Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Entertainment Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee directs staff to craft limited pilot for indoor daytime live entertainment and to pilot a decibel enforcement program
Summary
After public comment and detailed staff discussion, the committee directed staff to draft a tightly limited pilot allowing indoor daytime live entertainment at restaurants and to return with a concurrent decibel-based enforcement framework in January.
The Land Use & Sustainability Committee on Friday directed staff to craft a narrowly targeted pilot program to allow limited indoor live entertainment in areas that currently prohibit entertainment, and to return in January with both the pilot draft and the administration’s plan for a decibel-based noise-enforcement pilot.
Commissioners and staff said the city’s current live‑entertainment definition — which treats live and recorded music differently even at the same ambient level — is inconsistent and may be vulnerable to First Amendment challenge. Tom (Planning Director) explained the existing code treats recorded ambient music differently from live performance and that the city had been legally challenged in the past; staff suggested a pilot program as one means to test a regulatory approach that could include clear objective criteria.
Staff and commissioners sketched the contours of a proposal that would be limited in scope: indoor-only venues (starting with full-service restaurants, not bars or nightclubs), restricted days and hours (suggestions centered on weekend daytime service, e.g., 11 a.m. to 3–4 p.m.), limited occupancy thresholds, a small cap on pilot permits per year per establishment, and a one‑year sunset so the experiment could be evaluated. Several commissioners emphasized the pilot should include a permit process with fees and recommended that permit revenues be used to fund enforcement. Commissioners also asked staff to analyze whether proximity to residences should be an automatic limiter (for example, stricter hours where residential units are within a set distance) and to consider whether venues with no nearby residences could have longer hours.
A majority of residents who called or spoke in person opposed expanding live-entertainment allowances without a decibel‑based objective enforcement standard, citing enforcement challenges with existing ambient-recorded-music rules and examples of loud outdoor amplified events at public parks and private establishments. Several residents asked the city to first adopt an objective decibel standard and an enforcement plan before expanding entertainment allowances; some urged the city not to expand entertainment in residential neighborhoods at all.
Committee direction: staff will draft a narrowly defined, indoor‑only pilot for daytime weekend entertainment (examples discussed: Sunday jazz brunch) with a one‑year sunset, permit fees and objective enforcement measures tied to a decibel pilot. The administration’s consultant was already developing a decibel master-plan framework; the committee asked staff to return in January with draft pilot ordinance language and an outline of the decibel pilot and enforcement approach. Commissioners asked the city attorney to review the live-entertainment language for First Amendment risk while staff prepares the pilot.
