OCEAN CITY – A revised special event fee structure will be brought back to the Mayor and Council following a favorable vote Tuesday.
In this week’s work session, Tourism and Business Development Director Tom Perlozzo and Special Events Director Frank Miller presented the Mayor and Council with a new special event fee structure featuring several revisions that were discussed in an August meeting. Officials say the proposal includes new application and use fees, among other things.
“I think what we’re trying to do is come up with something that’s reasonable, and if its reasonable then it should be acceptable, certainly by those larger promoters,” Mayor Rick Meehan said. “As far as charging promoters for services provided, we charge property owners taxes for services provided, and I see it some ways as the same thing. So I think as long as they’re reasonable and as long as they’re charged appropriately, according to the time of the year and the size of these event, it’s something we can definitely work out.”
As proposed, the new fee structure would divide special events into tiers. Tier one, for example, would include gatherings of up to 1,000 people and would only require a permit, while tier four would include multi-site events of more than 6,000 people with a higher impact on city resources. Tiers three and four would not only require council approval but would include negotiated agreements.
Miller, however, said changes have been made to the proposed application fee. While officials initially proposed a $570 fee, they are now proposing a $250 fee for for-profit events and a $50 fee for nonprofit events, across all tiers. Nonprofits, he noted, applied to those both in Worcester County and outside of Worcester County.
This will cause fewer events overall – and possibly a spike in unsupported / pop-up events!
Maybe we need to have a pop-up fly-in to the OC Airport!
Town sure gets “giggy with it” when there is increased fee talk.
Motorcycles had a nice parade down the boards Saturday morning. Too bad what woulda been a nice ride and park at the inlet, turned in a traffic jam downtown andn over.the 50 bridge. A last minute closure spawned confusion for all.
Laughable as normal.