Coupon hand-outs banned at Southernmost Point

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Are you a fan of the discount coupons some local businesses hand out around town? If so, you’re out of luck.

The Key West City Commission recently amended an existing ordinance banning off-premises “canvassing,” another word for a business handing out flyers, coupons and other advertising material, in the historic district. While this marketing material can be distributed on the property of an individual business, employees cannot “flyer” off the premises. So handing out restaurant coupons on the sidewalk along, say, Duval Street is illegal.

However, thanks to a loophole in the ordinance, off-premise canvassing at the Southermost Point, one of the most-visited areas of town by tourists, was not included in the original ordinance. And a local restaurant had been sending one of its workers to the famous corner to distribute discount coupons to the nationally-known chain eatery. That led to a complaint being filed with the Key West Police Department, according to Jim Young, Key West Director of Code Compliance.

“Upon researching the off-premises canvassing ordinance it was discovered there were no restrictions prohibiting this type of activity. This proposal will ban off-premise canvassing in a very congested area where art vendors, mobile vendors, panhandling and street performers are already prohibited,” Young wrote in an executive summary to commissioners.

The amendment, which passed unanimously, bans canvassing from the intersection of South and Duval streets, extending west to the Southermost Point monument, then continuing north to the intersection of United and Whitehead streets.

“The city commission finds that the establishment of off-premise canvassers at the area known as the Southermost Point only serves to further impede pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk and as a result, vehicular traffic, as well,” the new resolution reads.

The off-premise canvassing ban includes public right-of-ways along Duval, Front, Wall, Exchange and Fitzpatrick streets, as well as Tift Alley, Clinton Square and the Key West Bight.

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