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Proposed parks and events fee schedule draws strong objections from festival organizers and residents
Summary
Parks staff presented a new 12‑page fee schedule to standardize facility, vendor and special-event charges; organizers and residents warned spikes and layered administrative fees could make many local festivals financially unviable. Council agreed to form an ad hoc review and asked staff for example event-cost breakdowns before final adoption.
Parks and Recreation Director Emily Moore presented a comprehensive revision of the city’s fee schedule — expanding line items for equipment rentals, vendor fees, and impact-based special-event charges — and said the goal was to strike a balance between cost recovery and community access.
Multiple event organizers and residents described the proposal as "sticker shock," citing examples where a small change in requirements (dumpster, portable toilets, traffic control) would dramatically raise event costs. Patrick Cleary, a longtime festival organizer, told council the proposal could double or more the cost of running events such as the Bluegrass Festival: "My cost to put it on the festival this year would go from, $5.50, I think, last year, to about 2,200, making it probably something that we can't keep sustaining." (public commenter, speaker 12). Council members expressed support for staff’s intent to recover real costs but agreed the proposed schedule needs more community input and example calculations; they directed an ad hoc committee to meet with organizers and bring back refined numbers and recommended thresholds for manager-level waivers.
