Criteria for future downtown events, festivals, street and parking lot closures established

Downtown business owners gathered for a third and final time Thursday evening, February 13, with Town staff and Envision Meeting Facilitator Chips Lickson to finalize recommendations on future guidelines for downtown events requiring the closing of portions of, or the entirety of, the East Main Street business corridor and Village Commons area. Majority consensuses had been established on preferred criteria at the previous meeting.

So, early Thursday evening at the Villa Avenue Community Center, as County Fire Fighters responded to a call at the Villa Avenue apartments across the street, Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick led the 15 businessmen and women present through a review of those preferred criteria established January 30. Also present were Mayor Gene Tewalt and wife Juanita, Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock, Town Administrative Assistant Tina Presley, Town Police Chief Kahle Magalis, and toward the meeting’s end as her public-school event in an adjacent meeting room ended, Councilwoman Lori A. Cockrell.

There was an emergency in the neighborhood, but unlike Monday’s council meeting it wasn’t inside the respective meeting room on Thursday night. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

Tederick found himself on the less contentious ground than three days earlier when 20 citizens heaped criticism and sometimes personally-pointed questions his and council’s way regarding the town government downsizing plan emanated from his office as part of the Town’s FY 2021 Budget process. But perhaps that’s what happens when you invite impacted citizens to participate in the process prior to its implementation, rather than simply spring sweeping changes their way unannounced and un-publicly commented on prior to the dropping of the municipal administrative hammer.

Other than several clarifications regarding the length of events related to partial area closings to vehicular traffic; methods of accessing crowd sizes and adjusting to unexpected influxes of people; funding splits related to Town-sponsored or co-sponsored events, those previously established criteria were verified without much discussion. It was established that during major festivals and events access to Main Street and its business community remained open to the public without charge; that tickets were purchased, for example, to facilitate the ability to participate in wine or beer purchases during the Wine & Crafts Festival or other events where alcohol was being served.

However, ticket distribution at entrance points was discussed as a way to establish accurate event headcounts of the crowd size.

Among the recommended criteria on the front end, or the “Application” process were:

1 – a 50/50 split in operational costs between the Town and the event organizer;

2 – provision of actual financial results compared to event budget projections and actual attendance versus what had been projected for the event;

3 – no restrictions on the closing of the Village Commons parking lot for necessary event space;

4 – no limit on the number of events a specific organization can have in a given year;

5 – applications may be submitted to the Town at any time during the year, and first-time events must give a substantive attendance estimate.

Matt Tederick fields a question from Royal Cinema owner Rick Novak. Novak noted that he had missed the Jan. 30 meeting, but with a nod to cameraman Mark Williams, he was able to catch up with all that occurred on the Royal Examiner/National Media video.

Responding to a question, Tederick appeared to agree that in the case of Town-sponsored events, the Town would be responsible for 100% of event costs. During the discussion of costs, it was established that the Warren Heritage Society, not the Town, was the sponsor of the Festival of the Leaves, and carried its own insurance for the event.

Attendance criteria for Main Street or Village Commons parking area closings, agreed upon by an “overwhelming majority” and the police chief on January 30:

1 – less than 750 people, Main Street and the parking lot stay open;

2 -750 to 1500 people, the full parking lot should be closed; and “between 1500 and 5000” people, Main Street can be closed.

There was additional discussion on how much of East Main Street might be closed for different sized events and how vendor booth placements should be regulated along Main Street so that certain businesses are not always the ones being blocked from view. It was also agreed that vendors should not be allowed to set up or store goods so that the sidewalk would be blocked. And it was agreed that the organizer should be responsible for vendor compliance with that condition.

This is the plan – just kidding, on Thursday there were no additional creative art whiteboard drawings of UFO landings at the Front Royal Visitors Center, as there had been on Jan. 30, as illustrated here.

As for the criteria for “Closures” once application and attendance criteria are met:

1 – Main Street may be closed all day providing all other criteria are met;

2 – 5000 was the “magic” attendance number to close Main Street all day;

3 – both Main Street events and full closure of the Village Commons parking lot is limited to twice a month;

4 – but there is no limit to the Town permitting partial closure of the Village Commons parking lot.

Another topic raised was how to balance date priority between regular events with what was termed “once a decade” or “once in a lifetime” events such as a bike race or other special events that might include a run through downtown Front Royal. It was observed that such special events were likely not to be last-minute applications, so there should be sufficient time to figure a way to accommodate conflicting events of that nature were they to occur. The likely outcome appearing to be which event could more easily accommodate a date change.

The Apple House’s George McIntyre speaks as, from left in his row, Rick Novak, William and Nina Huck listen.

In response to a discussion of unexpected situations, like a larger than anticipated crowd developing or other situations impacting public safety, Tederick observed that the town manager “or his designee” should have “a certain amount of discretion” to deal with evolving situations.

Tederick said final copies of the Envision Report established from the three meetings would be available to the public through his office.

See the discussion of the recommendations that will be made through the town manager’s office to council regarding the application and operational criteria by which future downtown events and festivals will be judged and implemented, and any necessary town code changes guided, in this exclusive Royal Examiner video:

Downtown business, property owners offer Main Street wish list

Lively discussion of future downtown event permitting and street closures