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Staff Report PREPARED BY: MONICA RENN Economic Vitality Manager Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Community Development Director 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov TOWN OF LOS GATOS TOWN COUNCIL REPORT MEETING DATE: 01/16/18 ITEM NO: 16 DATE: DECEMBER 27, 2017 TO: TOWN COUNCIL FROM: LAUREL PREVETTI, TOWN MANAGER SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. RECOMMENDATION: Staff is recommending that the Town Council review and discuss special events in general, and provide direction on Town funding, in-kind services, street closures, and other event related matters. BACKGROUND: Since May 2017, the Town has been working to transition the management and processing of special event permits to the Town Manager’s Office. This process has included benchmarking with other jurisdictions and streamlining the Town’s own process, including the recommendation of a Town Code Amendment (see separate agenda item on the proposed Amendment) and a more inclusive and detailed special event permit application. In addition to the research and transition, the summer and fall of 2017 also brought new challenges and opportunities as the Town experienced three new or relocated events that closed N. Santa Cruz Ave. These events varied in their activities, duration, coordinating agency, and community feedback; however, all provided the prospect to learn about events and how they may best fit within the Los Gatos community. Except when provided for by Council direction, staff worked to recover the Town’s costs for resources provided for the events. PAGE 2 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx BACKGROUND (cont’d): At the November 7, 2017 Town Council meeting, staff brought forward a Code Amendment to Chapter 14 as it relates to special events. At this meeting and the following on November 21, 2017, the Town Council heard from community members about the costs and work that goes into creating community events and their concerns around the Town being “cost recovery” for Town incurred expenses. Thus, this discussion is before the Council at this time. In early December, staff met with a group of special event organizers representing various community groups in Los Gatos to discuss the proposed changes to Chapter 14 of the Town Code regarding special events. Many of the concerns voiced at the meeting were more closely linked with the Town’s guidelines and practices around special events, and had less to do with the actual framework of the proposed Code provisions. Through this and other related discussions, including summer event debriefs, staff has identified th at greatest concerns relate to either funding or downtown street closures. These two main topics present a variety of related issues for the Council to discuss, consider, and provide direction. DISCUSSION: Staff has divided this discussion into topic points below with considerations and details, and is looking to gain the Council direction on each. 1. Discuss and consider if fees for materials or staff resources should be provided by the Town. Within the adopted budget for FY 2017/2018 the Council appropriated funds to be provided to Town Events which include a 4th of July event, Screen on the Green movie event, and Spring into Green (a sustainability and Earth Day related event). An additional $6,000 allotment was granted to Music in the Park for a summer concert series coordinated by a contracted vendor. In addition to budget line items, the Town earmarked within the in-kind services and expenses of the budget, the services provided by Town staff at the Annual Children’s Holiday Parade ($25,000) and the Holiday Tree Lighting ($1,600). These are estimated amounts to cover just the staffing costs provided for these events. Aside from these allotments, no other funds have been approved specifically for community special events. The Town is currently under contract with a vendor to perform a comprehensive review of the Town’s fee schedule which will help the Council and staff better understand which services have potentially been unintentionally subsidized in the past. This review presents an opportunity for the PAGE 3 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx DISCUSSION (cont’d): Town to consider if there are different fees or fee structures that may be offered to provide consistency across all events. Staff has begun to identify the fees that are not readily available within the special event application package and will include these to allow for greater transparency and improved customer service. If there are in-kind services or fee subsidies that the Council would like to provide to community events, these should be identified by the Council and staff can work to include them in the upcoming budget proposal for FY 2018/2019. Special Event Grants Much like the community grants awarded to Los Gatos community service providers and arts organizations, the Town Council could set aside dollars and implement a program for special event organizers to apply for grant funding. If the Council would like to provide funding assistance in this format, staff could come back with budget suggestions on how this could be funded, and would need clear Council direction on the total amount of grant funding that is desired for this expenditure, along with criteria for the grant award process. Staff would then return for Council action at the February 20, 2018 meeting in conjunction with Strategic Priorities and FY 2018/19 budget direction. This way, the Council could consider this budgetary expenditure in light of other Council object ives. Town Equipment, Supplies, and Infrastructure Historically, the Town has allowed the use of barricades, light towers, and other Town equipment to event organizers for use during their events, and typically at no cost. This can become problematic when equipment is damaged or not available for immediate use when needed for official Town business. More recently, staff has been requiring that event coordinators supply their own equipment to preserve the Town’s equipment and ensure its availability for use by the Town. Staff has found that this is consistent with other local jurisdictions and would recommend that event organizers be responsible for securing and storing their own event equipment . Alternatively, fees or deposits could be assessed for the rental of specific Town equipment, and the Town would continue to include the condition that pertains to the liability for any damage to Town property. PAGE 4 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx DISCUSSION (cont’d): Staff Resources Provided at Events Staff carefully evaluates each proposed event to determine the appropriate level of security needed based on anticipated attendance, availability of alcoholic beverages, and other factors. When appropriate, event organizers may obtain their own security, given approval by the Chief of Police is obtained, as was done for Fiesta de Artes. Additionally, for large scale events, the Chief of Police may determine that Town Officers should be present and paid for by the event. Given the Department’s lean staffing, this typically requires overtime and scheduling arrangements in advance in order for the Department to continue to provide primary patrol services to the rest of the Town. A longstanding condition of special event permits is the required clean up afte r an event. The condition indicates that if the event site is not cleaned to the satisfaction of the Town, then Town staff will perform the required maintenance and the event organizers must pay those costs. While the Town is reimbursed, the impact of unplanned maintenance work affects the ability of Town staff to be able to perform their regular, scheduled assignments because of limited staff resources. Therefore, even with cost recovery, events that deviate from agreed upon procedures may result in the unintended consequence of spreading Town staff too thin. The Town does not have a sufficient surplus of staff that is readily available to work above and beyond the assigned hours and scope. Adding an extra assignment of working at special events outside of normal Town duties is not always feasible. In an effort to help event organizers with non-police related duties, staff has been encouraging event organizers to recruit an ample number of volunteers, train them, and have them in recognizable attire to provide crowd control, clean-up efforts, and other similar tasks. Parking The issue of parking typically presents itself when an event is held near downtown, although this issue could apply at multiple locations. Event organizers often request to have the monitoring of and ticketing for timed parking suspended during events to allow for event goers to come early and stay longer than the event to patronize local merchants. Staff works with event organizers to encourage their event PAGE 5 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx DISCUSSION (cont’d): participants to use alternative transportation to avoid the need to move their car during the event including taxi services or biking/walking. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee has started offering bike valet at some events to help alleviate the need to park or move cars. Staff is recommending that the Council discuss and provide direction on the idea of allowing unlimited parking in specific public parking lots (excluding residential areas) when special events are taking place. 2. Discuss and consider the closure of North Santa Cruz Avenue for the purpose of special events. For the first time in decades, the Town piloted multiple closures of N. Santa Cruz Ave. during the summer and fall of 2017 for special events. N. Santa Cruz Ave. was closed in July for the Town’s Red, White and Blue Block Party, for two days in August for the Kiwanis’ Fiesta de Artes event, and in September for the Chamber of Commerce’s Eat, Drink Los Gatos event. Each event was different in the scope, duration, and event activities, though highlighted some of the same concerns. Through these ev ents, staff identified the following items for the Council to consider: Traffic The closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. impacts traffic throughout Town as routes are diverted to get into and out of downtown. The Town is greatly impacted by summer cut through traffic and as a result has felt a shift in how/when residents and visitors access downtown to shop and dine. When the closure takes place during the summer months, the backup intensifies as there is the addition of the cut through traffic trying to move through Los Gatos. This summer the closing of N. Santa Cruz Ave. for events was an attempt to draw residents and visitors into downtown to support the local economy and the non- profits providing the event. The events were perceived to have a varying level of success for the stakeholders, and may have created more congestion. Beyond the immediate impact, there may be more difficult to measure and long-term benefits to the downtown through those visitors whom may have discovered new places to shop and dine, and returned on another date to patronizes the businesses. It is staff’s opinion that event traffic would be exponentially more congested if Wood Road were to remain open while N. Santa Cruz Ave is closed because portions of the beach traffic would no longer be diverted and would end up backing up into PAGE 6 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx DISCUSSION (cont’d): the residential areas surrounding N. Santa Cruz Avenue. Staff would not recommend allowing the closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. during the summer without a closure in place at Wood Road. Traffic Plan for Closures Considerable effort by event organizers and Town staff went into each closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. Should events continue to take place on N. Santa Cruz Avenue, based on the experiences this summer, staff recommends implementing a standard procedure and single fee for closing the road. This would include a standard closure area on N. Santa Cruz Ave. that does not exceed the area between Bachman Ave. to Main St. (with the exception of the parade, and short closures for bike/run races that have a path of travel). Events on N. Santa Cruz Ave. must be completely contained within this street closure to provide access around the events and limit pedestrian spill over onto open roadways. This means that the events held on N. Santa Cruz would not be permitted to also use any portions of Main Street, Montebello Way, or Town Plaza Park. Events using a Main Street closure must be contained between University Ave and N. Santa Cruz Ave. These events could include Town Plaza Park and may close Montebello Way and the portion of Broadway that is on the south end of Plaza Park. Such events could not include the closure of any portion of N. or S. Santa Cruz Ave. to allow appropriate vehicular access. Staff recommends that the fee schedule include a set fee for each road closure that would include a traffic plan, equipment and a contractor to implement the closure. Staff has done preliminary research and believe the cost to close this portion of N. Santa Cruz Ave would be approximately $3,500 -$4,000 inclusive of materials and staff/contractor costs. The Town would contract for this service to ensure standards are met. Staff is working to estimate an appropriate fee for closing Main Street and another for Montebello Way/Broadway for consideration with the proposed updated Fee Schedule. Notification When events and road closures take place downtown, a broader range of residents and businesses are affected by the change in traffic patterns and thus staff has been PAGE 7 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx DISCUSSION (cont’d): requiring more robust notification. Following each event, staff heard feedback that businesses were negatively impacted by the closure. Although it can be argued that events provide exposure to the Town, many businesses that rely on appointments, reservations, and quick customer service mentioned a decline during special events. Unless the Council has thoughts otherwise, staff would continue with this more expansive requirement. Vendors Vendor type and location during an event has been a topic that the Town heard feedback on following each event. To meet County Fire requirements, all temporary tents, tables, and structures must abut the curbs and sidewalks creating a wall in front of many merchants. Other jurisdictions provide guidelines on the type of vendors that are allowed within a business shopping district and where these vendors and other tents may locate during events in shopping areas; this may be an area of discussion for the Council to consider. Number of N. Santa Cruz Ave. Closures Per Year Considering the impact to the community, effort involved with a safe closure, and other considerations, staff recommends that closures of N. Santa Cruz Ave. be limited to a fixed number per year and not allow them to span for more than one calendar day due to impacts to brick and mortar businesses and security concerns. A starting point for this discussion could be a limit of four times per year, with the Children’s Holiday Parade counting as one of the four. If this recommendation is agreeable to the Council, the staff would appreciate direction on criteria for processing and approving any remaining events that request the closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. Based on the Town’s two years of experience with its Spring into Green event, the closure of Main Street between N. Santa Cruz Ave. and University Ave. is less impactful. Similarly, events utilizing Town Plaza Park and the surrounding closure of Montebello and Broadway are relatively easy to manage. For these reasons, staff is not recommending a limited number of closures for these street segments. PAGE 8 OF 8 SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS. December 27, 2017 S:\COUNCIL REPORTS\2018\01-16-18\16 - Town Events\Staff Report FINAL.docx CONCLUSION: Staff is recommending that the Town Council review and discuss special events in general, and provide direction on Town funding, in-kind services, street closures, and other event related matters. Through this discussion and the proposed framework provided by the Town Code, staff looks forward to clarifying the special event permit process so that special event organizers have clear guidelines, a streamlined process, and appreciation from the Town for offering events. Council’s direction is helpful, recognizing that staff will continue to work with event applicants throughout the permit process to adapt to new circumstances. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: It has been determined that there is no possibility that this project will have a significant impact on the environment; therefore, the project is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (Section 15061 (b)(3)). COORDINATION: The preparation of this report was completed by the Town Manager, Town Attorney, Interim Police Chief, Director of Parks and Public Works, Economic Vitality Manager, and Event and Marketing Specialist. FISCAL IMPACT: Based on the direction of the Council, fiscal impacts may be realized through the implementation of grant funding, fee increases or decreases, and/or in-kind subsidies for materials and services.