SR-304-003-03 (8)
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$ot!-()t)3--03 MAR 101987
Santa Monica, California
CM:LCB:dvrn.
City council Meeting: 3/10/87
TO:
Mayor and City Council
FROM:
city staff
SUBJECT:
4th of July Beach Fireworks
BACKGROUND
On several occasions over the past year, Council and Staff have
discussed the possibility of cancelling the beach fireworks on
the 4th of July due to the severe management burden and potential
liability it places on city resources.
To assist in its
deliberations to plan for July 4th, 1987, council requested
additional information from city staff on possible alternative
community celebrations/events.
Representatives from the City
Manager's Office, Arts, Recreation and Parks, Auditorium and
Convention and Visitor's Bureau have met on several occasions in
past months to discuss various programming options. The results
of these discussions were presented most recently in a January 7,
1987 information item to council.
OPTIONS
Five options have been discussed by staff:
1) No chanqe from previous years' event.
2) Cancel the beach fireworks entirely.
3) Reschedule the eveninq beach fireworks display to an
eveninq on another day.
4) Reschedule the beach fireworks to the early morninq hours
(approximately 5:30 a.m.) on July 4th.
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MAR 1 0 1987
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5)
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Cancel the beach
fireworks display
of July 3.
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fireworks and co-sponsor a smaller
at Santa Monica Col1eqe on the eveninq
DISCUSSION
1) The difficulties and concerns surrounding the existing
programming have been well documented and discussed by
Council.
The problems principally revolve around large
crowds being at the beach all day which evolve into major
traffic congestion in the evening prior to and immediately
following the fireworks display.
2) Cancelling the fireworks entirely would not eliminate the
large daytime and early evening beach crowds but would
alleviate the traffic congestion which occurs with people
arriving and leaving the area at roughly the same time in the
evening.
3) The Police Department has recommended against rescheduling a
beach fireworks display to another day because they feel that
it would result in full deployment of their personnel for two
days instead of one as they do not feel that beach crowds and
traffic congestion would be reduced.
This would be
especially true for the next few years where the days
immediately preceding the 4th are either holidays or weekend
days.
4) An early morning fireworks show has been discussed a great
deal in recent weeks. While the scale of the display will
not be diminished, it is felt that the traffic and crowd
congestion problems of the past will be somewhat alleviated.
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Arrangements can be made to have fireworks which do not
entail loud explosive reports to prevent the city from
creating a noise nuisance for nearby residents.
"By the
dawn1s early lightlt as a theme has elicited positive feedback
from some reviewers as an interesting promotional opportunity
for the city.
5) Santa Monica College has had an evening show and static
fireworks display for several years during the week preceding
the 4th of July.
This community-oriented event typically
attracts between 3,000 - 5,000 viewers.
College staff are
proposing the 1987 show for the evening of July 3. If
desired by the City, it would be possible to jointly sponsor
this event with the College and possibly expand the scope of
the show.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff continues to recommend cancellation of the evening beach
fireworks display on July 4th.
In addition, staff does not
recommend rescheduling an evening beach display to another day
earlier in the week.
As an alternative event, however, it is
felt that either option 4 (early morning July 4 beach fireworks)
or 5 (co-sponsor a July 3 event with Santa Monica College) would
address the concerns expressed in previous reports about the
existing fireworks display as well as retain a popular community
celebration event.
prepared by: Lynne C. Barrette, Assistant city Manager
(July4 )
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