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Council reviews proposed updates to street-closure and special-event code; police to have final permitting authority
Summary
Staff presented code cleanups and process changes for street closures and special events, including delegating final authority for non-construction street closures to the police chief, adding multi-department permitting via the city's permitting system, and considering proportional fees; staff said they are not recommending new fees at this time.
At a May 4 work session, Associate Planner Jeremiah Cromy presented proposed amendments to Title 12 governing street closures, encroachments and special events following issues from a recent Wednesday night market permit.
Staff said the changes would clarify who makes final decisions for non-construction street closures (designating the chief of police as final decision maker for special events, with capital engineering and public works review for arterials and collectors), establish application timelines (15 days for typical parade/closure applications), require multi-department review through the city's permitting system (openGov) and improve distribution lists (public affairs, fire, traffic safety). The code cleanup would also clarify temporary-encroachment limits and update frontage-improvement language to align with 2025 House Bill 2658.
Sergeant Ronning and other public-safety staff were present and described operational roles; staff said the automated permitting system should streamline reviews but they have not yet implemented it fully. Council discussed whether to set fees and emphasized that any fees should be proportional to administrative workload; staff noted they are not recommending fees at this time and will return with an ordinance for hearing and adoption.
Staff will return the proposed changes as a formal ordinance for adoption at a later meeting.
