The Parks & Recreation Advisory Board recommended amending the city’s existing code provision for hotel beach concessions so that once a hotel’s initial license and license agreement are approved by the city commission, annual renewals would be handled administratively by the city manager or designee and processed by Parks & Recreation staff.

Carl, the parks director, told the board the current process requires annual commission approval of each participating hotel’s renewal and that staff seeks to streamline the recurring administrative step. “What I'm asking for today as a recommendation to commission is that we want to eliminate the administrative component of always going to commission annually,” he said, noting the program typically has between six and nine hotels participating and that renewals start in January.

Under the change proposed by staff and approved by the advisory board, a new hotel’s initial application and license agreement would continue to go to the city commission for approval. Once a hotel has commission approval and a license agreement in place, the city manager or designee would have authority to review and approve annual renewals administratively, subject to required insurance and risk‑management review.

Board members asked whether longer license terms (for example, multi‑year licenses) had been considered; staff said the annual cadence was primarily to verify insurance and risk coverage each year. The board approved a motion authorizing the city manager or designee to review and approve annual license renewals for hotels adjacent to the beach, and to direct staff to prepare the ordinance amendment and associated license agreement language for commission consideration.

If the commission adopts the change, staff said renewals would be processed each year beginning with an October‑to‑January renewal window and would include risk‑management review of insurance and limits required of licensees. The board noted that any new hotel applying to offer on‑beach food and alcohol would still need commission approval for the initial license.