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Home My WebLink About08/03/2001, C6 - REDUCTION IN ADMINISTRATIVE USE PERMIT FEES FOR SPECIAL EVENTS SPONSORED BY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION councit M dqD� _3-or j ac En as RepoRt 1�Nmbv c CITY O F SAN LUIS OBISPO FROM: Bill Statler, Director of Finance �W— SUBJECT: REDUCTION IN ADMINISTRATIVE USE PERMIT FEES FOR SPECIAL EVENTS SPONSORED BY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS CAO RECOMMENDATION Adopt a resolution reducing administrative use permit fees for special events sponsored by non- profit organizations from $646 to$50. DISCUSSION Background Special Events Held on City Property or Right-of-Way. Currently, any organization (whether for-profit or non-profit) that wants to hold a special event on City-owned property (like Mission Plaza) or in the right-of-way (such as a parade or street closure) must apply for a special event permit. The application review process is coordinated by the Parks & Recreation Department, and there is a $50 application fee that minimally offsets the City's review costs. The review process typically involves the Police, Fire and Public Works Departments, and for more complicated events, includes other departments as well. In addition to this application fee, event sponsors must pay the full cost of any direct City costs, such as Public Works staff for setting-up street barricades and Police officers for security. (In the case of non-profits, however, there is no charge under our current policy for the first $1,000 of City support service costs. Since many special event costs by non-profits fall under this amount, there are no support service fees assessed at all for many special events.) Additionally, if City property is used, our standard rental fee (such as $348 per day for Mission Plaza and other City parks) is also required. Special Events Held on Private Property. For "special events" on private property (such as parades, carnivals, fairs, festivals, musical events and non-profit benefits), there is a similar review process, but it is coordinated by Community Development. These "special events" fall under the broader category of "temporary and intermittent uses" under the City's zoning regulations (Municipal Code Section 17.08.010), and also include auctions, estate sales, educational conferences, parking lot sales, clothing outlet sales, car shows, construction activities and real estate sales offices in tracts. All of these temporary uses require an administrative use permit issued by the Community Development Director, for which the application fee is $646. Our most common issuance of an administrative use permit for temporary uses is for"for-profit" purposes where there may be significant land use concerns. In these cases, the administrative use permit fee of $646 (set at 45% of total costs per the City's user fee cost recovery policy) is reasonable. Cl0 Council Agenda Report—Administrative Use Permit Application Fees Page 2 However, on rare occasions, special events may be held on private property but sponsored by a non-profit organization, generally as a fund-raiser unrelated to the underlying for-profit use of the site. In this case, the review process looks more like that for a special event than a regulatory land use issue. There are currently two upcoming special events sponsored by non-profit organizations that will require an administrative use permit (and payment of the $646 application fee): e Fund-raiser by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) on the field adjacent to the Madonna Inn. ■ Outdoor showing of a film by the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival at Cafe Roma. In these two cases, the underlying purpose for the review is more like our special event permit process, where the City deeply discounts our review costs to applicants, than consideration of land use issues, where the City expects higher (although not full) cost recovery. As such, it would be consistent with current policy to set administrative use permit application fees for special events sponsored by non-profit organizations held on private property at the same level as application fees for special events held on City property or in the right-of-way. Proposed Fee Revision We are not recommending any changes to our special event review process or zoning regulations at this time. However, we believe that the review fee for special events sponsored by non-profit organizations should be the same whether it is held on private or City property. As such, we recommend reducing administrative use permit fees for special events sponsored by non-profit organizations from $646 to $50. Because the special event application fee may change over time, and we want the fees to be the same, we recommend setting this fee through a reference to the special event permit application fee in the resolution rather than stating a specific amount. In the event that there are unintended consequences from this fee reduction, it will be easy to remedy, since we are only revising our fee schedule, not the underlying regulations or review process. Special Event Application Fees As noted above, our current special event permit application fee is set far below our actual processing costs. Since this will be considered as part of a comprehensive review of the City's special event policies and procedures scheduled for Fall 2001, we recommend deferring any consideration of related costs and fees until then, and only focus at this time on the "parity" issue of special event versus administrative use permit application fees for non-profit organizations. CONCURRENCES The Departments of Community Development and Parks & Recreation concur with this recommendation. c�z Council Agenda Report—Administrative Use Permit Application Fees Page 3 FISCAL IMPACT There will be a very minor loss of revenues with this revision. ALTERNATIVES 1. Retain the current administrative use permit application fee for special events sponsored by non-profit organizations. This will mean charging the EOC and San Luis Obispo Film Festival $646 each for this fee. 2. Defer consideration of a fee change until Fall 2001 when we are scheduled to comprehensively review special event permit policies and procedures. This option will also result in charging the EOC and San Luis Obispo Film Festival $646 each for this fee. 3. Pending this fuller evaluation, grant the EOC and San Luis Obispo Film Festival a reduction in the administrative use permit application fee for their upcoming events to $50. Given the straightforward issue of creating panty in special event permit application fees for non-profit organizations regardless of whether they are held on City or private property, we do not recommend any of these alternatives. ATTACHMENTS Resolution amending administrative use permit application fees for special events sponsored by non-profit organizations G:Council Agenda Reports/Special Event Administrative Use Fees Gln-3 ATTACHMENT RESOLUTION NO. (2001 Series) A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO AMENDING ADMINISTRATIVE USE PERMIT APPLICATION FEES FOR SPECIAL EVENTS SPONSORED BY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS WHEREAS, an Administrative Use Permit is required for temporary uses such as parades, carnivals, fairs, festivals, musical events and non-profit benefits (hereinafter referred to as "Special Events") sponsored by non-profit organizations and held on private property; and WHEREAS, the review process for Special Events in these cases is similar to that for Special Events held on City property or in the right-of-way. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of San Luis Obispo that the Administrative Use Permit application fee for Special Events sponsored by non-profit organizations (as defined under Section 501c(3) of the Internal Revenue Code) is hereby set at the same amount as Special Event Permit application fees. Upon motion of seconded by and on the following roll call vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: the foregoing resolution was adopted this day of , 2001. Mayor Allen Settle ATTEST: Lee Price, City Clerk APPROVED AS TO FORM: Wre . C-6- ZING AGENDA SRR LOIS ORISPO DATE 0"3`DI ITEM # 1 N T E R N A T 1 0 N A L FILM FESTIYRL July 29, 2001 Mayor Allen Settle and Members of San Luis Obispo City Council rC,PUNCIL ❑ CDD DIR City Hall DIR 990 Palm Street _ A 60 ❑ FIRE CHIEF San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 �G NEv ❑ PW DIR LEftORIG ❑ POLICE CHF ❑ DEPT HEADS O REC DIR Attn: Wendy George, Assistant City Administrator lid - ❑ LITIL DIR F r HAR Dear Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council: I am writing on behalf of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, to express our support of the proposed amendment reducing the administrative use permit fee to $50.00 where the use will be temporary, by a non-profit organization, and on private property. Currently, the permit fee is $625.00. The Film Festival is planning an outdoor screening of"Roman Holiday" on August 24. The film will be shown on the back wall of Cafe Roma, and seating will be in the parking lot of The Alano Club. Cafe Roma is providing a light meal. The event is to be a fundraiser for us, to help us put on the Festival and thereby promote tourism in the area. The current fee of$625.00 is prohibitive, and would prevent us from going forward with the screening. To put this in perspective, the current fee for a permit to film a movie in San Luis Obispo, a process which can potentially disrupt local business, is about$300.00. Thus, ii makes no sense to charge $625.00 for a group to show a movie, on private property, with the permission of all property owners. Obviously, other non-profits would benefit from the reduction of this fee. It is our understanding that this cost would then be in parity with applications for temporary use of public property by non-profit organizations. The permit process will remain intact, yet affordable. Accordingly, we support the staff recommendation to approve this change in fees. Respectfully su mitted, � RECEIVED Mary P./Harris Executive Director JUL 3 cf 2001 SLO CITY COUNCIL P . O . Boz 1449 • San Luis Obispo • CB • 93406 • BOS . 546 . FILM JACEnN G,3,, AGENDA C ITEM #� EIOC � 1030 SOUTWOOD DRIVE SAN LUIS OBISPO CALIFORNIA 93401 ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION • SINCE 1965 (805) 544-4355 FAX(805) 549-8388 August 1, 2001 COUNCIL CI qP@ DIR f9'0ErFIN DIR 0 ❑ FIRE CHIEF Mayor Allen Settle and ORNEY 0 PW DIR Council Mumnbers CL RK/ORIf3 n POLICE CHF City of San Luis Obispo ❑ T H M REC DIR ® UTIL DIR 990 Palm Street M HR DIR San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Dear Mayor Settle and Council Members: Thank you fur considering a use permit fee reduction for nonprofits in the community. As you are aware nonprofits in Health and Human Services, arts organizations, youth related groups, and other community based organizations must fundraise annually to coninue services in the community. All nonprofit budgets depend on underwriting for fundraisers, as well as any fee reductions where appropriate. Volunteers carTy out the majority of fundraising efforts and must cut every comer possible to increase the bottom line for needed services or programs. We at EOC appreciate the Community Development Department forwarding this request for your rev Ow and consideration. We appreciate any possible fee reduction that can be passer on to the nonprofit community from the City of San Luis Obispo. If y;ru have additional questions,please give Ken McMillan,Director of Administration for.FOC, a call at 544-4355. I will be in the Bay area wher,you deliberate. Sine y, Elizabeth "l_�-iz" Stet', crg Executive Dirccf RECEIVED cc: Ker.: Iampian, San Luis Obispo City Administrator Wendy George, Assistant City Administrator S `tCI � 2�� SLO CITY COUNCIL •Child Care Resource Connection•Emergency Services•Energy Conservation • Weatherimtion Services •Family Planning Services•Head Start•Homeless Shelter•Migrant Child Care•Senior Health Screening• 'teen Parenting Program wmcavuay