CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING AGENDA PACKET

Page 2 of 4 DISCUSSION To clearly identify the role of the PDA, the one-year agreement (Attachment 1) articulates that the PDA will market and promote the downtown to enhance the vitality of the district for the benefit of the businesses located within the district and the community. Included in the agreement is direction that the PDA focus its resources on efforts that are intended to draw patrons of all ages to the downtown. The Association has been successful over the years in marketing events focused on family or youth involvement such as egg hunts, scavenger hunts, Pumpkins on Main, and bicycle showcases. Seasonal events such as Summer Concerts in the Park, First Weekends on Main, and Magical Holiday Evening have also been effective in welcoming the community to the downtown. The City introduced the Weekend on Main street closures program in 2020, with support from the PDA, to provide outdoor space for downtown merchants to expand their operations while indoor operations were restricted due to County and State health orders, as well as to draw residents to downtown while maintaining social distancing during COVID. These Weekend on Main events, now solely sponsored by the PDA, are well received by the community and helped to bring much-needed activity into the downtown during the pandemic and thereafter; however, merchants' experiences are mixed. Understanding that events impact businesses in different ways, the PDA surveyed its businesses to gather feedback for evaluation and to determine an equitable and beneficial event series for all businesses in the downtown district. As a result, the PDA requested four street closures in 2024 to occur from Saturday morning to Sunday evening for the summer months and in December to coincide with the City’s Hometown Holiday activities. Main Street remained open Friday evenings in the summer to ease downtown traffic and provide the capacity for PDA to program the Concerts in the Park series on consecutive Friday evenings. As vehicular circulation had been a concern for the community, shifting the street closure to Saturday morning significantly reduced the impact on Friday school and commute traffic in and around downtown. In December 2024, Main Street was closed on a Friday evening for the Magical Holiday Evening shopping event. The agreement limits the PDA to five Main Street closures per year, which is reduced from 10 as in previous agreements, at the PDA's request. The PDA will request two First Weekends on Main for the 2025 event schedule, which are included in the PDA’s allowable five street closures. The City will cover expenses such as City staff time and equipment rental for no more than two street closures. Similar to 2024, the PDA will plan the Magical Holiday Evening shopping event to coincide with the City’s Hometown Holiday activities, which includes a street closure. Additional street closure requests will be at the expense of the PDA. The PDA is free to change the events of a requested street closure but not to add additional events that require Main Street to be closed beyond its allowed five street closures. This limitation does not apply to street closures for other organizations or for City-sponsored events. As the PDA’s operating budget is event dependent with nearly 62% of its gross income derived from events, the most profitable events are those that do not require a street closure, such as the Halloween and St. Patrick’s Crawls and Summer Wine Stroll. Collectively, these three events account for 71% of the total gross event revenue. As the partnership between the City and PDA is essential to the downtown’s success in stimulating economic growth, the agreement includes the PDA's engagement in strategies to support the diverse mix of businesses in the district. The strategies will focus on strengthening Page 12 of 399