Item 4 - Downtown Area Ordin. - Laserfiche WebLink

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Financial and/or Resource Considerations None. Other Background Information For the past 30 years, regulation in Eugene's downtown 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 and residential and economic pursuits. In January 2004, the council directed the City Manager to revisit the Downtown Ordinance which was adopted on November 24, 2003, to clarify the issue of regulation of commercial versus non-commercial activities in Eugene's downtown. A City Council work session was held on April 12, 2004, to report on the progress made to resolve the public' s and council' s concerns. For several weeks prior to the council work session, City representatives and a community coalition met with the City's attorneys to develop changes to the Downtown Ordinance and the temporary Administrative Rule R-3.336, adopted by Administrative Order No. 21-03-15. Working together, City representatives and community members were able to more clearly focus the areas of concern and reach agreement on a strategy to resolve these issues while ensuring that the City of Eugene could provide necessary management of the downtown area. This strategy has been applied to the proposed ordinance, (Attachment A), which applies only to commercial activities. All discussion of non-commercial gatherings, whether spontaneous or planned, has been removed from the proposed 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. During the public hearing which was held on May 10, 2004, questions were raised regarding the closure of the Broadway Plaza between 11 p.m. of one day and 6 a.m. of the following day, which is consistent with park and open space hour restrictions. The proposed ordinance continues to provide in Eugene Code 4.872 (2) (j) closure at 11 p.m. with the provision that "except that moving through the plaza without stopping is not prohibited. The prohibition of this subsection (j) may be enforced in the same manner as enforcement of the adopted Park and Open Space Rules, including issuance of a notice of restriction of use to violators." While later hours are indeed an option for any restricted location including the Broadway Plaza, staff recommends closure of the Broadway Plaza between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to provide consistency with use of other parks and park-like spaces to limit potential problems associated with noise and litter that can disturb people in the area during late night and early morning hours. At the Public Hearing, a further question was asked regarding the public safety difference between standing in the middle of Broadway Plaza at midnight and standing on the corner of Broadway and Willamette Streets. Essentially, an individual or a small group can stand on the sidewalk of Broadway and Willamette Streets at any hour of the day or night. There is a difference between a sidewalk, roadway, or other thoroughfare and a place providing not only passage but gathering opportunities. To be enforceable, a definitive boundary between spaces must be established. In this case as is the case with a park, the space is primarily intended as a gathering place as opposed to the nearby sidewalk which is intended primarily for passage and there are restrictions against blocking passage. Following the adoption by City Council of the proposed ordinance concerning the Downtown area, Administrative Rule R-3.336 will be updated to correspond with the new ordinance, including the addition of standards to be used by the City to determine which items may be sold by street vendors. L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M040524\S0405244.doc