ITEM 9-A
Council Meeting: March 24, 1992 Santa Monica, California
TO: The Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Staff
SUBJECT: Revisions to Ordinance Pertaining to Performance Vending
on the Third Street Promenade
INTRODUCTION
This staff report recommends certain revisions to Street
Performer Ordinance No. 1597 as follows: 1) Require all
performers to register with the City; 2) remove the restriction
on the use of any amplified sound equipment in favor of an
alternative noise standard; 3) include an enforcement measure to
revoke a performer's registration upon three violations of the
ordinance; and 4) allow for scheduling of the central plaza (1300
block of Promenade). This report also documents the experience
of the City and performers under the ordinance, and summarizes
meetings between the City and performers addressing these
proposed revisions.
BACKGROUND
Since the completion of the Promenade and with its growing
success, the City has experienced a dramatic increase in the
number of street performers in the downtown. As a result of
retail, office, and residential tenant complaints the adoption of
standards was deemed necessary to control and monitor the number
of potential disturbances from street performers.
On August 22, 1991, special street performance regulations for
the Third Street Promenade were approved by the City Council
which outlined specific standards by which all performers must
abide. The Council was particularly concerned about the number
of performers, the length and location of certain acts, damage to
the surrounding landscape material, and the high level of noise
being generated by particular acts. At this Council meeting,
special regulations were put in place which were to be
immediately enforced by the City.
The emergency ordinance at the time outlined the following
standards:
1) No performer shall perform except during the following
time periods:
(i) 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
(ii) 2:00 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
(iii) 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Sunday through
Thursday.
(iv) 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
2) No performer shall perform during any special event
permitted by the City.
3) No performer shall perform in any area designated by the
City Manager as an area where performances may be
prohibited.
4) No performer shall construct, erect, or bring with him
or her any stage, platform, or other structure for use
during any performance.
5) No performer shall use any amplified sound equipment,
including any radio, tape player or similar electronic
device that utilizes a speaker.
6) No performer shall use any knife, sword, torch, flame,
axe, saw, or other object that can cause serious bodily
injury to any person.
7) Performers shall comply with the provisions of all noise
regulations of the City and in addition shall not
perform so loudly as to be heard inside the premises of
an adjacent building or structure while the entrance
door to the premises is closed.
8) Performers shall keep his or her performance site litter
free.
9) No performer shall block the entrance to any
establishment open business unless the performer has the
consent of the owner or operator of the establishment.
Council asked staff to report back to the Council to evaluate and
summarize the experience under the emergency ordinance. Council
also asked staff to work with the performers themselves and the
Bayside District Corporation staff to see if a system of
self-regulation could be established that would effectively
address these issues.
DISCUSSION
Over the past several months, City staff along with Bayside
District Corporation staff, worked with a committee of
performers, merchants and residents to evaluate the emergency
ordinance adopted by Council. The emergency ordinance immediately
established a set of standards by which the performers would
operate, thus successfully controlling the excessive number of
acts on the Promenade. It was also found that the performers were
committed to making the ordinance work. Finally, it became
evident during the evaluation period that certain refinements to
the ordinance needed to be made.
As a result of this evaluation a sub-committee of the performers
put forth a comprehensive proposal designed to address the
concerns of all interested parties and developed a plan for
self-management as requested by the Council. The central premise
of their plan is that restrictions on the number of performers
are unnecessary if certain guidelines are established. By
rotating the large acts to different parts of the Promenade the
performers hoped to avoid continuous noise, landscape damage, and
merchant complaints. This plan has been in operation over the
past several months and has served as the framework for the staff
evaluation.
The proposed plan provides a mechanism for both self-management
by the performers and input from the various interest groups on
the Promenade. Should any party have concerns about particular
aspects of a performer's conduct, this committee of performers
will work with all groups to resolve the difficulty. The
committee will continue to address the principal concerns of
noise, landscape damage, merchant revenue loss, and crowding of
public space. The committee has agreed to work with the Bayside
District Corporation on ways to distribute performers more evenly
along the entire Promenade. Since the plan calls for assigning
specific positions for given evenings to acts for purposes of
sound control, the committee will also make decisions about the
distribution of acts.
The Self-Management Plan
The plan includes a process where large acts will rotate on a
daily basis to different locations throughout the Promenade.
Each large act will be in a significantly different part of
the Promenade so as to not adversely impact the landscaped
areas. No large act will play the same spot two weekend
nights in a row. The committee will negotiate the specific
locations. Implementation of the rotation schedule will keep
a given merchant from hearing the same act all the time.
The committee has also consulted with merchants, and is now
implementing a merchant-created proposal to decisively
address merchant complaints related to excessive noise.
Under the plan, a synchronized schedule affecting large acts
(the ones drawing big crowds) and their impact on the
adjacent merchants is developed. There are many ways to form
such a schedule, and the committee is experimenting with
several.
In light of this performer self-management plan, City staff and
Bayside District staff feel that at this time it is not necessary
to numerically restrict the number of street performers on the
Promenade. As a result of this process, staff recommends the
following for inclusion in a revised ordinance:
1) Registration
All performers on the Promenade would be registered with the
City. Performers will file for this non-transferable
registration with the City Clerk's office. The registration
form will request information such as the names of all
performers, addresses, and type of act (including any
instruments or props). Upon satisfactory completion of the
registration form the performer will be issued an easily
identifiable badge which they must wear or display at all
times during performance. Upon registration the City Clerk
will distribute information regarding the self-management
plan and a copy of the ordinance outlining the specific
standards.
2) Noise
The emergency ordinance specifically prohibits the use of any
amplified sound equipment, including any radio, tape player
or similar electronic device which utilizes a speaker.
Due to the adverse impact of this regulation on certain low
volume performers and the merchants' acceptance of working
with the street performers' committee, City staff and Bayside
District Corporation are recommending that this restriction
be lifted and an alternative noise standard be developed.
Based upon staff consultation with the City of Los Angeles
and Beverly Hills Police Department, the noise standard would
regulate the sound level to be within five decibels of
ambient level at the property line. Such a standard would
regulate sound levels "at the point of reception", with no
distinction made as to how the sound is produced.
If this approach fails to remedy problems of excessive noise,
staff will return to City Council to request additional
restrictions be adopted.
3) Enforcement
Initially, the standards will be monitored for conformance on
two levels: 1) the designated street performer committee;
and 2) the Police Department. The committee will provide
additional and on-going notification about the ordinance to
performers registered with the City and on-the-spot
clarification of the standards to all performers. They will
essentially be on-call, and work with the merchants and
residents on noise level concerns and with the Bayside
District Corporation on landscape concerns. If a performer
wishes not to work under the direction of the committee and
at any time violates the ordinance, the Police will be
notified.
Upon three (3) violations of the ordinance as cited by the
Police Department, a performer's badge (registration) will be
revoked and they will be prohibited from performing on the
Promenade for a one (1)-year time period.
An experimental period of one (1) year will be set, upon
which the idea of performers self-management will be tested.
During this period, the City and Bayside District Corporation
will monitor street performer activities and assess the level
of any problems associated with noise and disruption.
4) Central Plaza Programming
In order to better manage the problems associated with large
crowds, trampling of the landscape material and excessive
noise staff recommends that the Bayside District Corporation
(BDC) be given responsibility for the scheduling of acts in
the central plaza. This would allow the City to more closely
monitor those performers drawing large crowds, while also
providing opportunities to program the space for uses other
than street performers.
The Bayside District Corporation, at times, uses this central
plaza area for community serving activities, and thus would
continue to offer opportunities for performance vending while
managing other programs at this site. In maintaining an
ongoing schedule, the BDC would work with the street
performer committee, adjacent merchants and residents, and
the City to ensure that the performance standards are adhered
to.
BUDGET/FISCAL IMPACT
There is no budgetary impact due to this report.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff respectfully recommends that City Council direct the City
Attorney to revise street performer ordinance No. 1597 as
outlined in this staff report.
Prepared by:
Barbara Stinchfield, Acting Director
Community Development Department
Darrell George, Manager
Economic Development Division
Community Development Department