Planning Commission recommends approval for Poor Decisions bar CUP in Old Town with parking and noise stipulations

Scottsdale Planning Commission members on April 23 recommended that the City Council approve case 9-UP-20-24, a bar conditional use permit for Poor Decisions, a business in the Fifth Avenue district of Old Town. The commission voted unanimously to forward the application with staff-recommended stipulations.

The recommendation matters because the site sits between Craftsman Court and the Fifth Avenue parking garage, close to commercial and some residential uses, and neighbors and commissioners raised concerns about past problems at the location and about noise, policing and parking. The city’s action is advisory; the City Council makes the final decision on the permit.

Planning staff said the existing interior space totals about 2,300 square feet and that the operation includes substantial outdoor patio space (the southern parcel and second-floor patio total roughly 5,300 square feet). Because the proposed change from a restaurant to a bar increases the intensity of the use, the project requires 24 additional parking spaces; the applicant proposes 26 remote parking spaces supplied by a single adjacent property owner across the street and documented in a recorded agreement at the county, staff said. The parking agreement is recorded and can be revoked by the property owner; staff told commissioners the recorded arrangement and a five-year minimum term are standard ways to secure remote parking.

Lauren Proper Potter, representing the applicant, described the operation as an existing restaurant that must change liquor license type due to a prior period when the kitchen was closed and the business did not meet the state-required food-to-liquor sales split. Proper Potter said her client has expanded lunch service and will maintain entrees through 9 p.m. on business days, will not charge a cover, and agreed to other stipulations intended to ensure continued restaurant-style offerings and neighborhood responsiveness. “We have 2 years of data here. We have no noise complaints, no issues, no calls for service, acts of violence, nothing like that,” Proper Potter told the commission.

Commissioners pressed staff and the applicant about a history of problems at the site under a prior operator, Loyalty Lounge, in 2021–22 and about how the city enforces noise and nuisance complaints in mixed-use districts. Legal counsel reminded the commission that liquor licenses are issued by the state agency and not by the city: “Liquor licenses, they’re not issued by the city. They’re issued by the state,” the attorney said, noting the city’s role is limited to the land-use entitlement (the CUP). Staff also said the city’s noise ordinance is designed primarily to protect residential districts rather than mixed-use downtown areas; commissioners requested a status update on a pending Old Town noise-ordinance revision.

Key stipulations discussed and included in the staff recommendation require that remote parking spaces come from the adjacent property owner (26 spaces), that the business maintain food service including entrees until 9 p.m. and provide lunch service at least five days a week, that hours and other operational limits be followed as stipulated, and that the applicant remain responsive to adjacent-property concerns. Staff said if the parking agreement is revoked the applicant would need a satisfactory alternative (such as a new remote parking agreement or an in-lieu parking agreement with City Council) or the business would be out of compliance with the CUP.

The commission’s recommendation is now scheduled to be considered by the City Council, which has the final authority on the conditional use permit and on any in-lieu parking agreements. Commissioners also asked staff to provide an update on the Old Town noise ordinance at a future meeting so that enforcement and code changes could be reviewed alongside bar and entertainment use permits.