Airdrie City Council has approved a policy to standardize how municipally operated meeting rooms and event spaces are allocated across the city.
The policy establishes a four-tier booking priority system and outlines procedures for resolving scheduling conflicts. Council endorsed the measure at its June 3 meeting following a presentation by Rachelle Ash, team leader of Centralized Rentals and Customer Service.
Ash was joined by Brad Anderson, recreation manager, who responded to council questions during the discussion.
"This proposed policy ensures consistency and transparency for user groups and local businesses that are booking spaces within facilities including Genesis Place, Bert Church Theatre, Town and Country Centre, Inspire and a variety of outdoor amenities," Ash told council.
She said no current governance policy defines how non-sport spaces — such as meeting rooms, green spaces, pavilions and amphitheatres — are allocated among competing user groups.
"A gap has been identified," she said. "We have other allocation policies in place that focus on the sport realm, but these policies do not capture spaces such as meeting and multi-purpose rooms, theatre space, green space, halls, pavilions, fire pits and amphitheatre."
Under the policy, booking requests will be prioritized in the following order: municipal programs and events; historical annual bookings; regular recurring bookings; and spontaneous one-time requests.
Ash said the city conducted a scan of allocation policies in other Canadian municipalities, including Windsor, Abbotsford and Pelham Niagara, but found no consistent model for gathering spaces.
"Some prioritize on a first come, first served basis, priority given to historical bookings based on the event size. And also common will prioritize local use over non-local use," she said.
She said Airdrie's policy incorporates elements from the city's Social Policy to evaluate competing requests, including considerations of diversity, inclusion and public benefit.
Ash told council the policy allows historical bookings to be held up to 24 months in advance and provides a mechanism to resolve conflicts when two groups request the same date. Examples of historical events include the Rotary Lobster Boil, Airdrie Health Foundation gala and Shamrock Shimmy.
"If there are conflicting dates between two user groups due to sliding religious or holiday alignment, administration will work with user groups directly to resolve a conflict," she said. "But if this cannot be resolved, the team will use the following criteria to determine which group should get priority on the date."
That includes an assessment of which event is open to the public, supports social inclusion or contributes to a sense of community connectedness.
Coun. Tina Petrow raised concerns about the subjectivity of those criteria.
"I just want to make sure that we have consistency built in there, so it's not a picking and choosing or up to discretion," Petrow said. "I really like black and white in these things. So, do we have definitions for what this means?"
Anderson acknowledged the limitations.
"You're right. It is subjective. It's a tool for our staff to work through," he said. "At the end of the day, we may really struggle with the decision, especially on these large historical ones, and we actually may have to come to council and say, 'Hey, we've got two that we see are very well aligned. Who do you think we should give priority to?'"
He said the criteria provide a framework for administration to evaluate requests, but added, "Is it going to be perfect? No. Are we going to have to refine the criteria? Most likely."
Petrow said she appreciated the explanation, but referenced past debate over nonprofit fee structures where council had hesitated to leave final determinations with staff.
"We were like, 'We don't want our staff to be the ones who have to make these decisions,' but now we're putting it that our staff are the ones making the decisions," she said. "So I appreciate it, and I wish you the best of luck with this."
Ash said user groups were consulted during the development of the policy through open houses, email submissions and meetings. She told council all feedback received was supportive.
"All groups that provided feedback were in full support of the draft allocation policy and commented on how they feel the policy provides clarity, consistency and transparency on how decisions are made," she said.
Council carried the motion unanimously.
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