QUESTION
What is the city planning department's stance on cabaret licenses and member deference in the proposed zoning changes?
2:54:32
·
4 min
The city planning department states that there are no more cabaret licenses and offers to look into the matter in Vickie Paladino's distrctict.
The planning department also states that the proposed zoning changes would not impact the council's ability to weigh in on discretionary matters.
- Vickie Paladino and the city planning department agree that old zoning rules prohibiting dancing in bars should be eliminated
- The proposed changes do not make it stricter or easier to operate loud bars late at night that disrupt neighborhoods
- The office of nightlife can help address concerns about enforcing rules on disruptive bars
- Changes impact areas the council does not vote on, like home occupation rules, but do not take away the council's rights
- Any new discretionary processes being added give the council opportunities for input that don't currently exist
Vickie Paladino
2:54:32
Hello again?
2:54:33
Okay.
2:54:34
I want to touch on before I get into a long winded what what it is I do.
2:54:41
I wanna know about the capillaries.
2:54:46
We have a lot of bars, neighborhood bars, and nobody stopped if they wanna get up and dance a little bit to some loud music that you made it sound like you're not allowed to dance in a bar, which is absolutely ridiculous because you are.
2:55:03
The other thing is I have a very, very beautiful restaurant in my district that just opened and was hit pretty hard with some fines.
2:55:14
Because he was operating as a cabaret on a weekend.
2:55:19
I felt very badly for him.
2:55:21
He's a great guy, great restaurant.
2:55:23
But he is in lies the pro of the problem.
2:55:26
The problem is is that the music went on and on and on until 2:3 in the morning and he was operating as a cabaret.
2:55:35
So as much as I was upset for him, he also wasn't following the rules.
2:55:41
How do we help our people who live?
2:55:43
As as council member Ariel brought up, I brought up earlier.
2:55:48
People buy in these areas because this is where and how they wanna live.
2:55:53
So that's one of my questions.
2:55:56
What are we going to do about these cabaret licenses that are gonna be allowed to operate as caberoes in residential district's neighborhoods.
2:56:06
This guy sits right in the middle of neighborhood, garden apartments, right there.
2:56:10
And he's and he's got a great restaurant, but he's playing music till 3:4 in the morning.
2:56:14
We also have I wanna know what part of member deference.
2:56:20
What right are we going to have?
2:56:23
Should this pass?
2:56:26
You are you taking away our ability to say no to something?
2:56:32
Or is it going to be are we still going to maintain our ability to voice our opinions and to bring our community in and and and test the temperature and vote accordingly and counsel.
2:56:48
I wanna know about that.
2:56:50
We need to know as city city council members, are you taking away our member deference?
2:56:58
Our ability to say, no.
2:57:00
Thank you.
2:57:04
Because I don't think
Dan Garodnick
2:57:04
Thank you, council member.
2:57:06
First, you asked a few few questions.
2:57:09
You know, a guy with a bar where people are standing up and dancing, saying that it's not allowed to dance is being does completely agree with you.
2:57:18
As it as it is, there's a few relics and zoning which say that that's technically illegal.
2:57:23
We're with you we should do away with that.
2:57:26
Somebody who has a cabaret license, there are no more cabaret licenses, so I don't know what you're specifically referring to, but we can we can look at it with you and are happy to.
Vickie Paladino
2:57:34
It's not so much a cabaret.
2:57:35
I might have used the license at the end of cabaret, but what he does is at a certain hour, on a Saturday night, 11 o'clock, 10 o'clock.
2:57:42
He turns it into a jump in place, which is really great, but not in the location.
2:57:46
That is it.
2:57:47
Yeah.
Dan Garodnick
2:57:47
Understood.
2:57:48
Okay.
2:57:48
So maybe it's a liquor license or whatever license he has the ability to operate.
2:57:53
There's nothing that we're proposing here that would change that either to make it more strict or less strict, but I do understand the concern about loud bar that goes on into the the night and disrupts the neighborhood.
2:58:05
We do have an office of nightlife.
2:58:07
Jeff Garcia is here if if you wanna talk about the ways that the city is enforcing or can enforce in a situation like that.
2:58:14
But at a minimum, we'd be happy to follow-up with you and think about what we can do.
2:58:18
And then lastly, on the subject of member prerogatives as members of the council.
2:58:25
You know, we are making changes in zoning to a lot of areas where the council specifically is not weighing in.
2:58:33
Areas like should there be a distinction between a C1 and a C2 or a C4 to C7, or specifically whether somebody should be at a home occupation.
2:58:44
Like, the council is not, you know, voting on if somebody should be a music teacher at home.
2:58:49
These are things that are enabled, and they're as of right.
2:58:52
And what you're voting on here is should we keep a list of home occupations that is something which no longer is serving its usefulness.
2:59:01
But otherwise, we're not taking away any Council.
2:59:05
Right?
2:59:06
And to the extent that we're adding any discretionary process, we are adding an opportunity that doesn't otherwise exists.