Henrico supervisors approve plan to permit alcohol at certain events in county parks

The Henrico Board of Supervisors voted unanimously June 27 to allow the possibility of alcohol consumption at all county parks and recreation facilities during public events, while also approving plans to crack down on excessive noise at Henrico parks.

Supervisors amended a 2013 resolution that had banned alcohol at all county parks except during public events at Dorey Park, expanding it so that alcohol now may be served and consumed at any park during a public event, provided that event has been vetted by Henrico Police and Fire officials, received a special event permit, and received a permit from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority.

Alcohol remains off limits for any private events at county parks.

Passage of the new ordinance is designed to enforce noise limitations in parks and allow for the banishment of those who violate them. For indoor park facilities, a noise violation would include any device that produces sound loud enough that it could be heard from outside the facility. In an outdoor space, if the sound can be heard from a distance of 200 feet [within] park boundaries, then it is considered a noise violation.

“We do have many cases where we have shelters or other areas where people commonly use devices that create music and sound that are within 200 feet of our park boundaries,” Henrico Recreation and Parks Director John Zannino told supervisors during a work session Tuesday ahead of their vote.

Exceptions to this ordinance would be special events hosted by an agency or renters of park facilities who receive permission to use such a device that produces loud noise. Youth associations and special events would go through a review process for approval and would work with Recreation and Parks officials to find a location that would be appropriate for their devices.

This ordinance, noted Zannino, provides police officers with parameters for what constitutes a violation so that they can enforce the rules by either asking the individual or organization to lower or turn off their device or leave if they do not comply.

Under another ordinance revision approved by the board, a person will not be able to erect a sign at a park without first receiving approval through a facility reservation, such as a park-use or sports-use agreement.

Another new ordinance will permit Recreation and Parks officials to create rules and regulations while reducing the number of times that the board of supervisors must approve them. In addition, it allows police to enforce the regulations established by Recreation and Parks.

Zannino noted that his agency would still go through the same review process for their guides with attorneys and police but would no longer need to bring them to the board for review and instead would handle those matters internally.

In addition, Zannino elaborated on some of the proposed changes that officials intend to make to their park guides. These changes include the addition of noise ordinance information in the shelter reservation guide.

Zannino pointed out the importance of park shelters and facilities, as there are 29 shelters at Henrico parks, and officials have received 432 reservations for them in the month of July alone.

He also discussed adding to the guide the authority of Recreation and Parks officials’ to ban organizations and individuals who repeatedly violate the noise ordinance.

With the goal of making rental reservations of park shelters more accessible to the community, Zannino proposed allowing renters to make reservations three days in advance instead of seven so that renters have more planning time.

“If you're trying to plan something Monday/Tuesday and you want to see if there's a shelter available over the weekend, you would still be able to go in and rent that,” said Zannino.

Zannino also explained changes to the facility reservation guide’s fee structure that will allow renters to pay on an hourly rate instead of having to rent in eight-hour time blocks, a change that Zannino said would align Henrico with industry standards.

This change would be more cost effective for the renter while also cutting down on staff hours and making it easier to host more events per day, he said.

“We will on our end, create some buffers so that we can go in and transition and clean facilities and do setups for the next, but it really kind of streamlines that process,” Zannino said.