ST. GEORGE — A six-month pause on the approval of new events came to an end last week as the City Council unanimously approved a reworked version of code governing the approval and permitting of special events.

The approval of special events held on city-owned property was put on pause by the St. George City Council in March so city staff and elected officials could better study and determine the impact having near-constant events was having on the city, its infrastructure and residents.

This – along with issues highlighted in an ongoing lawsuit between the city and drag show event organizers – has resulted in a reworked ordinance the City Council unanimously approved during a meeting last Thursday.

“I think this is a great framework for us,” Councilwoman Natalie Larsen said prior to the vote.

While the rest of the council agreed, an element of the revised code that dealt with “legacy events” was tabled for further discussion.

New city code addressing the approval and permitting of special events intends to strike a balance between those events that use city parks and facilities and access to them by the public. It is also meant to reduce issues related to subjectivity found in the ordinance that led to accusations from some event organizers of uneven code enforcement and the city favoring certain events over others.

“One of the primary goals of this ordinance revision was to eliminate the subjectivity in the ordinance,” according to a statement from the city of St. George emailed to St. George News.

Under the previous code, event organizers could not advertise an event until they received an actual permit from the city. In some cases, the permit wasn’t granted until the day before the event was to take place. Advertising before having the permit was grounds for a permit to be revoked.

This is what happened with a Southern Utah Drag Stars drag show event earlier this year, which resulted in a federal lawsuit against the city.

Mitski Avalox of Southern Utah Drag Stars appealed the decision, citing the city had allowed other events to advertise ahead of getting their permits, yet was still denied a permit by the city at the time.

This resulted in a lawsuit in which a federal judge ordered the city to allow the drag show to continue while the lawsuit itself moved forward.

The revised ordinance has led to “all restrictions on advertising” being “removed from the ordinance,” according to the city’s statement.

Other ordinance revisions include:

• A time frame is written into the ordinance detailing how long a special events application will be reviewed and approved or returned to the applicant for additional details.
• A list of specific parks and city facilities where special events can be held. This includes the number of days a month they are available to event use, how many parking places are available and notes on any additional detail or requirements.
• Applicants can apply for an event 365 days prior to the beginning of their event, yet no less than 45 days before that time. This covers the duration of the overall event whether it be multiple days in a row, or recurring from one weekend to the next over the course of a few months.

“I can tell a lot of thought has gone into it,” Kat Puzey, c0-owner of the St. George Downtown Farmers Market, said following the council’s vote on the revised ordinance. “We’re a lot more hopeful than we originally were.”

The farmers market is held in Vernon Worthen Park on Saturdays from spring to fall, and for a while, it felt as if the city was trying to get rid of the event, Puzey said. However, the passage of the revised ordinance has calmed that worry.

“This has come leaps and bounds,” she said. “I can see they’ve tried to make it as fair as possible.”

However, an area of the ordinance that remains to be either ironed out or dropped, is the proposed portion detailing legacy events.

“Legacy events are a concept that there are certain special events that have been an important part of the community for an extended period of time and have a demonstrated benefit to the community to a degree that they have demonstrated a justification for classification according to the criteria in the ordinance as a legacy event,” the city’s statement to St. George News reads.

Such events would automatically receive a city sponsorship, receive priority for the dates the event is to be held and have less strict deadlines attached, though still require approval from the City Council.

Councilman Jimmie Hughes gave the example of the Lion’s Club Dixie Roundup Rodeo, which has been running for 90 years, as a legacy event.

Councilwoman Michelle Tanner wanted the legacy events segment to be struck from the revised code as she said it put the city back into the mode of being subjective – or playing favorites – with special events again.

“The legacy events for me brings back some of that subjectivity,” she said. “I want to get out of the business of picking winners and losers.”

Larsen also said she would like to see the legacy events language dropped, saying she felt there was no benefit to the city by keeping it.

Hughes, as well as council members Gregg McArthur and Dannielle Larkin, said they would like to keep the concept of legacy events, but agreed to table the issue for further discussion so the rest of the ordinance could be approved.

The revised ordinance passed Aug. 31 and repealed the six-month moratorium placed on the approval of special events on city property set in March.

The language of the revised code, as well as the tabled legacy events section, can be found on the city of St. George’s website.

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