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Parks & Public Spaces
Application from Wix.com for “The WIX Star Project” in Madison Square Park on November 1, 2014 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, October 09, 2014, the following resolution passed with a vote of 29 in favor; 5 opposed; 2 abstaining; 2 present but not entitled:
WHEREAS, Wix.com ("Applicant") has submitted an application for "The WIX Star Project" in Madison Square Park on November 1, 2014 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.; and
WHEREAS, Silver + Partners (the "Applicant's Representative"), an advertising agency, is representing Applicant, a cloud-based web development platform headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel; and
WHEREAS, The proposed event would occur on Saturday, November 1, 2014 (rain date Monday, November 4, 2014) between 5:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m., and will take place in the central lawn area of the Park; and
WHEREAS, Set-up for the event will commence at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, October 27, 2014 and continue over the subsequent five days, and breakdown will begin immediately after the event and end no later than 4:00 p.m. the following day; and
WHEREAS, Event consists of a 60'-tall canopy on the center lawn of the Park that will be linked to projectors and a website, where the public can select and place their own individual star, with attendees able to dedicate their stars to project them on the canopy for viewing; and
WHEREAS, The canopy will be held down by either 24,000-pound spreads on its base, 6,000-pound spreads on each concrete support, or four Helical piles with traction capacity of 6,000 pounds, with final determination to be made by the Department of Buildings; and
WHEREAS, Should the event be approved by NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, CB 5 recommends that the sponsor of the event provide adequate liability insurance coverage, indemnifying the Conservancy and Parks Department as the insured parties, in view of the potential danger to the public and the park posed by the installation and removal of the large and heavy structures and the use of mechanical equipment including a crane relating to the event; and
WHEREAS, Applicant has the support of the Madison Square Park Conservancy (the "Conservancy"), will not have signage, and will not distribute or sell any merchandise, although blankets will be handed out to participants in case of cool weather, which would be marked with a logo; and
WHEREAS, The event will be the last of the four annual commercial events in the Park, a limit agreed to between Madison Square Park Conservancy and the Parks Department, with the Applicant making a "significant" donation in addition to the required fees; and
WHEREAS, In response to Community Board Five's concern with the duration of the set-up and potential noise, Applicant's Representative could not commit to the Applicant restricting the use of sub-woofers nor the restriction of the use of a crane for more than two days during the set-up, although they were confident that the Applicant would do so; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, Community Board 5 recommends denial of the application from Wix.com for "The WIX Star Project" in Madison Square Park on November 1, 2014 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. unless Applicant restricts the use of a crane for more than two days during event set-up, and refrains from the use of sub-woofers.