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City’s Street Activity Permit Office outlines rules, moratorium and new eApply features for Queens events
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Summary
The Street Activity Permit Office (SAPO) presented permit categories, deadlines and new CEMS/eApply features to Queens community board members, explained a moratorium on multi-block street festivals since February 2007, and agreed to follow up on several technical and outreach issues raised by boards.
Don Tolson, executive director of Citywide Event Coordination and Management (CECM), told Queens Borough Cabinet members that the office issues permits for street, sidewalk, curb-lane and plaza activities and coordinates with city, state and federal partners on large events.
"Citywide Event Coordination and Management, we are the office of the mayor that works with all of the agencies ... to pull together and support all types of events that occur citywide," Tolson said during the presentation.
The Street Activity Permit Office (SAPO) staff described the city’s permit categories (block parties, street events of varying sizes, plaza events, single-block festivals, and street festivals), key deadlines and fee differences by borough, and new features in the CEMS/eApply applicant and reviewer databases used by community boards to comment on permit requests.
SAPO staff emphasized that block parties remain the most-permitted activity and still require a 90-day filing window; they said single-block street fairs are the only SAPO category that may sell goods, while multi-block, multi-day street festivals remain under a moratorium established in February 2007. "If you did not have a street fair in 02/2007, you're not gonna have one today because we have stopped," SAPO staff said.
The office also described operational distinctions it uses when categorizing events: "street events" can close more than one block but cannot sell goods if not categorized as a street fair; "plaza events" are sized by percent of plaza occupied (small <25%, medium 25–50%, large >50%); "health fairs" should provide free services rather than paid program sign-ups; and "civic events" must be sponsored by a nonprofit, be open to the public and not be for fundraising.
SAPO walked the boards through the reviewer side of CEMS/eApply and new features intended to reduce back-and-forth and missing paperwork, including a documents checklist, an email correspondence tab, a copy feature for repeat applicants, violation tracking, conflict maps and automated notifications. Staff said the system shows pending/approved events, agency comments (NYPD, Parks, DOT, Film), and flags when an application has changed.
Community board members raised problems they’ve seen in Queens: NYPD comments not appearing in the reviewer view; applicants not contacting community boards or failing to upload petition/outreach materials; late approvals that leave organizers little time to book services; and fees that can appear high for very small, short closures. SAPO staff acknowledged those problems, said they would troubleshoot specific CEMS visibility issues with Paresh Patel (director of operations), and offered to add a dedicated upload category for petitions or board-required documents.
SAPO staff also said the office is testing more automated email visibility for applicants (so correspondence is accessible from within the application), added a print button for budget-like pages, and is refining the violation and notification flows. They noted sustainability plans are being requested for larger events and reminded boards of ADA, fire-lane and insurance requirements (one-million-dollar insurance for most full-street events).
Community board members asked SAPO to make community-board-specific restrictions and contact information easier for applicants to find; SAPO said the resource library and the instructions tab in eApply currently contain that contact information and that they are updating the public website and resource pages. SAPO also committed to return to community boards for targeted trainings and to accept suggested interface improvements for CEMS/eApply.
Staff concluded by asking boards to continue uploading resolutions and evidence into the correspondence tab when applicants do not appear before the board or fail to perform outreach, and reminded members that community boards have a five-day comment window on which appeals are based. "Every single SAPO application is subject to your review," SAPO staff said; they added that denials trigger an automatic email and an applicant has the required appeal window under SAPO rules.
The presentation closed with SAPO offering to work directly with community boards on login and notification issues, and with follow-up contact information to be distributed after the meeting.
