Gettysburg ghost tour owners fear limits on group size
http://www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_6009707

Gettysburg ghost tour owners fear limits on group size
The borough is searching for a solution to complaints from residents.
By MATT CASEY
For the Daily Record/Sunday News
York Daily Record/Sunday News

The Gettysburg borough public safety committee
discussed an ordinance recently that would cap the number of
participants in walking-tour groups, and some tour operators aren't
happy about it.
The borough has been considering changes to the voluntary guidelines
since last year, when Baltimore Street residents complained about noise,
littering and property damage because of the growing number of ghost
tours in the borough. At least 13 companies conducted tours last year.

Code Enforcement Officer Bea Savage said she discovered an ordinance in
another town that required tours to keep a certain distance from each
other and limited groups to 15 people.
"I think this would do the trick," Savage said, calling the ordinance a
"good middle line" between current voluntary guidelines and much
stricter rules in other areas.

But Cindy Codori-Schultz, owner of Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours, doesn't
believe large tours are unmanageable.
Codori-Schultz said she has been giving tours for 11 years, and her
company can manage as many as 45 people in a tour.
She also called a 15-person cap unfair because ghost tours are a
seasonal business and susceptible to financial losses from changes in
the weather.

"It kind of angers me that they're thinking about putting limits on
numbers," Codori-Schultz said.
She said she keeps her customers off people's porches and out of their
flower beds, blaming the problem on a small number of companies that act
irresponsibly. She said she has seen tour groups with as many as 70
participants.
"It is a problem, and I see (the borough's) point," Codori-Schultz said.

Ray Davis, manager and storyteller for the Ghosts of Gettysburg
Candlelight Walking Tours, said he can see the merit in regulating
tours, but not as strictly as the committee discussed.
He said the borough should not simply adopt a law written by another
municipality because "to use their exact formula doesn't make sense for
Gettysburg."

"We're talking thousands of people on a given weekend going on these
tours," Davis said. He said a cap of 30 people per tour would make
sense. He already limits his tours to about that number.
Davis also said he could understand a set distance to maintain between
tour groups, but it would depend on how much distance.
Strasburg borough, in Lancaster County, requires walking tours to
maintain 500 feet between each other.

At that rate, Davis said, he would need to stretch out the groups of 250
people he sometimes gets by more than a mile.

"Fifty feet would make sense," Davis said.