Traverse City commissioners will consider making changes to the city's agreement with the National Cherry Festival that could increase fees for the event by as much as $43,225 annually at a study session tonight (Monday).

After festival organizers agreed to the elimination of a $45,000 cap on fees - which was costing the city an average of $9,018 annually in incremental costs above the cap, according to City Manager Jered Ottenwess - the commission will consider three options in structuring fees going forward. The first would be simply to eliminate the the cap, generating the expected annual increase in revenue of $9,018; the second would be to eliminate the cap and also charge NCF permit fees, a projected fee increase of $29,027, and the third would be to eliminate the cap and charge NCF both permit fees and compensatory time costs, an estimated increase of $43,225 annually.

NCF is exempt now from paying permit fees normally required by the city's Park and Public Land Use Policy (the Traverse City Film Festival is also exempt), but some commissioners have discussed removing the exemption to level the playing field for local events. Ottenwess noted in a memo to commissioners that the city has exempted NCF historically because the event has "an important place in the history and society of Traverse City." He also noted removing the exemption for the Traverse City Film Festival would generate costs of $7,700 for that event.

City Engineer Tim Lodge will also give a presentation updating commissioners tonight on the status of the West Front Street reconstruction project, scheduled to take place later this spring. The city will need to hold a special assessment hearing in the coming weeks since $125,000 of the project costs are proposed to be split between the city and property owners located along the street. Lodge plans to review design plans, project costs and next steps in the project tonight to prepare commissioners for that hearing.