City Promoting ‘Art in Public Places’
By Bari Auerbach

In keeping with the City Commission’s goal to master the fine art of blending development with an aesthetically pleasing environment, an ordinance was recently passed to encourage the creation of art in public places.

The ordinance, passed on first reading at the Jan. 13 City Commission meeting, may require the placement of artwork on public property as part of site plan approval.

City Attorney Lynn Dannheisser explained, “This ordinance regarding placement of works of art on private property promotes and encourages the integration of art into the architecture of the city under the zoning ordinance. Zoning applicants for multi-family development projects will be required to install or construct a work of art on the site of their development projects.

“If the applicant is unable or chooses not to construct the work of art, the applicant shall pay a fee into the public art trust fund in accordance with the art in public places ordinance which [the city] adopted in 1999 to promote and encourage the construction of artwork as part of municipal projects. The city has made a deliberate choice not to involve itself in architectural review - thus in this ordinance, we have adopted the same policy in connection with reviewing the artwork.

“The review will be done only as part of site plan review and the Commission will consider the following factors only: Location, permanency of artwork and sustainability of environmental stresses. There will be no review of the style or kind of art. Beyond these factors, the Commission may not [dictate] aesthetics, design or style - that will be up to the developer.

“’Art’ is defined in this ordinance as any work of visual art that is an integral part of the structure, attached to a structure or detached from the structure - or outside of it. The ordinance encourages developers to construct the work of art through a cost allocation provision…[meaning] if the developer constructs the work of art as part of the project, he or she is required to contribute one percent of the estimated construction cost up to $500,000 for the work of art.

“Conversely, if the developer chooses not to construct in front of his project, he or she will be required to pay that amount - and/or he or she can choose to construct a work of art…We’re not requiring more than $500,000 be dedicated even though it’s one percent of construction costs.”

Providing further clarification of the ordinance, Mayor Norman Edelcup noted, “Basically what this is saying is in order to increase the quality of life in our city, we’re proposing this ordinance to make it mandatory for these large projects [to enhance the city with art in public places]. Heretofore, this was a ‘voluntary’ situation relating to works of art – and now [it will be] a mandatory situation where [art] can either be placed in front of the development or [the developer can] contribute to the city for [the creation of] art in public places.”

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