The new rules include banning camping in tents or sleeping bags overnight, vehicle camping at night, and a time, place and manner restriction for camping during the daytime.
Enforcement would begin daily starting a half hour after sunset until 6 a.m.
Earlier this month Governor Gavin Newsom urged cities to remove encampments and even proposed a model ordinance to do so.
Solvang City Attorney Craig Steele said the governor’s model is good, but Solvang’s new ordinance is better for their small city.
“The model is really focused on the elimination of encampments. And, so there's some suggestions of ways that cities with large encampments could go about eliminating those through an ordinance," said Steele. "The situation here is somewhat different.”
The difference is that Solvang’s goal is to reduce the number of individuals camping outdoors and in vehicles.
During the 2024 Point-in-time Count, Santa Barbara County found that 2,119 people were unhoused in Solvang.
The city council will have another reading of the ordinance on June 9th and then the ordinance will become effective 30 days later.
