Friday, December 19, 2008
City hears residents’ complaints of too many bars
Sacramento Business Journal - by Mark Anderson Staff writer
Residents of the booming restaurant scene in Sacramento are clamoring for some peace in their neighborhoods.
They are increasingly being bothered by late-night noise, scarce parking spaces and some instances of general bad behavior.
It’s perhaps an expected result of the city’s efforts to make downtown and midtown a hub of mixed-use planning, where restaurants and businesses mix with the residents. But some residents are fed up and think there might be too many bars and restaurants.
In response, the city last week hosted a 90-minute forum for midtown neighbors, who had a chance to complain about loud late-night strolls by drunken customers seeking their cars, people parking in driveways and the occasional noisy businesses.
The incidents are byproducts of a now-thriving district, something the city has been seeking for years, said City Councilman Steve Cohn, who has represented the neighborhood since 1994. The city is not going to change the zoning to limit restaurants and bars.
“This is midtown. It is mixed-use,” Cohn said. “We don’t want it to be like Granite Bay or Elk Grove, where all the restaurants are in one area and all the people live somewhere else.”
The city is trying to address the issues on several fronts. The Sacramento Police Department has an entertainment patrol — one sergeant and five patrol officers — who are tasked with monitoring restaurants, bars, clubs and performance venues. They measure the sound levels, and they patrol for problem customers in the neighborhood. The patrol started this fall.
“We’re going to work on solutions together,” said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association. “The list of complaints is pretty short. It’s noise at closing time, the parking and some litter. We can figure out how to make that better.”
Art, music, fashion and dining are major industries that help the Sacramento economy and “they are industries that happen mostly at night. We don’t want to close this down,” Kerth said.
“Midtown is a great place to live because there is so much going on in it,” he said. Housing prices are down in most areas of Sacramento, but “the central city has not succumbed to falling housing prices. Clearly, it is a desirable place to be.”
Some city leaders and midtown stakeholders attended a conference of the Responsible Hospitality Institute this fall to see how other cities deal with mixed-use conflicts, Kerth said. In midtown and downtown, many of the complaints by neighbors could be solved by working with other businesses and offices in the area to allow their parking lots to be used at night.
“Success breeds challenges, and we are working on the challenges,” said Michael Ault, director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a business improvement district in the central city.
“We’ve got to keep in mind it is an area where people are attracted to the businesses,” he said. “It is not reasonable to assume that people will be able to park in front of their homes every night in an area like this. That said, there has to be balance with the needs of the residents, and we know that.”
The city has worked to increase off-street parking in one part of midtown, taking control of the East End Garage — on 17th Street, between L Street and Capitol Avenue — after the state offices close down at night. The city offers parking for $2 for the evening.
“It is one of the best-kept secrets in town,” city spokeswoman Linda Tucker said. “We encourage the employers to tell their employees to park in the garages to open more spots on the streets.”
Kerth said if he can get permission to use a few more lots and garages, it would dramatically reduce the fight over parking between midtown residents and the folks who drive into the area.
At the forum, several central city residents said that a person could walk along the corridor of J, K, L and Capitol Mall and Capitol Avenue from Old Sacramento in the west to Alhambra Boulevard on the east, a span of 30 blocks, and hit at least one bar on every numbered street.
That fact probably won’t change, Cohn said, but there can be solutions to make sure it works better with the neighbors.
Hospitality owners realize the need to keep the peace between patrons and neighborhood residents, Kerth said. It is the occasional patron that acts badly.
But residents are not without power.
They have the ability to limit any new bars in restaurants. When a business seeks a liquor license, it has to send notices to its neighbors within 100 feet in any direction and publicly post a sign.
The most recent application for a liquor license in the area, the Old Soul at the Weatherstone, was turned down. Not only did neighbors oppose the license, but the area is considered “oversaturated” with alcohol-serving or -selling establishments.
Being considered “oversaturated” doesn’t mean a business cannot get a liquor license, it’s just a little more difficult. In the case of the Weatherstone, its application received two letters of protest from neighbors, said John Carr, spokesman with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The Weatherstone is on the west side of 21st Street, which is commercial mixed-use. Across the street is residential.
“We know it is an issue,” Ault said of the challenges with mixed-use. “The last thing we want to do is get sideways with the residents.”
Prev
I would recommend both places.
My sentiments exactly!
Linear Mode
