Friday, July 1, 2011

Superbowl Ordinance Before City-County Council

The Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council is now considering changes to our ordinances to accommodate the wishes of the NFL concerning Superbowl 2012.  These are contained in a rather lengthy Prop 188.  An entirely new section of law is being included (Chapter 986 - begins on page 7 of the pdf) that should receive much public scrutiny.

Prop 188 goes before the Rules committee this Tuesday, July 5, in room 260 of the City-County Building.  The meeting begins at 5:30 pm, and Prop 157, which proposes restrictions on towing companies, is also on the agenda.

Of particular interest to all should be the definition of a 'Clean Zone' -
Clean zone means a geographically defined area within a special event zone during a civic sponsored special event that no temporary advertising, signage, or structures shall be erected or transient merchant, vendor, or otherwise licensed activity may take place without the person or entity performing such activity first having received approval from the event sponsor and a limited duration license from the bureau of license and permit services.
So, a bar that has the fortune to be near Lucas Oil Stadium may not post a 'Welcome Football Fans' banner without having the specific okay of the NFL - for instance.
 
Also note that a special event that attracts more than 2,500 people will have to pay a special event fee of $268, if it will not require fire department personnel or equipment - and a whopping $368 if it does require fire department personnel or equipment.  Now, how is that for paying for the services you use?
 
I only learned of this proposed ordinance last night, so I am still pouring through it.  With the hearing coming so soon and on top of a holiday weekend, to boot, it seems important that as many public eyes get a good look at this proposal as soon as possible.  This is our City.  Let's make sure that, for once, the Tzars of the sports world do not have sole dominion over our laws and do not wreck havoc upon our finances.

4 comments:

Paul K. Ogden said...

I'd love to bring a First Amendment challenge to that sign restriction. I can't imagine a court upholding that. I think the others might be legally flawed though.

Crossed said...

Pat,
There has been some previous discussions on blogs elsewhere that the clean zone could/would? be able to exclude people without game tickets, including local citizens that wish to come downtown to enjoy the activities. As you digest, could you post if you come accross any type language or such, or if the language isnt there too? Thanks.

Paul K. Ogden said...

Crossed,

I wrote about the "clean zone" nearly two years ago on my blog:

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2009/07/downtown-businesses-beware-super-bowl.html

Of course that was long before we got Indy's version which I'm sure is more restrictive than others.

Had Enough Indy? said...

Crossed - I attended a briefing for residential neighbors of LOS last night. They did not give the perimeter of the clean zone, and didn't really go into it except to mention its existance.

This ordinance seems to leave quite a bit of the details up to the Department of Code Enforcement. I think these details should be disclosed before this ordinance is enacted. We buy too many pigs in a poke around here. And, I'm not even sure what a 'poke' is !