March 11, 2015
Mark
Thiel
Assistant Director of Public Works
City of Lawrence
6 E. 6th St.
Lawrence, KS 66044
Hi Mark –
We are preparing for this year’s Downtown Lawrence Annual Sidewalk Sale and would like to proceed as we did last year. DLI will request the exclusive ROW for the day of the event, Thursday, July 16, 2015. I am attaching my permit applications for the Street Event/ROW and also for the Sidewalk Sale permit for that day along with the COI for the event. I would like to request that the fees for these two permits are waived if possible.
I thought that last year’s process went very smoothly and we had a fantastic event. We notified all Downtown businesses of the change in the permit and ROW process via letter, a follow up postcard, follow up phone calls and personal visits. We sold permits to all non-DLI members who wanted to participate and issued permits to all member businesses as well as non-profit organizations. We were even able to sell and issue same day permits at 6am that day. I think this year will go even better and not be as time intensive for me as Downtown businesses are aware of the changes and had a positive experience last year.
Below is the outline of what we did last year, with the City’s assistance and support, with the exception of the City Manager’s signature on the notification letter – we decided against that. Please let me know what you would like from me in order to get this ready to go on the City Commission agenda. Ideally I would like to get this on the agenda prior to the election.
1. City staff will prepare a map that DLI will use to identify those that have been given permission from DLI to participate in the event.
2. DLI with also, with city managers review, approval and signature, will send out a letter to all downtown businesses outlining this year’s sidewalk sale process.
3. DLI will reach out to all downtown businesses in addition to the letter to explain this year’s process.
4. The City Clerk’s office will issue a blanket “sidewalk sale” permit to DLI for all blocks of Massachusetts Street from 6th to 11th Streets.
5. DLI will only be issued 10 parking meter hoods – meaning all other Massachusetts Street parking should be open and parking limits enforced as usual on Thursday July 17.
6. DLI will send to the city, no later than 5pm on Wednesday July 16, a list of all approved participants.
7. Code Compliance staff will meet with DLI staff at 8am on Thursday July 17 to walk Massachusetts Street and address any issues with those who have / are setting up without a permission of DLI and explain this year’s process.
8. DLI will be ready and capable of issuing permission to any vendor not already approved that would allow them to remain and participate in the event.
9. All participants in the event that are not the adjacent business must have the adjacent business permission in addition to DLI (DLI is to coordinate that prior to July 17).
10. Anyone set up to participate in the sidewalk sale that chooses not to get approval from DLI, the adjacent business owner or both will be ask nicely to remove their items from the sidewalk. or;
11. Get the adjacent property owners permission (if applicable) and register with DLI to participate in the event. If they are not willing to do #9 and/or #10 they will be issued a written notice of violation from Code Compliance for violation of the sidewalk permit ordinance.
12. Police Department will not get involved with the resolution of the above unless; the participant is creating an issue, disturbance, nuisance, or obstruction that the Police Department determines warrants their intervention. Similar to how they would handle any other downtown sidewalk issue any other day of the year.
Every attempt will be made to coordinate and encourage participation in the event by DLI prior to July 17.
Thanks in advance for all of your help! Please let me know if any one has any issues
Sincerely,
Sally Zogry
Executive Director