Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on Planning and Environment

FROM:

Chief License Inspector

SUBJECT:

919 Granville Street - 600428 B.C. Ltd. (Paradise Theatre)
Class `C' Cabaret - Increase in Seating Capacity

 

RECOMMENDATION

CONSIDERATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

On December 11, 1997, Council approved amendments to the Theatre Row Liquor Licensing Policy as follows:

On September 14, 2000, Council endorsed:

On January 30, 2001, Council endorsed:

PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

The applicant, 600428 BC Ltd., is requesting a Council resolution endorsing an application for an increase in the seating capacity from 125-seats to 200-seats in the proposed Class `C' Cabaret at 919 Granville Street (Paradise Theatre) in consideration for the closure of the 75-seats from the Starfish Room at 1055 Homer Street.

There are a number of significant policy concerns with the applicant's request. Council has already reaffirmed twice the January 30, 2001 policy to not favourably support future applications until certain conditions have been met. Staff is equally concerned regarding the over concentration of seats and establishments in the 900 block of Granville Street. Finally, the status of the existing Starfish Room liquor license is an issue as the building will soon be demolished and the liquor license has been placed into administrative suspension.

As a result, staff does not support the applicant's request and recommends that Council not endorse the application for a 75-seat capacity increase from 125 to 200 seats in the proposed Class `C' Cabaret at 919 Granville Street. However, staff supports the consideration of Item B proposing an increase in seating capacity of 13-seats in addition to the 125-seat original Council endorsement, which would increase the total seating capacity to 138-seats. Finally, staff has also included for Council's consideration Item C for an additional 75-seats, which would increase the total seating capacity from 125-seats to 200-seats in lieu of Recommendation A or Consideration B.

BACKGROUND

On January 25 and January 30, 2001, at a meeting of the Planning and Environment Committee, staff presented to Council a combined report recommending Council not endorse two new liquor license applications for the 900 block of Granville Street. After considerable deliberation, Council endorsed both applications. One of the applications endorsed was for 919 Granville Street. The applicant's original request was for 225 new Class `C' Cabaret seats, although he was only proposing to relocate 125 cabaret seats from an existing Downtown Eastside club that was to be closed. On January 30, 2001, Council endorsed a 125-seat Class `C' Cabaret at 919 Granville, conditional upon the permanent closing/relocation of the 125-seat Downtown Eastside cabaret. Council effectively only endorsed a seat-for-seat transfer.

Recent Decisions on Granville Street

In April of 2001, Council did not endorse an application to relocate two cabarets (The Rage and Yuk Yuk's) from the Plaza of Nations site to a proposed purpose-built building at 980 Granville Street. This decision reinforced Council's January 30, 2001 policy to not grant favourable consideration to applications in the Entertainment District until the current supported applications either were open and operating or withdrawn, the community and City resource impacts of the new establishments evaluated, and staff reports these findings to Council with recommendations for the Entertainment District.

In August of 2001, an administrative report was presented to Council to resolve the outstanding cabaret seat relocation condition regarding the previous support-in-principle for a 130-seat cabaret at 900 Granville Street. The staff report recommended the approval of the relocation of the 275-seat Starfish Room from 1055 Homer Street in support of the original 130-seat cabaret, but because the applicant was proposing to bring more than the 130-seats required, staff also put forward for Council's consideration an item which would provide additional seats at the 900 Granville Street location (effectively a seat-for-seat transfer).
Interested parties spoke at the July meeting in opposition to the report, with particular opposition to the proposed increase in cabaret seats from the original application. Council debated the issue of additional cabaret seats, and subsequently endorsed the recommendation for the 130-seat cabaret only (potentially resulting in over half the seats being lost to the liquor license holder) with no additional seating.

Starfish Room Application

The Starfish Room had a liquor license capacity of 275-seats. The above endorsement effectively gave "credit" for only 130 of these seats toward the cabaret relocation to 900 Granville Street, conceivably leaving 145-seats on the table. The endorsement of August 2, 2001 for 900 Granville Street required the permanent closure or relocation of all 275-seats from the Starfish Room, 1055 Homer Street.

Staff feels that as long as an application is received and in process prior to the February 7, 2002, deadline for the cabaret closure, consideration could be given to using any portion of the remaining 145-seats in support of a seating capacity increase at a different site. It should be noted that the city's objective, the closure or relocation of the cabaret at the existing location, was secured with the initial endorsement. However, Council could consider a relocation of a portion of the remaining seats.

Area Surrounding Subject Premises

The subject premises are located in the DD Downtown zoning district. The surrounding area is a mixture of retail, office, restaurant, cabaret, hotel, neighbourhood pub, residential and other commercial uses. The closest residential building is the Siesta Hotel, almost directly across Granville Street. A large residential tower is located on the west side of the 900 block of Seymour Street.

DISCUSSION

Policy Issues

Over Concentration of Seats in the Entertainment District

Council's policy of January 30, 2001 noted previously, was implemented partly due to the number of premises and new license seats endorsed over the original policy limits for the Theatre Row Entertainment District. As of November 20, 2001 there are 1140 new seats endorsed or operating in the Entertainment District, resulting in the original policy limit of 1000 new seats being exceeded by 140-seats. The applicant's are proposing that an additional 75-seats be added to the Entertainment District. If endorsed, the revised totals for the Entertainment District would be 1215 new seats endorsed or operating, resulting in the policy limit being exceeded by 215 seats.

The original policy limit was set at 1000 new seats, after an extensive public process and numerous discussions between staff and police. It was felt that this figure would provide enough incentive to `kick-start' the revitalization of Granville Street, but not result in issues commonly associated with entertainment districts in other jurisdictions (Electric Avenue in Calgary for example). Exceeding the original policy limit by 215-seats effectively results in another full establishment in the Entertainment District.

Staff, and particularly the Police Department, are concerned about the potential effects of an over concentration of seats in the district. These effects would be most noticeable at bar closing time, between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m., and would involve various types of street problems (fights, noise and general acts of public disturbances/nuisances) that drain City resources and impact the surrounding community. Police feel that they do not have sufficient resources to effectively deal with these late night issues.

Concentration of Seats and Establishments on the 900 Block

Also due to the same street problems noted above, staff is very concerned about the concentration of establishments and seats in the 900 block of Granville Street. At present 735-seats, which is roughly 65 percent of the new seats for the Entertainment District are endorsed on the 900 block. When the existing cabaret on the block (the Roxy at 932 Granville Street) is included, the number of seats endorsed or operating on the block equals 1010 seats. If the applicant's request is supported, then the additional 75-seats would result in 810 new seats allocated to the 900 block of Granville Street. This concentration on one block again increases the probability of policing and community impact problems on Granville Street.

The Limited Validity for Transfer of the Starfish Room Cabaret Seats

It is staff's position that the consideration to relocate a cabaret or other suitable liquor establishment seats should be viewed as a package, with discussion including the impacts for the new location and the benefits of the closure in the current location. The primary reason for this position is that the decisions must be made concurrently, as the decision on one may impact the other and vice versa.

Staff acknowledges that in some cases it is not possible to have all agreements to secure seat relocations ready at the same time. Furthermore, any seat relocation would require a Council endorsement and it is possible that Council may not support the seat relocations as proposed by the applicant. Therefore the existing liquor licensee who wishes to relocate or sell all of the seats may wish to subsequently pursue other proposals for the remaining seats not allocated by Council for relocation or closure. Staff would only support subsequent proposals that are applied for while the existing business is still operating or theexisting/original liquor license is still valid (administrative suspension may be deemed acceptable), and the physical space remains intact at the time of the application. However, the above staff policy is only a guideline and each application must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Once the endorsement has been granted to effectively remove the undesired use, (in this case the closure of the cabaret at 1055 Homer Street), then there is no longer any need to offer additional incentives to encourage the closure of the problematic use at the existing location.
Consideration of a transfer of seats too long after the fact would unnecessarily complicate an already complicated process, and would place a very difficult burden on staff to ascertain who is eligible for the seats. Requiring the applications to be brought forward concurrently is the best means to ensure the matter is presented concisely to Council for consideration.
In this case, Council only supported a relocation of a portion (130-seats) of the existing license due to policies related to the proposed site at 900 Granville. Although the application was for the relocation of the entire license, over half of the seats (145) were left on the table. As a result, staff feels that the licensee may be provided, within reason, the opportunity to find alternate proposals for the unused seats. Staff also feels that a reasonable time limit would be to only consider applications received prior to termination dates set in the original endorsement. (February 7, 2002).

Seat Relocation Policy

Typically staff has supported small net seat increases for applications involving the relocation of a problem cabaret. These increases are usually about 10 percent of the existing liquor license seating capacity.

Council's initial endorsement of the application to relocate the 125-seat Class `C' Cabaret, doing business as "Pony's", from 313 Carrall Street to 919 Granville Street, did not provide for any increase in capacity as this issue was not discussed at the time of Council's endorsement. Should Council not support the 75-seat increase (i.e., Council approves Recommendation A), staff feels an endorsement of an additional 13-seats would be consistent with past practices, and therefore submit Consideration B in this report. However, if Council supports the 75-seat increase, staff recommends that seating be limited to 200-seats without further increases.

Benefits of Proposal

The proposed additional 75-seats would increase the viability of the project. The applicant expressed concern at the Council meeting for the initial application that the project would not be viable with only 125-seats. At that meeting the applicant felt that 225 to 250-seats were necessary for a viable operation. The applicant now believes that 200-seats is sufficient for a profitable venture and will provide a reasonable return on investment.

A 200-seat cabaret does meet the site or building specific policing strategy for the Entertainment District. The 200-seat capacity per building was set to help reduce the problems at closing by preventing large cabarets in the District. This strategy has been compromised with the endorsement of additional cabarets on the 900 block, with this proposed cabaret at 919 Granville Street being one of those additional cabarets.

The relatively small size of the cabaret, (200-seats) would not likely in itself result in significant street problems or police issues, provided the establishment is isolated from other liquor licensed premises and is well managed. This benefit is negated when the establishment is combined with the other seats located on the 900 block of Granville Street.
Negatives of Proposal

There are number of significant negative aspects to the applicant's proposal as pointed out in this report, the primary point being Council policy to not favourably support any new applications until all existing approvals are operating an appropriate period of time and/or staff receives confirmation that the applications will not proceed to completion. Staff would then report back to Council with an update on the performance of the Entertainment District concept and possible modifications of the policy.

A second equally important consideration is the validity of the seats offered in support of the seating capacity increase. A number of months ago, Council endorsed the relocation of 130 of the Starfish Room's 275-seats to 900 Granville Street on the condition that the existing Homer Street cabaret close no later than February 7, 2002. Council should carefully consider the extenuating circumstances pertaining to the remaining unused Starfish Room cabaret seats prior to any endorsement of an increased seating capacity as this could have precedent setting implications for subsequent applications.

A third point is that approval of the 75-seat increase would only exacerbate the potential problems associated with an over concentration of seats in the Entertainment District and, in particular, the 900 block of Granville Street. There is significant concern among staff over the uncertainty of the impacts on the community and City resources once all the approved venues are operational.

RESULTS OF NOTIFICATION

No neighbourhood notification was conducted as this application is within the Entertainment District and previous notifications have had a low response rate. Interested parties have been notified of the report by the City Clerk's office and received a copy of the report.

COMMENTS

The Police Department opposes the increased seating capacity for the current Paradise Theatre (919 Granville Street):

The Development Services Department has reviewed this application and notes that this site is located in the Downtown (DD) Zoning District - Sub-area K1. Cabaret is listed as a "conditional" use in the Downtown District Official Development Plan.

Records indicate that this building is currently approved as a Theatre. On May 2, 2001, a development application (DE405785) was submitted for interior and exterior alterations to change the use of this existing theatre to a cabaret. Work is to include the reconstruction of an upper balcony and the addition of 200 square feet. A decision has not yet been made on this application.

Regarding the options to increase the seating capacity in this proposed cabaret, the Liquor Licensing Policies and Procedures adopted by City Council acknowledge a maximum cabaret capacity of 130-seats in the 900 block of Granville Street, and Development Services Department does not support this application.

The Vancouver/Richmond Health Board has no objection. Renovation of the site should meet the stated objective and be completed in full compliance with the Noise Bylaw.

The Social Planning Department does not support any increase in seating capacity given the policy concerns outlined in this report.

The Housing Centre does not support any increase in seating capacity given the policy concerns outlined in this report and note that the two nonmarket seniors housing facilities in the immediate area may be adversely impacted by the increased seating capacity.

CONCLUSION

For the reasons outlined in this report, staff does not support the endorsement of the applicant's request for a 75-seat increase in seating capacity from 125-seats to 200-seats at 919 Granville Street. However, staff acknowledges that the original January 30, 2001 endorsement for the 125-seat relocation/closure of Pony's cabaret (313 Carrall Street) in support of the 125-seat cabaret at 919 Granville Street, did not include a discussion on the possibility of a small increase in seating. In some cases, applicants have received an approximate 10 percent increase in seating capacity for cabaret closure/relocations. As a result staff can support Consideration Item B providing a seating capacity increase of 13-seats, from 125-seats to 138-seats.

Staff has also included for Council's consideration a second item supporting the applicant's request for an increased seating capacity of 75-seats from 125-seats to 200 seats.

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