Denver will ratchet up a year-old moratorium on new running races or walks by adding limits in 2015 on nearly all new special events of other types on public property.

Rules that amount to one of the more restrictive city policies in the nation are rooted in a recent surge in special events on public property — from roughly 350 in 2012 to 650 last year, the city estimates. To call a timeout of sorts, officials have ushered in the one-year partial moratorium to limit where and when new events can close streets and use parks.

During the busy season between April 15 and Sept. 1, new events will be fully blocked, with exceptions for August’s Denver Days community events. Early in the year and late in the year, the city will allow more leeway for new events.

Completely off-limits to new events all year are six marquee regional parks: City Park, Cheesman Park, Civic Center, Washington Park, Central Park and Sloan’s Lake.

So while April’s weekend 4/20 festival celebrating marijuana and late summer’s four-day Taste of Colorado likely will set up again in Civic Center, that in-demand park is shut to any new festivals.

The new restrictions expand on a full moratorium put in place last year that barred any new runs, walks or bicycle races.

That little-known change, which continues this year, resulted in organizers who were considering Denver’s stately boulevards and leafy parks for new races to instead pursue courses in the suburbs.

This year’s expanded rules, including one barring recurring events from adding days or components, have frustrated some event organizers.

Also critical are some neighborhood activists. They say Denver needs to clamp down on the existing glut of events that, in their view, clog streets and parks too often.

Pause button

City officials say the partial moratorium — billed as a set of “event caps” — gives them a year to get a handle on the rapid growth of such events.

“What we needed to do was we needed to hit the pause button, essentially,” said Katy Strascina, who oversees Denver’s new Office of Special Events.

But count Larry Ambrose, a frequent critic of city decisions, among those who think the new rules don’t go far enough in addressing challenges brought by the event surge.

Tensions have risen occasionally in some central Denver neighborhoods that host an outsized share of 5K races, music festivals and farmers markets.

“It affects commerce. It affects mobility. It affects people getting around and going to church on Sunday mornings,” said Ambrose, the president of Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation, an alliance of neighborhood groups.

“We’ve got to ask ourselves: What are our streets for? What are our parks for? What level of noise is acceptable?” he said. “We don’t want to sound like curmudgeons. On the other hand, there has to be a discussion of what is the appropriate use and the appropriate number of special events.”

The city announced the creation of the events office last month to coordinate and streamline permits across 17 city agencies, including police and public works, for event organizers and film crews.

Strascina also aims to better notify neighborhoods of coming events that will tie up traffic.

This year’s partial moratorium, she said, is “really our opportunity to understand the full impact.”

The two-year increase from 350 to 650 special events is based on loose estimates, Strascina said, because the city didn’t have one office tracking all events.

About 275 running, walking and racing events made up the largest category last year, she said, one that’s seen fast growth.

Elsewhere, other cities have grappled with the space and resources taken up by more and more events.

Austin, Texas, late last year instituted a two-year moratorium on new street events in and near downtown. New York City for years has turned down applications for new street fairs. San Diego has a 3-year-old moratorium on most events in three big parks between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Among cities considering limits on a smaller scale is St. Louis, which may restrict new running races downtown.

Decibel levels

In Denver, last year brought a few clashes between neighborhoods and events in parks. Several City Park neighbors remain incensed about decibel levels and vulgar lyrics from bands that performed in the privately organized Chive Fest in August.

Louis Plachowski, president of the group City Park Friends and Neighbors, said that experience gave him little confidence in the new rules, because Chive Fest conceivably could earn permits for a repeat run this year.

Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration set up the new events office after collecting input from event organizers and neighborhood representatives early last year, including some suggestions for limits on new events.

Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, which represents several areas that host frequent street events, is among groups satisfied with the outcome.

“Neighborhoods that are nearby to parks and open space often have to deal with traffic, parking, noise and trash from these events,” Roger Armstrong, the group’s executive director, wrote in an e-mail. “Capping the number of runs/walks/races will definitely benefit neighborhoods as they are often the cause for neighborhood impact.”

After a year of experience with the moratorium on new races, running event management company BKB Limited, which primarily organizes 5Ks and other races for nonprofits, is adapting to the rules.

“It definitely has changed the scope of things,” said Shannon Koch, the company’s executive vice president, who took part in last year’s public input meetings.

And they have meant dealing with unfamiliar permitting processes in surrounding cities that are the only places to stage new races. But because of Denver’s moratorium, she said, the suburbs have become more welcoming to race organizers.

Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JonMurray