Council works on update to parade policy

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council hashed out ideas for updating the city’s street closure policy during its workshop meeting on Wednesday, March 26.

Prompted by street closure requests last year coming in uncomfortably close to the requested date, the council had previously asked applicants to file their requests earlier so that the Police Department has enough time and flexibility to schedule manpower for the event.

However, this has resulted in applications for street closures coming in several months ahead of time instead, encouraging the council to find a happy medium that can be codified into city policy.

“Two months would be a great time period,” said Police Chief Hugh Anderson.

Along with determining an appropriate timeframe, the biggest crux of discussion concerned the notification process as the council discussed the best way to balance making sure that businesses and residents are informed about a street closure without making it an unreasonable burden on the applicant.

While notifying neighbors when closing a street for a block party may be a relatively simple matter, larger instances such as parade routes are a much more difficult situation.

Community Development Director Mark Wicks noted that the annual Fourth of July Parade passes by more than 150 residential properties.

The council talked over different forms of notification options, discussing questions like who should mail notification be sent to, how many unanswered phone calls should be made, and how would one go about finding up-to-date contact information for businesses and residents in the first place.

“At some point you’ve got to draw a line or you’re not going to have any events,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

In the age of social media, the necessity of making an overt effort for parade route notifications was questioned.

“If a business doesn’t know it’s coming, then it’s not paying attention to other sources,” said council member Keith Starr. “We aren’t in the 1800s.”

Council member Patrick Lumley suggested that applicants should at least keep track of who has or hasn’t been contacted, but also asked how other cities, such as Clear Lake, handle their notification process for large events.

Discussion on the policy will continue at the next workshop.

In another instance of trying to find a balance between large and small projects in the city code, the council discussed a proposed change to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance that would extend the expiration date of conditional use permits and variances.

Under the current policy a variance or conditional use permit is valid for 90 days, expiring after that if a subsequent building permit has not been issued.

City Engineer John Fallis noted that while this may be ample time for smaller projects like a garage extension, bigger and more complex projects may take longer than three months to prepare the designs and documentation needed between the time a variance is issued and the time a project is ready for a building permit.

Fallis recommended a change to the ordinance that would allow for up to two years.

Council member Starr questioned why larger projects don’t have the design work done ahead of the variance request, with Fallis explaining that developers are reluctant to go to the expense of retaining professional designers for a project that doesn’t already have a variance. Starr also asked for a list of examples of projects where the 90-day limit has caused a problem.

Concerned about the city accumulating variances never to be used, council member DeLaine Freeseman suggested implementing an option to allow the Board of Adjustment or the city to extend the time limit for larger projects as needed.

“I don’t know that we need five years for every project that comes along,” said Freeseman.

In other business, the council reviewed a preliminary plan to resurface a portion of the Charley Western Trail. The work will consist of an overlay from Owen Street to Fifth Avenue and is expected to be done this summer between May and June.

The council also teleconferenced with Joe Vens of First MainStreet Insurance, where they discussed the pros and cons of different policies for the city’s upcoming renewal.