Title
Resolution to Waive Park Space Rental Fee for Liberty Plaza
Memorandum
The Park Advsiory Commission’s Downtown Park Subcommittee has been working to identify best practices for successful urban parks and plazas. A recurring theme is that successful downtown parks are activated through planned programming.
Liberty Plaza is commonly perceived as difficult to activate. There have been, however, notable exceptions. For a number of years, Herb David Guitar Studio hosted music in the park. More recently, the Bank of Ann Arbor has used Liberty Plaza as the venue for their popular Sonic Lunch series. In each of these cases, fees for the rental of the park space have been waived to encourage activity.
In an attempt to further activate Liberty Plaza, PAC is recommending that fees for the rental of park space be waived for a one-year trial basis, through July 1, 2014. The waived rental fee will be promoted with a goal of attracting additional musicians, performers, and other events at Liberty Plaza.
Eliminating rental fees at Liberty Plaza would also enable ‘Pizza in the Park’ or similar humanitarian efforts to continue without the financial constraints of park fees. Such an approach would simultaneously remove the need for staff to determine which activities are worthy of waiving fees. Instead, any number of social, cultural, and recreational activities that are of benefit to the community could take advantage of the proposed fee waiver.
While the rental fee would be waived, direct costs the City might incur for an event would be charged to the user. Examples of such costs could include electricity, site cleanup, and equipment rental. All groups wishing to reserve Liberty Plaza would apply for a permit. The permit would outline the respective obligations of the permittee and City. Additionally, approved events are still subject to all other park rules unless specifically waived for an event.
PAC will review the efficacy of this fee waiver prior to July 1,...
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