Making a quick buck in Manitou Springs could get easier — at least a little — if a proposed city ordinance goes through.

The ordinance, which was read at a work session after Tuesday's City Council meeting and prohibits "aggressive soliciting," would replace language that makes panhandling illegal within city limits.

But the proposed definition of "aggressive soliciting" includes several provisions that could leave panhandlers with few places to ply their trade.

The City Council was inspired to revisit the ordinance by an editorial in The Gazette about street performers, said Councilwoman Amy Cox.

Street performers now are vetted, licensed and paid by the Chamber of Commerce. Though there's no law prohibiting unlicensed acts from performing in public, some say the old ordinance, which defines panhandling as "the solicitation of monies or things of value on private or public property where nothing of value is rendered in return," has been used against buskers and proprietors who allow them to play outside their stores.

Richard Collins, director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law at Colorado University in Boulder, said panhandling ordinances like Manitou's are often vulnerable on two fronts.

"First Amendment attacks are made because panhandling involves a form of expression," Collins said. "The other attacks have to do with the vagueness of these ordinances."

The council modeled its proposed changes after Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins ordinances, Cox said.

But the Manitou ordinance would prohibit panhandlers from working within six feet of any business entrance and within 20 feet of an ATM or the entrance of a building that contains an ATM.

Colorado Springs has many places that fall outside those criteria. But in tightly packed Manitou Springs?

For Bud Ford, owner of Cripple Creek Dulcimers and Guitars on Manitou Avenue and former mayor of the city, the ordinance would be welcomed so long as it couldn't be used against street performers.

"It's something that has needed change for some time, but it needs to be carefully crafted," Ford said. "I don't want to see beggars up and down the block. But I do think it's important to protect people's rights."

Street performers are specifically excluded from the definition of "solicitors" in the current draft of the proposed ordinance, meaning they could play anywhere they like on public property.

The chamber's program will continue even if buskers are allowed to perform without a license, Executive Director Leslie Lewis said.

The new ordinance will be refined at future City Council meetings, and will likely be enacted in some form by the summer, Deputy City Administrator Mike Leslie said.

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