Staff Report
PREPARED BY: CHRISTINA HILL
Event and Marketing Specialist
Approved by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, Economic Vitality Manager, 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: 02/20/18
ITEM NO: 07
DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2018
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 continue to review and discuss special events in
general, and provide direction on Town funding, in-kind services, street closures, and other
event related matters.
BACKGROUND:
Beginning in May 2017, Town staff has been working to streamline the special event permit
process and create clear and simplified guidelines. Since that time, the Town Council has had
several event related discussions, including the adoption of a Town Code amendment.
At their January 16, 2018 meeting, the Town Council discussed special events in general,
focusing on four main issues including: grant funding for events; event fee structure; road
closures; and, parking. During public comment, speakers voiced concerns about the items
being discussed and requested more time to meet with staff to better understand the
recommendations. The Council moved to continue the item to the February 20, 2018 meeting
and asked staff to meet with community event organizers and provide the opportunity for
further community discussion.
Following this direction, community event organizers were invited to participate in an online
survey (Attachment 1), and special events round table discussion. The round table discussion
PAGE 2 OF 6
SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE
DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND
OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS.
DATE: February 7, 2018
BACKGROUND (Cont’d):
was held on January 29, 2018. Eleven community event organizers attended the meeting and
the majority of them had worked together to provide staff with a list of considerations
(Attachment 2). Other discussion points from this meeting are integrated into this report.
DISCUSSION:
As the Town Council continues its discussion, staff has provided additional information below,
including some of the considerations provided by our community event organizers. For those
items where additional information has not been identified, staff has provided a brief
description based on what was presented at the January 16, 2018 Town Council meeting.
1. Discuss and consider a Special Event Grant program or other funding mechanism.
As discussed previously, a grant process could be considered as a way to assist community
event organizers. The feedback staff received from stakeholders indicated support of a grant
program if the process is simple, and awarded annually based on the community benefit/value
that the event provides.
Staff has benchmarked similar municipalities and found that all those contacted require full
payment for public services and fees associated with special events; however, each of those
jurisdictions also offers some type of cost-assistance program (either through grants or
subsidies) to selected events approved by their Councils or committees. Attachment 3
illustrates the benchmarked data.
If the Council would like to establish a Special Event Grant program, funds could be considered
in the mid-year budget review taking place later on the agenda of this meeting. A Special
Events Grant program should be administered under the umbrella framework of the already
existing community grants program awarded to Los Gatos Arts and Community Service
providers. If the Council would like to create a grant category for Special Event Grants, it should
identify the amount of funding for this purpose. For context, the Arts, Cultural, and Educational
Community Grants Program had a total budget of approximately $20,000 for each of the last
two fiscal years. The distribution of the Special Event Grant awards could occur in one of two
ways, or in another manner deemed appropriate by the Town Council:
a. Divide the total amount of grant funding evenly amongst a specified number of
grant recipients. For example, if $10,000 is allotted for a Special Events Grant
program, five organizations would receive $2,000 each for their event.
PAGE 3 OF 6
SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE
DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND
OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS.
DATE: February 7, 2018
DISCUSSION (cont’d):
b. Distribute funding based on the specific event elements such as assigning a
percentage or a flat rate to certain items. The amount awarded to each recipient
could also be capped at a percentage of their total estimated event expenses.
The Community Grant application process is now underway with an application deadline of
March 5, 2018. If the Council provides direction on this new program, staff would work with
event organizers to publicize the opportunity and encourage participation.
As an alternative to a grant program, the Council could consider a Town-subsidized fees and
services model, as some other local municipalities provide to their organizers. If this model is
preferred, staff recommends that the Council consider the caveat that the Town staff may not
always be available to provide the service given workload and staffing limits. If third party
vendors were used, the Town would not be able to subsidize those costs. This model would
require an application process and criteria to determine the organizations who should be
awarded the funds.
2. Discuss and consider the closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. for the purpose of special events.
In the summer and fall of 2017 the Town allowed the closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave . for special
events to understand if this closure could help alleviate some of the summer cut through traffic
and provide a draw for residents and visitors to visit downtown. These closures provided the
opportunity for staff and event organizers to evaluate the impacts on downtown and the
surrounding community. The staff is recommending that the Council provide direction on
guidelines and procedures for allowing the closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. for events considering
the following:
a. Closure of N. Santa Cruz Ave. during the summer: As staff observed and evaluated
the traffic impact of summer events combined with the cut through traffic Los Gatos
experiences in the summer, it is staff’s opinion that Wood Rd. would need to be
closed on a regular basis if the Council would like to continue having N. Santa Cruz
Ave. closed for events in the summer (Memorial Day through Labor Day). Without
the ongoing closure, cut through traffic intending to use N. Santa Cruz Ave. heading
south, would most likely end up using the residential neighborhoods streets
surrounding downtown.
b. Limitation of number of events that close N. Santa Cruz Ave.: While the events of
2017 held on N. Santa Cruz Ave. yielded positive results in many ways, staff received
feedback that they also impacted neighboring businesses, residents, and traffic less
favorably in many cases. It was also discovered that a large amount of Town staff
PAGE 4 OF 6
SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE
DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND
OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS.
DATE: February 7, 2018
DISCUSSION (cont’d):
resources are required to ensure that each event is set up and carried out in the
safest possible manner for the community. Given this, staff recommends limiting
the annual number of closures of N. Santa Cruz Ave. to four events, including the
annual Holiday Children’s Parade; and, only allowing single day closures of N. Santa
Cruz Ave.
c. Implementation of a standard fee and traffic control plan for closures of N. Santa
Cruz Ave.: To be consistent and provide partnership with event organizers
coordinating events on N. Santa Cruz Ave., Town staff is recommending that the
Town provide a standard approved traffic plan to event organizers to use to
implement the street closure. This plan would include a standard closure on N.
Santa Cruz Ave., between Main St. and Bachman Ave., and would be provided at no
cost to the event organizers. The Town would absorb the cost of plan preparation.
The event organizer would then need to contract with a professional traffic control
company to implement the closure. Town staff would conduct a site visit and
inspect the closure before the start of the event to ensure that the specification s of
the traffic plan have been met. There would be a street closure inspection fee
collected for this service, and it would be identified in the comprehensive fee
schedule analysis provided to the Council later this year.
Staff had originally intended to present the Council with an all-inclusive type of
package for road closures on N. Santa Cruz Ave., however after further discussion
and consideration, staff determined that it was not feasible due to a variety of
concerns including workload, staffing levels, and the associated costs that would be
passed along to the event organizers. For newly proposed road closures, not on N.
Santa Cruz Ave. between Main St. and Bachman Ave., the event organizer would be
responsible for the cost of developing a traffic control plan, and this would be
evaluated by staff on an as needed basis.
d. Implementation of a standard fee and traffic control plan for closures of Montebello
and the portion of Broadway in front of the Post Office : Staff is also recommending
that the Town prepare a similar traffic closure plan for these streets to assist event
organizers with the use of Town Plaza Park and the two adjacent streets. As
mentioned previously, pedestrian safety concerns necessitate that event organizers
need to choose between an event location that would close N. Santa Cruz Ave. or
utilize Town Plaza Park, but not both.
PAGE 5 OF 6
SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE
DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND
OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS.
DATE: February 7, 2018
DISCUSSION (cont’d):
3. Discuss and consider allowing unrestricted timed parking in Town lots for events.
Past events have requested the ability to allow the timed parking spaces in Town lots to be
unrestricted during downtown events. The relaxed time restriction would only apply to public
parking lots, and the timed spots along public streets in the C-2, where residential permit
requirements are not in place. In their special events guidelines requests, as shown in
Attachment 2, the service clubs and non-profits groups request that Council eliminate restricted
parking hours during special events and that no fee be imposed for this option.
The Transportation and Parking Commission recently completed a study and observed that a
normal Saturday has less impact on unlimited parking than during the week. The results of the
study indicated that an average of 83% of unrestricted spots were occupied at the peak (noon),
compared to 92% during the week (Friday at noon). However, on any given day where there is
an event taking place downtown with the potential to draw a much larger group of visitors,
parking can quickly become very limited. Given that most events take place on Saturdays or
Sundays, and parking is enforced only on Saturdays between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., staff
recommends allowing unrestricted timed parking during approved special events.
4. Other discussion items:
Through the continued outreach, staff observed that many of the concerns of the community
event organizers are centered around the unknown of new fees being identified and current
fees being elevated out of reach. Aside from a fee for road closure inspections, staff does not
anticipate any new fees being added to the Town’s Fee Schedule related to special events.
Following the review and anticipated adoption of the Comprehensive Fee Schedule later this
year, any fees that are being adjusted will not take effect until 90 days after the Council’s
adoption (September 2018). Therefore, the current fee schedule remains in effect as it was last
summer.
CONCLUSION:
Staff is recommending that the Town Council discuss and provide direction on a grant program,
N. Santa Cruz Ave closures, event fees, and parking as they relate to special events. Through
the Council’s direction on these items, and the previously approved amendments to the Special
Event Permit section of the Town Code, staff looks forward to continuing to work with
community event organizers to provide a positive and supported streamlined permit process.
PAGE 6 OF 6
SUBJECT: REVIEW AND DISCUSS SPECIAL EVENTS IN GENERAL, AND PROVIDE
DIRECTION ON TOWN FUNDING, IN-KIND SERVICES, STREET CLOSURES, AND
OTHER EVENT RELATED MATTERS.
DATE: February 7, 2018
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.
Attachments:
1. Special Events Survey Results
2. Service Clubs’ Requests
3. Special Events Benchmarking Summary