DATE: April 11, 2023
SUBJECT:
Title
DISTRICT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS
A. RECEIVE UPDATES ON DISTRICT EVENT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS MANAGED BY PARKS & RECREATION AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF REGARDING PROPOSED CHANGES TO SPECIAL EVENT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS AND BALANCED ACCESS TO PORT PARKS
B. ADOPT RESOLUTION AMENDING BPC POLICY NO. 771: TIDELANDS ACTIVATION PROGRAM, TO INCORPORATE POLICY UPDATES, RE-DEFINE SPECIAL EVENT SPONSORSHIP CATEGORIES, AND CLARIFY ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES
Body
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The San Diego Unified Port District Act (1962 Port Act) identifies the promotion of recreation as one of the primary reasons the Port of San Diego was established, in addition to commerce, environmental stewardship, and navigation. One of the ways the District seeks to effectuate this goal is by sponsoring special events on District tidelands. The District's long history of sponsoring special events dates to the late 1990s. In 2014, the District formalized its sponsorship of special events in BPC Policy No. 771, Tidelands Activation Program (or TAP), and since then, TAP has supported a broad range of special events, all of which have helped promote the mission of the District and activate the tidelands.
While TAP has helped promote the District's mission and brought more people to the tidelands, it has also presented certain challenges. As the program grew and matured over the years, competition for the District's sponsorship funding grew and it became difficult to control the program's budgetary expenditures. Additionally, a review of several years of program data revealed that activation events were concentrated in very few District parks and brought to light the geographic limitations and infrastructure-related barriers impeding certain parks from hosting special events of size. District staff began work to address these challenges in 2019 by introducing some new, targeted sponsorship programs to address some of the imbalances associated with TAP. These sponso...
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