience store is a business where the sale of groceries or food products are less than 51% of the total revenue of the business. The ordinance will not prohibit New Port Richey’s existing convenience stores from operating, but will prevent new ones from opening.