Brewery dance permit in air

The city is still dancing around what is and what isn’t a nightclub.

There is no written definition in the municipal code to guide the City Council, which will review on Tuesday a Planning Commission recommendation for approval of a dance floor at the Ocean Avenue Brewery.

The recommendation was made over the objections of city staff members — which opined that live music, a dance floor and the limited menu requested by the Brewery owner converted the restaurant into a nightclub — and city officials who opposed the revised permit because of numerous complaints about violations of the original permit and the rowdy crowd that frequents the popular establishment.

“It is my opinion that the action we took was a measured response to solve the problems and not put [the owner] out of business,” Planning Commission Norm Grossman said.

Mayor Jane Egly appealed the approval, based on past code enforcement issues and police response to incidents at or near the Brewery.

The police department reported 17 incidents that required police presence in 2007, the most significant an unruly crowd that gathered outside the establishment, requiring backup from a neighboring police department.

However no crime reports and only two information reports were taken by police. The commission voted 3-1 to approve live entertainment by four musicians or a disc jockey, a 14 by 14 square-foot dance floor in use from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m, Tuesday through Sunday. Fifty-three conditions were attached to the recommended approval, including a training program for security personnel; an occupancy load manager on-site from 8 p.m. to closing; a limit of 100 people inside the establishment; and a full-service menu rather than appetizers-only as the business owner had requested.

Commissioner Rob Zur Schmiede did not support the approval because he believed the application needed more review and the hours of operation should end at midnight and that an appetizer-only menu, combined with dancing and entertainment, would infer the establishment was a nightclub.

Staff said the commission could designate the Brewery however it wanted.

Whatever it is called, the business may soon have a new owner.

“We were not aware [the owner] was putting the business up for sale when we held the hearing,” Commissioner Norm Grossman said. However, the owner is not part of the consideration in a conditional use permit hearing. “We make if very clear the permit goes with the building, not the applicant.”

What isn’t clear is what the difference is, if any, between a nightclub and restaurant in that building or any other — a good question for the council.