Agenda Index City of Vancouver

POLICY REPORT
LICENSING

TO:

Vancouver Liquor Licensing Commission

FROM:

Chief License Inspector

SUBJECT:

Seating Capacity Increase Amendments to Existing
Class ‘A’, ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘F’ Liquor Licenses

 

RECOMMENDATION

A/GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

POLICY

Council has expressed numerous concerns over the Provincial Liquor Review related to increased liquor seats, straight drinking seats in restaurants and lack of treatment facilities to deal with the impact of alcohol.

Council does not endorse the provincial proposal to permit existing bars, pubs and cabarets (within limits) to increase capacities to the building occupancy limit with no local government input.

PURPOSE

To establish a policy to defer applications for liquor seating capacity increases in existing Class ‘A’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ establishments to provide staff and Council adequate time to assess the full impact of the proposed changes to the liquor license regulations affecting seating capacities of all existing liquor licensed establishments.

BACKGROUND

The Provincial Liquor Review consultant has recommended that “existing bars, pubs and cabarets will be able (within limits) to increase the capacities to the building occupancy limit with local government input” and has recommended a four-step process.

Since the liquor review was announced, staff has received three applications for permanent seating capacity increases to existing cabarets:

A fourth application for the Stone Temple Cabaret has been on hold for over a year pending the applicant’s resolution of some Building and Fire Bylaw issues.

The limits being proposed by the consultant, as noted in the stakeholder’s agreement are: “capacity increases to the lesser of the building occupancy limit or the current liquor capacity plus fifty percent (50%)”. A blanket, across the board, overnight change of this magnitude will have an enormous negative impact on City resources, especially police resources. There will also be social costs and neighbourhood impacts, particularly in the moratorium areas.
It is unclear to what extent the municipal governments will be involved in the approval process under the consultant’s recommendations for seating capacity increases to existing licensed establishments.

DISCUSSION

This policy report on seating capacity increase amendments to existing Class ‘A’, ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘F’ liquor licenses addresses the issues the City has with seating increases to existing licensed establishments. An application was recently received requesting an expansion of the seating capacity to equal the existing fire capacity. Expansion to an establishment’s firecapacity is one of the proposed changes in the liquor review being conducted by the province’s consultant, Mr. Jo Surich.

In this case, using the formula (lessor of 50% of liquor license or fire capacity) proposed by the province’s consultant, the applicant would be allowed fewer seats under the provincial formula than the seats requested in the application. Staff is unsure what will happen in situations like this where the fire capacity exceeds the 50% increase of the liquor license. Will these seats be permanently lost to the operator? Is it a one time increase for the operators, requiring them to forgo all other future increase requests? Will special event temporary licenses for seating capacity increases be eliminated? Is there a time limit on the formula offer?

For this application, there is a 26-seat difference between what would be allowed as a request under the consultant’s proposed formula and the fire capacity, to the detriment of the operator. Staff is concerned that if applications like this are approved, it will set a dangerous precedent for all the other licensed establishments in the city, unless reasons for the approval are unique to this application.

There are a number of licensed establishments in close proximity to a significant amount of residential uses. There are approximately eight to ten cabarets, the majority of neighbourhood pubs, a number of hotels and most of the Class ‘A’ licensed social clubs outside of the downtown peninsula. A significant number of the licensed establishments in the downtown peninsula are located in or adjacent to Gastown or the Downtown Granville South areas.

Staff is concerned that due to the uncertainty of Provincial Liquor Review changes, there is potential that any approvals granted during the interim may support changes to liquor regulations that are not in the City’s best interest. Staff is also concerned that there may be a flood of applications from those establishments that have a fire capacity that exceeds 50% of their existing liquor license, particularly if the provincial recommendations are for one time only with no provision for special events increases.

CONCLUSION

Approvals of applications for seating capacity increases, particularly increases in excess of the changes currently being proposed in the liquor review, may open the floodgates to a rush of applications from other licensed establishments in a similar situation. Staff suggests that Council establish a policy of deferring any further applications for seating capacity increases until such time as the proposed changes to the liquor regulations have been approved and an implementation plan has been finalized.

The Permits & Licenses Department presently has, in addition to the Denman Station Cabaret application, three other applications for seating capacity increases on hold for various reasons. Staff expects that these applications will come forward to the Commission once the other issues have been resolved.

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