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Other Background Information For the past 30 years, Eugene's downtown mall has been viewed as an area requiring some level of regulation to maintain the area in a manner that is conducive to a harmonious blend of civic, social, cultural, residential and economic pursuits. Regulation has been used to help maintain the area's balance of public and private interests with the goal of encouraging a pleasant place for civic and cultural events combined with commercial activities. In January 2004, the council asked the City Manager to revisit the ordinance as adopted on November 24, 2003, for the purpose of clarifying commercial versus non-commercial activities. Over the past weeks, city representatives and interested community members have met with the city attorney to discuss changes that could be made to temporary Administrative Rule R-3.336, adopted by Administrative Order No. 21-03-15, to resolve several problematic issues that had been identified. Following a positive meeting with a community coalition, the city attorney worked to revise both the Eugene Code concerning the downtown area, and Administrative Rule R-3.336 to remove all language not linked to commercial activities. In subsequent meetings, city representatives and community members were able to more clearly focus the areas of concern and reach agreement on a strategy to resolve these concerns while ensuring that the City of Eugene could provide necessary management of the Downtown area. This strategy has been applied to the draft Downtown Ordinance, (Attachment A) which has been amended to clearly apply only to commercial activities. All discussion of non-commercial gatherings, whether spontaneous or planned, has been removed from the draft ordinance. In addition, the charging of admission has been clarified as a determining factor in defining an activity as a "commercial event" which would be regulated by the ordinance. This removes "entertainment events" for which there are no admission charges from regulation by the Downtown Ordinance. Following the adoption by City Council of revisions to the Eugene Code concerning the Downtown area, Administrative Rule R-3.336 will be updated to correspond with the new ordinance. Within the next few months, discussion will also begin to develop a second ordinance that is currently being referred to as a "Parade/Gathering Ordinance." The development of this new ordinance will provide an opportunity for city representatives to work with the community coalition to design an effective process to facilitate parades and gatherings on public property. Essentially, by eliminating non-commercial gatherings from the Downtown Ordinance and Administrative Rule R-3.336, an opportunity has been created to resolve the issues of the size of gatherings, to re-focus the need for permits into the same context as all similar city processes (such as facility or park rentals), and to eliminate the need for insurance coverage for most small or spontaneous activities. Timing This is a work session only. Tentative dates for this item have been scheduled for a public hearing on May 10 and City Council action on May 24, 2004. OPTIONS The council has several options: 1. Proceed with the public hearing scheduled for May 10, 2004. 2. Make no changes to the Eugene Code concerning the Downtown area. 3. Identify additional modifications to the draft ordinance that staff should address prior to a public hearing. L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M040412\S040412C.doc