The Norco City Council last week voted unanimously to amend the municipal code on fireworks to ban all aerial fireworks displays in the city after public outcry on social media prior to a private event held last month at the SilverLakes Sports Complex.
The backlash started after the city posted notice of the display, part of In-N-Out’s Family Picnic event for employees, on its social media pages hours before a pyrotechnic test was set to take place.
“Why wasn’t there more advanced notice,” one person asked in a comment on the post. “You wait to notify the people of Norco until the day of this event?? That doesn’t give animal owners time to get prescriptions for their animals that need it or time to prepare.”
The city’s municipal code regarding fireworks, which was last updated in 2017, banned the use, possession, sale, discharge and storage of fireworks, including those labeled “safe and sane,” with exceptions for professionally conducted fireworks or pyrotechnic displays permitted by the Riverside County Fire Marshal’s Office.
“The prohibition reflects the city’s intent to protect public health and safety, preserve property and minimize disturbances to animals and residents,” Amanda Hamilton, facilities and maintenance director, said at the August 6 meeting.
Permitted displays could include both aerial fireworks, which are projected into the air to produce largescale visual and auditory effects and require significant safety perimeters and have expansive fallout zones, and proximate fireworks, which are intended for controlled, close-range effects to enhance live performances or events and are designed for indoor or confined outdoor venues with minimal fallout.
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According to city staff, there have been two events in the last five years to receive permits for fireworks, one of which was the July event that spurred the discussion and the other was in 2022 at the Norco College Sports Complex.
“It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, people lose their minds,” Mayor Greg Newton, who brought the item forward, said. “It all comes back to the animals, and it also comes back to certain residents in town, veterans especially, that suffer from loud noises and large flashes.”
Newton suggested that the council prohibit aerial displays but still allow professionally permitted proximate fireworks displays, which Mayor Pro Tem Robin Grundmeyer said she would be amenable to supporting, even though city staff said there had been no formal complaints about the noise or fireworks filed with the city following the multi-day event.
“In general, I would agree with the mayor that revising the ordinance to get rid of aerials would be fine,” she said. “But I think when we’re looking at event venues like even [Ingalls Park] Moreno Arena, where someday we could potentially have concerts and things like that and these would be used as effects up there, I think we’re just taking away entertainment opportunities for folks.”
Grundmeyer said she was also concerned that the council’s action could be perceived as overstepping the authority of the fire department, which had the ability to approve or deny permit requests for professional fireworks shows in the city.
“I think we complain about overreach all the time, [and] we talk about local control all the time,” she said. “This is not my area of expertise, this is not my field of knowledge, and so I don’t feel like it’s my place to tell the fire marshal how to issue permits or what to do in that particular field.”
Despite her concerns, Grundmeyer supported the motion, along with the rest of the council, to prohibit all aerial fireworks displays in the city.
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