Adrian City Commission presented with policy, fee increases to close downtown streets

ADRIAN — The rate to close downtown Adrian streets for an event — no matter what the size or draw of the event is — could be going up, by a lot.

The current $75 fee has been questioned by Adrian’s city administrator for some time, and the Adrian City Commission reviewed proposed new street closure fees Sept. 19.

Greg Elliott, Adrian’s city administrator, said he has been “kind of appalled” by how the city handles street closures, most notably it’s “cheap” and “unsafe” fee of $75 to close downtown Adrian for an event.

“All the time, we have people driving around barricades that we put up (downtown),” Elliott explained to the commission during its Sept. 19 premeeting study session. “It’s a cheap way to do it, and it allows the event organizers to just pull the barricades out themselves and pull them back when they are done. But it leads to safety issues. It leads to people driving around those barricades.”

After many reviews and discussions, Elliott, along with police chief Vince Emrick, fire chief Aric Massingill, engineering services director Matthew Tomaszewski, and Main Street director Jay Marks, reached a number of conclusions and formed a fee schedule proposal that was presented to the commission at last week’s premeeting. It would drastically change Adrian’s current rates for closing downtown streets as well as public parking lots and residential streets.

The proposed new fees and rules for closing downtown streets are:

• If downtown Adrian is requested to be closed for an event, all four blocks of downtown must be closed. Events cannot request to have less than all four blocks closed.

• Two of the downtown streets will be blocked off with manned emergency vehicles that can be moved in the event of an emergency happening downtown. The additional two downtown streets will be blocked off by department of public works (DPW) vehicles, which will be parked in such a way that vehicles cannot pass around them and drive through the event space.

• Event organizers must pay a deposit of $250, which is refundable, prior to the event and the closure of downtown. The $250 will be refunded if downtown is cleaned and maintained properly during and after the event by the organizer.

• A $650 fee would be charged separate from the $250 refundable fee is the proposed cost of closing downtown streets for an event. That amount was determined by the department heads involved in the process.

Elliott said by using city vehicles as barricades the city would save money as opposed to purchasing large and expensive movable barricades, some of which would increase the proposed costs of closing downtown and would not be feasible for quick removal.

Another issue that prompted Elliott and the department heads to review the fee schedule for closing downtown was the lack of criteria. The city, Elliott said, does not specify who or what kind of an event can close downtown Adrian.

“I could come in tomorrow and pay my $75 and close downtown,” Elliott said. “It can’t be that arbitrary and capricious. We need to have a methodology for deciding whether an event should be one that can close a downtown street.”

To facilitate that process and help with the decision-making, all street closure requests would be reviewed by Adrian’s Downtown Development Authority, Elliott said. There are certain things the DDA will be looking for when reviewing an application, Marks said.

The No. 1 priority, Marks said, is the event needs to be open to the public. The proposal will not allow private events to close downtown streets.

The second priority, Marks said, was there needs to be a history or significance to the event in order for downtown Adrian to be closed to traffic.

“So a first-year event with an unknown population, we probably don't want to be closing the streets,” Marks said. “We want to see at least 1,000 people downtown before we start closing streets from a business perspective. We want to make sure that we're being fair to our downtown businesses, and we're bringing in the appropriate crowds. We'd hate to see 500 people or 250 people closing all four streets.”

The proposal, Elliott said, is also aiming to relocate smaller and private events to the Farmers Market Pavilion along Toledo Street. The current rental rate for the pavilion is $400, which Elliott called a realistic charge.

Commissioner Allen Heldt said a $75 fee to close downtown Adrian for an event seems somewhat arbitrary. He appreciated the insight provided to what constitutes a downtown event.

“I've had people complain to me about closing (downtown) streets for lesser events,” Heldt said. “Artalicious, for example, is the big one where they bring so many people into downtown, but there's been a lot of other (street) closures that have not.”

The Artalicious Fine Arts Fair took place Sept. 17-18 and celebrated its 15th anniversary.

“I love the idea of encouraging people to use the pavilion," Commissioner Mary Roberts said, "especially once we get bathrooms and better lighting and electricity over there.”

Changes in fees were also proposed for parades and parking lot closures.

Those wanting to have a parade in Adrian will be charged a fee of $200 and will need to apply for the parade at least 30 days or more in advance of when it is to happen. The city will offer parade organizers three basic parade routes: routes that follow the Civitan of Lenawee Fourth of July parade, the Lenawee County Fair parade or the Adrian Public Schools homecoming parade.

Personalized parade routes can still be designed, Elliott said, but there will be an extra charge of $25 per intersection beyond those that are on the standard routes.

The Adrian Police Department handles at least 20 or more parades each year, Emrick said, and it continues to become more difficult to bring on extra staff to assist with parades and to reroute traffic.

“So, by having three (routes) to choose from right off the bat, we already know the traffic pattern and we can set up for it. It is that much easier for us,” Emrick said.

The city is also requiring 30 days' notice for the possible closure of a downtown parking lot and the closure of a residential street. Both closures will be charged $150 but have some differences.

Downtown businesses are the only ones that can request a public parking lot to be closed. Residential streets can be blocked off with traditionally used barricades and must have a petition signed by at least 50% of the residents on the street.

Public entities and veterans group will not be charged any of the proposed fees, Elliott said.

If the commission agrees with the policy, an addendum to the fee schedule would be added, Elliott said, and it would be acted upon at a future meeting. Since the proposal was introduced for the first time at last week’s premeeting, there was no action taken on the policy.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian considers fee increases to close downtown streets