Here's an interesting item from the halifaxlovahate blog: Some persons unknown have been stuffing mailboxes in the North End with warnings that the Agricola Street Brasserie will get a licence enabling them to basically act as an entertainment venue with amplified music seven nights a week. That's not their business plan at all, but the licensing doesn't really allow a resto-bar to have a distinct licence--it's all or nothing. So some neighbours are getting a bit NIMBY about it, fearing that a future business could get the licence transferred and open up, I dunno, whatever they want, I guess.
The post here is a request for people to send letters of support in advance of a meeting with residents, which has already passed, but it provides some interesting background.
Reminds me a bit of Parkdale and Ossington in Toronto, where in recent years the city has brought down the hammer with a stupidly simplistic "interim control bylaw." The law prevents all new liquor licenses from being granted for a period of one year, because too many bars opened all at once in those neighbourhoods--a situation which could have been prevented with a smarter licensing regime, like only so many licenses on one block, different licenses for bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, etc. There's little nuance in Canadian cities, it seems, with granting bar licenses. (In the case of Parkdale, there was one really loud, annoying bar-restaurant-rock club place that wanted an outdoor patio about five feet from some people's bedrooms across the alley, but the rest were pretty innocuous.)