Less Restrictive Graffiti Law Under Consideration

Hatboro storeowners who sell items that could be used to create graffiti may not be required to lock merchandise up as was previously proposed. 

The Hatboro Borough Council, in looking to create an ordinance aimed at fining property owners who fail to remove graffiti in a timely manner, had also considered making it more difficult for minors to purchase spray paint, indelible markers and any other items deemed as “graffiti implements.”

But, a representative of the National Council to Prevent Delinquency–an anti-graffiti organization–told the council that locking up paints and markers could cost storeowners up to one-third of their business and would-be graffiti artists could simply “cross borders and shop for spray paint.”

Borough attorney Christen Pionzio suggested that Hatboro’s ordinance instead request merchants to keep graffiti-related materials “under the watchful eye” rather than locked up.

Borough officials are expected to meet with the National Council to Prevent Delinquency to finalize the ordinance before presenting it at the Monday committee meeting for discussion and voting to adopt it on Sept. 23.