During what was supposed to be a roundtable discussion regarding alcohol licenses, the fourth meeting of the Beach Alcohol Task Force turned into another debate about beach communities requiring conditional use permits (CUPs) from bars as a means of leveraging stricter rules against them. CUPs are often used for schools and churches that wish to be located in residential zoning areas.
The first meeting of the new year was scheduled to wrap up discussions about alcohol licenses with representatives from the police department and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). However, public comment at the beginning of the meeting and an additional presentation by San Diego Police Department’s vice unit concerning entertainment licenses took the lion’s share of the time.
District 2 Councilman and task force chair Kevin Faulconer even came prepared with summaries of past meetings, statistics requested regarding the number of alcohol licenses in the 92109 and 92107 ZIP codes and questions to get the discussion going. Faulconer managed to ask a few of his questions, though the materials he brought were overlooked.
The December meeting included a presentation by the Centre City Development Corporation about its use of CUPs in the Gaslamp district, which impose limits on bars regarding live and amplified music. However, the vice unit explained that entertainment permits can have a similar effect as CUPs “” requiring bars to turn off music by a certain time or restrict live music to certain hours of operation “” without as much work as the latter.
Lt. Carolyn Kendrick and Sgt. Ernest Herbert from the vice unit explained that establishments offering entertainment “” a business or an event “” must obtain an entertainment permit from the police department
“The CUPs that I see down in the Gaslamp, we so closely mirror those as conditions on clubs down in PB, it’s like there’s a CUP,” said Beth Reilly, also with the vice unit.
This raised many questions from task force members as to the benefits of conditional use permits, which are not currently used in beach communities, over the conditions implemented with the entertainment permits. According to Reilly, there are no restrictions available through a CUP that could not be administered through an entertainment permit.
“It sounds like we already have the CUP process in place,” said task force member Jeremy Malecha. “Is implementing the CUP plan any more beneficial than, say, developing a standard set of entertainment permits for all the new establishments?”
Malecha explained that in order to implement CUPs in Pacific Beach and other beach communities, a regulatory agency is needed to process them.
Other task force members agreed that it would take too long to develop such an agency and said they preferred to focus on immediate solutions to the alcohol issue before them.
Kendrick also reminded the public that if an establishment has become a problem for the neighborhood, residents should contact the vice unit, as the process is complaint driven.
Every year during the entertainment permit renewal process, vice investigates the establishment up for renewal for persistent problems and makes sure the establishment is meeting all their responsibilities, including controlling the conduct of their patrons and abiding by permit rules.
Herbert explained that residents should fill out the ABC Establishment Citizen Complaint Form on the police department’s Web site, www.sandiego.gov/police/forms/alcohol.shtml, to file their complaint.
While discussion on licensing and permitting issues is likely to continue at future meetings, the February gathering is scheduled to focus on the issue of neighborhood house parties.
The next meeting is scheduled Monday, Feb. 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ocean Beach Masonic Lodge, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. For information on previous task force meetings, visit www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/cd2/news/index.shtml.