O27071
City Council Meeting: June 28, 2022 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2707 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA AMENDING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 4.68.150 ON
PARADE ROUTES TO PROMOTE PUBLIC SAFETY AND WELFARE
WHEREAS, on May 8, 2001, the City Council adopted Ordinance Number 2008
(CCS), adding Chapter 4.68 to the Santa Monica Municipal Code, the Community Events
Law; and
WHEREAS, the Community Events Law provides a coordinated process for
managing community events to ensure the health and safety of event patrons, residents,
workers, and other visitors, to prohibit illegal activities from occurring at community
events, and to protect the rights of community event permit holders; and
WHEREAS, the Community Events Law is designed to protect the right of people
to engage in expressive activities in the City's public places and establishes the least
restrictive and reasonable time, place, and manner regulations of these activities; and
WHEREAS, the Community Events Law has been amended and refined on
several occasions to ensure that the law conforms to constitutional requirements and to
enact appropriate modifications to the law based on experience, changing conditions in
the City, and community feedback on the operation of the law; and
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
2
WHEREAS, the City's Community Events Law has been in place for over two
decades and has been highly successful in establishing a coordinated process for
community events, thereby ensuring the health and safety of event patrons,
residents, workers, and other visitors and protecting the rights of community event
permit holders; and
WHEREAS, California Vehicle Code Section 21101(e) authorizes local
authorities, for those highways under their jurisdiction, to adopt rules and regulations by
ordinance or resolution to temporarily close a portion of any street for celebrations,
parades, local special events, and other purposes when, in the opinion of local
authorities having jurisdiction or a public officer or employee that the local authority
designates by resolution, the closing is necessary for the safety and protection of
persons who are to use that portion of the street during the temporary closing; and
WHEREAS, since the adoption of the Community Events Law in 2001, Santa
Monica Municipal Code Section 4.68.150 has provided a parade route for Main Street
that commences at the entrance to the Civic Auditorium parking lot and proceeds on
Main Street in a southbound direction, ending in the South Beach parking lot; and
WHEREAS, the staging for parades on Main Street, including any required
public safety inspections by the Santa Monica Police Department, have occurred in
the Civic Auditorium parking lot; and
WHEREAS, the entrance to the Civic Auditorium parking lot off of Main Street
has been closed since February 2020 when construction on the Sustainable Water
Infrastructure Project commenced; and
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
3
WHEREAS, once the construction in the Civic Auditorium parking lot is
completed, the space available for staging and public safety checks for parades will
be significantly reduced; and
WHEREAS, there have been no parades along Main Street since at least
February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and
WHEREAS, there are no longer State or County COVID-19 related public
health restrictions on holding large public gatherings, such as parades; and
WHEREAS, the City anticipates that several organizations that previously held
parades along Main Street will seek community events permits for such parades this
summer; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the City’s Administrative Instruction on Events, an
application for a permit to hold a parade can be submitted with as little as two
business days’ notice, which does not allow sufficient time for City Council to hold a
first and second reading on any amendments to the Community Events Law that
would impact a planned event; and
WHEREAS, it is not currently possible to do staging and public safety checks
for parades in the Civic Auditorium parking lot due to its closure; and
WHEREAS, changing the commencement and ending points and the direction
of a parade is not a minor adjustment that is authorized by Santa Monica Municipal
Code Section 4.68.150(b); and
WHEREAS, on May 24, 2022, the City Council directed staff to return with an
emergency ordinance that amends Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.68.150
to allow parades on Main Street to proceed in a northbound direction; and
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
4
WHEREAS, on June 28, 2022, the City Council held a public meeting during which
it considered the adoption of this Emergency Ordinance pursuant to California
Government Code Section 36937 and Santa Monica City Charter Section 615, both of
which allow the adoption of emergency ordinances to take effect immediately to ensure
the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare in the
City of Santa Monica; and
WHEREAS, the City Council hereby finds that: the amendment to the Santa
Monica Municipal Code Section 4.68.150 implemented by this Emergency Ordinance is
immediately necessary as an emergency measure in order to preserve the public health,
safety, and welfare of parade participants, spectators, and visitors by ensuring that there
is a location for staging and public safety checks for parades along Main Street other than
at the Civic Auditorium Lot and authorizing such parades to proceed in a northbound
route.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.68.150, Parades, marches,
processions, walks, is hereby amended to read as follows:
4.68.150 Parades, marches, processions, walks.
(a) Subject to the requirements of this Chapter, a community event permit may
be issued for a march, procession, walk, or parade in one direction only on the
following streets:
(1) Ocean Avenue, between Adelaide Drive (northwest City limits) and
Picoa Boulevard;
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
5
(2) Commencing on Ocean Avenue at the intersection of Adelaide Drive
(northwest City limits) and continuinge south on Ocean Avenue to the
intersection of Colorado Avenue, turning easterly on Colorado Avenue to
the intersection of Main Street, turning southerly on Main Street, ending at
the intersection of Main Street and Pico Boulevard;
(3) Commencing on Main Street, south of the intersection of Olympic
Drive, north of the entrance to the Civic Auditorium parking lot and
continuinge south on Main Street to the intersection of Marine Street,
turning westerly on Marine Street to the intersection of Barnard Way,
turning northerly on Barnard Way, ending at the entrance to the Parking
Lot 5 South Beach parking lot where the parade will disband;
(4) Commencing on Barnard Way, south of the entrance to Parking Lot 5
South, continuing southerly on Barnard Way to the intersection of Marine
Street, continuing easterly on Marine Street to the intersection of Main
Street, turning northerly on Main Street, continuing north on Main Street,
ending at the intersection of Olympic Drive; and
(5) (4) Commencing on Main Street, between Olympic Drive and Marine
Street (adjacent to the southern City limits)north of the entrance to the
Civic Auditorium parking lot and continue south on Main Street to the
Santa Monica/Los Angeles border.
(b) Minor adjustments to the routes established in subsection (a) of this
Section may be authorized by the Community Events Committee to the extent
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
6
necessary to avoid construction or other obstructions which that would prevent
the parade from proceeding on the established route.
(c) Subject to all other applicable requirements of this Chapter, this Section
does not prohibit the issuance of a community event permit for marches or
processions on other streets so long as through and cross-traffic can be
preserved and the safety of the marchers can be maintained.
(d) Marches, parades, walks, and processions may not be conducted on
streets classified by the City as arterial streets between the hours of seven a.m.
to nine a.m. and three-thirty p.m. to seven p.m. on business days unless the
march or procession is being conducted to coincide with another event, not
organized or planned by the permittee, which is occurring on or adjacent to the
arterial street upon which the march will be conducted.
SECTION 2. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Emergency Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to
effect the provisions of this Emergency Ordinance.
SECTION 3. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court
of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining
portions of this Emergency Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would
have passed this Emergency Ordinance and each and every section, subsection,
sentence, clause, or phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
7
whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or
unconstitutional.
SECTION 4. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of
this Emergency Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in
the official newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. Pursuant to Sections 615 and 619
of the City Charter, for the reasons stated in the recitals above, the City Council declares
this Emergency Ordinance to be necessary as an emergency measure for preserving the
public peace, health, and safety, with the result that this Emergency Ordinance shall be
introduced and adopted at the same meeting, and shall become effective immediately
upon its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
DOUGLAS SLOAN
City Attorney
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
Approved and adopted this 28th day of June, 2022.
_____________________________
Kristin McCowan, Mayor Pro Tem
State of California )
County of Los Angeles ) ss.
City of Santa Monica )
I, Nikima Newsome, Assistant City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do
hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance No. 2707 (CCS) had its
introduction and adoption at the Santa Monica City Council meeting held on
June 28, 2022, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Brock, de la Torre, Davis, Negrete, Parra,
Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, Mayor Himmelrich
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ATTEST:
_____________________________________ _________________
Nikima Newsome, Assistant City Clerk Date
A summary of Ordinance No. 2707 (CCS) was duly published pursuant to California
Government Code Section 40806.
DocuSign Envelope ID: A122F2A6-31C8-41C4-B343-8D5371BFF82F
7/7/2022