A plan to consolidate the city’s Office of Special Events into Denver Arts and Venues will be advanced to the City Council for consideration.

Members of the Parks, Art and Culture Committee approved a proposed bill on Tuesday that would repeal parts of the city’s municipal code, dissolving the OSE as a standalone agency. 

City officials said the move is “largely administrative” and will create annual savings of $1.1 million, increase efficiency and improve service delivery.

The OSE permits and regulates larger public events held on public property, such as festivals, fairs and parades, coordinating with police, fire, emergency services and traffic control.

The office also oversees permits for commercial film and photography on city-owned property.

Annually, the office supports close to 700 authorized event days on public property and provides event consultation for some of Denver’s most recognizable happenings. 

“We support city-hosted events like the (holiday) lights, we produce the State of the City and inaugurations, things of that nature, we issue approximately 350 event permits annually, and 250 film permits annually,” said Rose Watts, former OSE deputy director, now director of administration at Denver Arts and Venues. “We coordinate with 20 different city agencies and other city stakeholders, both internal and external.”

The consolidation will not affect staffing, but seeks to revise the definition of a special event to enable better discretion based on event risk and impact.

Specifically, the bill would change the term “special event” to “public permitted event” and update the language to clarify the definition.

“Essentially, the previous definition (of special event) was ‘two or more city agencies,’” Watts said. “It was fairly prescriptive and didn’t allow for discretion when either an event was complex enough to need oversight or simple enough not to.”

Public permitted event, as proposed, will mean “a temporary, pre-planned gathering held on public property owned by the City and County, open to the public, involving permitting by and coordination of multiple city agencies.”

The new definition, as explained by Watts, would exclude passive or continuous use of public space, including programs operated by Denver and expansions of established business operations, such as patio dining or sidewalk sales, and any other uses deemed by the executive director not to be a permitted public event.

Among the bill’s goals is to reduce the administrative burden on smaller community events and to lessen the workload for city staff.

For example, a Denver Arts and Venues permit would no longer be required for small, low-impact events, such as those fully contained within a park, with fewer than 350 participants, with no drones or fireworks.

Other permits, such as park permits, may still apply.

City Council President Amanda Sandoval lauded the consolidation, noting that her office had, in some cases, intentionally kept event numbers low to avoid administrative challenges.  

“I’ve had events where I’ve kept them below the number,” Sandoval said. “I didn’t want them (events) to get too big because of the nuance of having to get the office of special events involved.”

The bill is expected to appear before the council very soon, with Denver Arts and Venues anticipating the announcement of the change in early February.