City of Asheville Staff Emails: Occupy Asheville

From: Dawa Hitch

Subject: FW: Media Contact: Occupy Asheville Permit Costs

Date: 2011-10-18 17:04:32

To:

When I spoke to Russ I emphasized that what I was sharing were the fees
and charges as outlined in our schedule. We discussed this being an
unusually long period of time for a temporary use permit and I shared
that it didn’t necessarily represent actual cost to the city.
Barricades, as one example, are rental fees and not losses in revenue.
We discussed this being the information available at this time and that
staff would also look into actual cost.



Dawa Hitch

Public Information Officer

City of Asheville

Office: 828.259.5981

Fax: 828.259.5499

dhitch@ashevillenc.gov



________________________________

From: Esther Manheimer [mailto:emanheimer@vwlawfirm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 4:20 PM
To: Dawa Hitch; councilgroup
Cc: Gary Jackson; Jeff Richardson; Robert Griffin
Subject: RE: Media Contact: Occupy Asheville Permit Costs



Just to clarify, and maybe this goes to Jeff, are they asking us to
waive the parking meter fees? And the barricade fees? Which, by the
way, look pretty enormous. If this is to be considered at the next
Council meeting, I hope we have some context information, such as
whether any kind of fee waiver like this has been granted before, other
than what we’re already familiar with. Of course we’ve considered the
issue of fee waivers or partial fee waivers for certain reoccurring
events. And, we’ve talked about discounts for parking rates in the
decks for certain groups. But, I don’t recall the complete waiver of
fees associated with an entire parking lot. I don’t quite understand
the barricade fee, but the meter fees make sense to me since it
represents an actual revenue stream we are not realizing due to OA. Do
we have any idea what that lot normally produces in terms of revenue so
we can calculate an actual loss to the City? I’m not terribly
interested in waiving any actual loss, but might be willing to consider
revenues we wouldn’t otherwise realize, such as a barricade fee.



Also, I am concerned that the fees will continue to accrue before our
next meeting and if we don’t waive the fees, someone, whoever has signed
the application for the permit of the parking lot site, will be on the
hook for the costs. I hope that’s been explained to him or her since
that amount of money could be significant, especially since so many
others are using the site. I’m concerned this may not be a sustainable
situation.



From: Dawa Hitch [mailto:DHitch@ashevillenc.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 4:07 PM
To: councilgroup
Cc: Gary Jackson; Jeff Richardson; Robert Griffin
Subject: Media Contact: Occupy Asheville Permit Costs



Mayor Bellamy and Council Members,



WLOS contacted me about permitting fees associated with the Occupy
Asheville group. I replied with the following:



The permit application received by staff today is for a 6 month period.
Based on the needs defined by the group, the associated fees are:



Meters - $15/space/day * 15 spaces * 180 days ($45,000)

Barricades - $24/day * 30 barricades * 180 days ($135,000)

Fire Department Inspection - (approx. $52)

Temporary Use Permit - (approx. $175)



For a six month period a very rough estimate would be around $180,000.



It is staff's understanding that the group is planning on approaching
Council to ask for fee waivers.





Dawa Hitch

Public Information Officer

City of Asheville

Office: 828.259.5981

Fax: 828.259.5499

dhitch@ashevillenc.gov













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