Dance ordinance gets facelift

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

After tinkering with a few details, the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously adopted an updated version of the city’s dance ordinance yesterday, requiring more stringent permits and requirements for businesses that want to pump the volume up and let their patrons get down.
New requirements for a full dance permit include a background check, annual renewal process, and approval of noise mitigation, business and security plans. Other changes to the ordinance include a progressive discipline system and three distinct permit types.

While members of the public and city leaders expressed their gratitude for the hard work that went into the update process, which lasted more than two years, several seemed unhappy with the concept of regulating the downtown bar scene and associated alcohol- and noise-related complaints through restrictions on dancing.
“We’ve tried to do a work-around,” Councilmember Das Williams said. “It’s an awkward work-around and it has caused a lot of collateral damage. … If I were a business owner downtown, I would be indignant.”
Others, such as Jason LoCicero, urged the Council to address what they view as the real problem: alcohol. LoCicero said on occasion he has been inspired to start dancing in small cafes and bars, but has been approached by managers who tell him to stop.
“There goes the inspiration,” he said.
Police Capt. Robert Lowry, who delivered an extensive report on the proposed changes to the dance ordinance, said the city is prevented from regulating bars through alcohol licenses, since the Alcoholic Beverage Control handles that arena. He said dance permits are one of the methods the city can use to establish local control over nightclub-type establishments.
The newly adopted ordinance established three new types of permits — limited, live entertainment and nightclub.
Limited permits, with a $600 application and $100 renewal fees, restrict dancing to 12 days per year and a midnight cutoff point.
With a live entertainment permit, a business can allow dancing three nights a week with non-amplified music that must end by 1 a.m. Initial application fees total $1,200, while the renewal fee is $200.
A full nightclub permit allows dancing any night of the week until 1:30 a.m., and costs $1,200 the first year and $400 for every renewal. The owner and general manager must also undergo fingerprinting and background checks, in addition to submitting business and security plans for review by the Fire and Police Commission.
The live entertainment permit received the most attention at yesterday’s meeting, as members of the public criticized its prohibition of amplified music and earlier cutoff time — initially the ordinance called for dancing to end at midnight.
“It will be impossible to hear someone singing in a crowded room without amplification,” said Linda Byrne, owner of the James Joyce, an Irish bar on State Street.
Bob Stout, owner of the Wildcat Lounge, called the midnight cutoff time “just nuts” and urged the Council to reconsider allowing limited amplification, an idea several city leaders appeared to agree with.
“The amplification issue needs something,” Councilmember Iya Falcone said, calling the restriction unfair. “I don’t know what it is exactly … but there is some happy place we can get to.”
After much deliberation, the Council decided to vote separately to amend the ordinance by adjusting the cutoff time for the live entertainment permit to 1 a.m. Councilmember Dale Francisco stood as the lone vote against the amendment, saying he was reluctant to tamper with more than two years of work and public discussion.
In addition to that amendment, several suggestions for future changes are being passed back to the Ordinance Committee for further research and discussion, including a reexamination of the live entertainment permit’s prohibition of amplified music.
At the request of Williams, the committee will also consider an exemption for small establishments, such as coffee shops. The ordinance will be reviewed for other tune-ups in about two years.
There are 27 establishments that currently hold dance permits in Santa Barbara, with 23 of those falling in the “Entertainment District,” an area bordered by Chapala, Santa Barbara, and Sola streets.
Capt. Lowry said from 2005 to 2007 during the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., that area has seen 32 percent of criminal offenses, 49 percent of alcohol-related offenses, and 36 percent of arrests citywide.
“Noise, throughout this process, continues to be an issue down in that area,” he added.
However, criminal offenses have also dropped by 36 percent in the Entertainment District during that time frame, something Capt. Lowry credits to enforcement and regulation efforts.
“It behooves us to have more local control over these types of establishments,” he said. “…We think it’s a step in the right direction.”