Tacoma committee approves after-hours club licensing framework with safety-plan, surveillance requirements

The Government Performance & Finance Committee voted June 3 to send to the full City Council a package creating a new after-hours club license that would regulate social clubs operating between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. and amend entertainment-license chapters 6B.70 and 6B.80 to clarify enforcement and regulated areas.

Danielle Larson, tax and license manager, told the committee the license responds to a small number of after-hours venues that staff and police say have generated serious incidents and neighborhood complaints. Larson said the three most-recent after-hours venues that operated past 2 a.m. were associated with 27 offenses over five years, including four homicides and multiple aggravated assaults. "By adding this license, it gives the city a tool to ensure that there are safety measures in place, and we can summarily close the business until they choose to come into compliance with the…