TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager, in coordination with City Attorney, City Prosecutor, Police Chief, and Special Events and Filming, return to City Council with a proposal to address unpermitted events that pose a threat to the health and safety of our communities, in 90 days.
DISCUSSION
Public safety is of the highest concern to the Office of Special Events and Filming. To ensure the safety of the public at events, the Office of Special Events and Filming may require a magnitude of safety plans detailing all aspects of the event. In some cases, mainly in our coastal areas, Coastal Commission and Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board sign off is also required. Because of these requirements, event organizers are required to pay rather costly fees to host events so the City can recover some of its costs. For unpermitted events, the City and community is left scrambling to try to make arrangements with minimal notice and no cost recovery. These arrangements include pulling police officers off patrol and bringing in additional staffing across multiple departments.
The Granada Beach Parking Lot has become a popular destination for unpermitted events that neglect all aspects required to ensure the safety of attendees and community members. Emergency vehicles have no access. Our contracted parking enforcement team face harassment for ticketing when attendees park on sidewalks, accessible parking spots, emergency lanes, or refuse to pay for parking. Trash piles up, lines to restrooms get extremely long, and unwilling participants get trapped in traffic jams1. Without the necessary resources dedicated to respond to an event of hundreds without prior awareness via the approval and permitting process, our Police Department have issued citations but are mainly faced with the decision to shut down the parking lot or do their best to manage traffic.
The additional layer of challenge is that there is no designated Event Organizer as the events are pla...
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