San Jose proposes looser rules for temporary outdoor events on private property

The City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs on a city-hosted outreach session presented proposed updates to the municipal code that would ease restrictions on temporary outdoor events on private property, aiming to make it easier for organizers to run recurring markets, cultural gatherings and neighborhood festivals.

City staff said the package of changes would let organizers hold up to 26 permitted events at a single location per year, expand maximum consecutive event days from three to four, add Thursday to the list of allowable late-hour event days in many neighborhoods, consolidate differing zoning adjacency rules, and remove the current code cap on how much of a private parking lot an event can occupy.

The changes, staff said, are intended to reduce barriers that currently push some organizers toward costly conditional use permits and special use permits for longer-term activity. "The goal is to make it easier for organizers to host, permitted events and vibrant community events," said Molina Iglesias, of the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, who led the session. Staff emphasized the proposals are focused on temporary uses and that permanent or semi-permanent infrastructure would still follow planning-approval paths such as CUPs or SUPs.

Under the draft revisions described by staff, frequency limits that were previously calculated in multi-month windows would be replaced by an annual cap of 26 events at the same location. "The biggest change that we're looking to do is we're looking to implement a change that would allow for 26 events to take place over the entire year in the…