§ 9.08.005 — Findings

9.08.005 - Findings.

A. The purpose of this section of the Municipal Code is to regulate general park use and to provide permit provisions for certain activity in public parks. The City is mindful of the legal principles relating to regulation of activity and events on public property, and public parks specifically, and the City Council does not intend to suppress or infringe upon any expressive activities protected by the First Amendment of the United States and California Constitutions but instead desires to enact reasonable content-neutral time, place and manner regulations that address the need to coordinate multiple uses of limited park space, assure the preservation of park facilities, prevent dangerous, unlawful, or impermissible activities on park property and assure financial accountability for damages caused by activity on park property. B. The City is not directing its regulation at communicative activity, but to all activity in Riverside public parks. C. The City does hereby take legislative notice of the various decisions of the United States Supreme Court regarding regulation of activity in public spaces in general, and activity in public parks in particular. D. The City's public parks have been used by millions of individuals living in Riverside County and throughout the Southern California region. These public parks are heavily used for a variety of purposes including heavy use by families with children. Park usage is limited by the large number of people that use the public parks and by other aspects of the parks, including shape, location, and facilities. E. Some of the City parks are adjacent to busy streets and are located in residential or mixed residential and commercial areas. As well, a portion of the City's park space is not available for general, passive use because it is dedicated to special uses such as playgrounds, tennis courts, basketball and volleyball courts, swimming pools, softball, soccer and sports fields, lawn bowling, community centers, horseshoe pits, exercise courses, picnic facilities and barbeque pits, exercise and walking trails, concert areas and skateboard facilities and other areas are dedicated to gardens and lakes and other water features. F. Most of the specialized areas of City parks are heavily and constantly used. As well, passive park space is also very heavily utilized by individuals who jog, walk, read and lounge, and by informal groups who stroll, play games, chat and have parties and picnics in the City parks. As well, organized groups, such as schools, companies, churches, and the City itself use the public parks for picnics, festivals, community events, recreation classes, rallies and demonstrations. G. In recent years, various parks have been used by private groups to distribute free food to the public, which attracts crowds and involves significant amounts of paraphernalia and materials used to hold and serve food, all during times when the use of the park by other members of the public is quite large. H. The groups distributing food to the public have not cleaned up or restored the parks to their original condition after the food distribution but instead leave significant amounts of litter and trash strewn over the park property frequently accompanied by provision of clothing which is simply piled in the park area and at the end of the event trash and the remnants of this virtual garage sale remains. I. The ongoing and repetitive outdoor distribution of food to large numbers of people has significant adverse impacts upon City parks and upon park users. Moreover, private food distributions on public property in the City pose significant public health risks. The health risks of distributing food in City parks arise from a variety of factors including the limited sanitary facilities, the presence of birds and animals, and the lack of facilities for storing food and keeping it at proper temperatures. J. Because the City's public parks are constantly used by large numbers of people for a variety of activities, events in parks must be carefully and reasonably managed. This includes but is in no way, or through no intent, limited to the management of the free food distribution to large numbers of the general public. K. The City regulates the use of its public parks to protect the health, safety and public welfare by regulating traffic, noise, aesthetics, and other impacts. L. Events in the public parks may require the provision of additional public services including police, fire, transportation and public works and additional maintenance of the facilities that are used. M. Moreover, group events in the public parks often use facilities that would otherwise be available to the public. N. Managing events and activities in the public parks requires ensuring that these events and activities are compatible in size and type of use with their sites, adequate services are provided for the events, adequate cost recovery for these services is achieved, the events and activities do not interfere with the City's ability to provide services to the entire community, and the impacts on neighbors and others are minimized. O. The City desires to provide a coordinated process for managing events and activities in its public parks to ensure the health and safety of event patrons, residents, workers, and other visitors, to prohibit illegal activities from occurring at park events, and to protect the rights of park event permit holders. P. The City acknowledges that individuals and groups have the right to engage in expressive activities in the City's public parks and that to allow unregulated access to all visitors could easily reduce rather than enlarge the utility of Riverside public parks as a forum for speech. Q. These regulations are designed to establish the least restrictive and reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions of these activities.

(Ord. 7362 § 2, 2017; Ord. 7244 § 3, 2014)