The Town of Normal plans to retool a proposed ordinance regulating so-called pop-up parties and other large gatherings.
The ordinance delay came after dozens of residents told the town council on Monday the ordinance was vague, too broad and potentially unconstitutional.
The town drafted the original plan after several large parties got out of hand in recent months. One of the gatherings involved a fatal shooting.
One of the speakers at the town council meeting was Dave Bentlin of the Central Illinois chapter of the ACLU. He said the organization’s main worries were about the boundaries of the ordinance.
“The ACLU and our local chapter of ACLU was concerned about the overreach of the proposed ordinance,” Bentlin said in an interview on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
Bentlin said the ordinance, as proposed, also would affect other gatherings — ones it is not intended to address like pop-up parties.
“The fact that it was attempting to address a specific problem, but in the process of doing that it would really curb a lot of gatherings, public gatherings in public spaces and private spaces, it would stem the rights of free expression for a lot of people who live in the Town of Normal,” he said.
One of the concerns was the language of the ordinance could be considered too vague. Bentlin said it was possible that could lead to certain populations being targeted, despite him describing relations between the town and police as being in a good place.
“But if an ordinance goes on the books, it lasts far longer than any present administration,” he said. “You could, conceivably if the ordinance were in place, it could be used as a weapon against certain groups, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not intentionally.”
The proposed regulation would have expired on Dec. 31, 2025.
Another problem Bentlin felt was the ordinance felt rushed.
“I understand the town was concerned with what has happened this fall, the various incidents, and I think they probably wanted to give a very strong to that, to those incidents by putting something in place and letting the community know that they are on top of this and that they’re trying hard to do their best to make sure these things do not happen again,” he said. “So, I do give them credit for that.”
Bentlin said the Prairie Pride Coalition's annual pride picnic, held at Anderson Park every year, would be too big to meet the town's proposed rules.
Bentlin said earlier in the year, as a member of the coalition, he worked with the town council on another ordinance to update the Normal Human Relations Code. He said that process took about three to four months, but the planning process for the public gatherings ordinance was much shorter.
“I think it’s a complex situation, and I think that five days from the Wednesday session to the meeting last night was not really enough to disseminate all the nuances of this situation," he said.
Bentlin said the draft of the ordinance appeared on the town's website for public viewing on Saturday, two days before the council meeting, which was legal.
Bentlin said he would have preferred the council reach out to organizations like the ACLU for feedback on the draft and how it could be improved.
“ACLU, we sort of refer to ourselves as community watchdogs when issues like this come up to make sure that civil liberties and freedom of expression and other rights are not taken away,” he said. “At the same time, we want to be a partner in the community, and we want to work with our elected officials…to make sure that what is considered to be enacted like this ordinance meets muster and does not violate civil rights of people in the community.”
Despite the number of grievances held by the ACLU, they were not the only ones. Bentlin said he was pleasantly surprised by the number of students who came to Monday's council meeting to show their disapproval.
“I think this is a good learning opportunity for them to see how government works and to see sometimes ways it works right and some ways it doesn’t work so right,” he said. “But I think at the end of the day if they come to the future meetings as well, they will see the process play out and hopefully come to a positive resolution.”
The town council has indicated, through recent conversations and workshops, that something has to be done in response to the pop-up parties, especially since current regulations are not effectively addressing them.
In an interview with WGLT after the shooting death of an 18-year-old Chicagoan in September, ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff said if every off-duty officer in the county responded to such a party, they could not contain it.
Bentlin said the ordinance is still not the right answer, mostly due to the fact there is nothing in it to help prevent the parties.
“I know these pop-up parties are a great concern, because sometimes there’s not enough time to even prepare for them because they happen so quickly,” he said. “I do know that in talking with a few students, indications of one of these most recent pop-up parties was all over TikTok.”
Bentlin said there might be a better opportunity for the town and ISU to work together to prevent the parties by more closely monitoring social media and the internet.
“That seems to be how they really get started and how they draw these large crowds,” he said, adding an alternative ordinance or changes to the current one isn’t required. Really, an ordinance isn’t required at all.
Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy at ACLU of Illinois, said he suspects the town already has rules against certain behaviors the ordinance is trying to curb, such as blocking traffic or playing amplified music too loud.
He added the town’s proposed fee structure, starting at $1,000, would likely do nothing to limit disruptive behavior.
“It has never worked in the past and it’s illogical to think it would work this time,” Yohnka said.
The Normal Town Council delayed acting on the proposed ordinance until December.
