Orlando City Council moves forward with permanent limits on downtown nightclubs

After approving a temporary moratorium on new nightclubs downtown last year, Orlando City Council on Monday moved forward with a new, permanent proposal that would take effect this fall.

The proposed ordinance , still subject to a second vote next month, would permanently limit the opening of new nightclubs to one nightclub per block in Orlando’s downtown entertainment area, requiring a 300-foot distance between each new club.

Existing nightclubs that don’t conform to this limit would be grandfathered in under the proposal, although they would be prevented from expanding. Existing clubs could lose their grandfathered-in status if they close for more than six months for renovations or rebranding. The city, however, would allow club owners in that case to get a permit to extend that for up to two years.

The permanent restrictions — controversial among some — are meant to replace a temporary, six-month moratorium on new nightclubs enacted for six months last March, renewed twice since. The temporary restriction now expires Sept. 20. If the permanent ordinance gets a second and final vote of approval next month, when it is scheduled for reconsideration, that permanent ordinance will take effect Sept. 21.

All city commissioners and Mayor Buddy Dyer — with the exception of commissioner Tony Ortiz — voted in favor of the proposal.

“The reality is, as long as we have 58 bars in downtown Orlando and less than six fine-dining establishments, we are never going to get high-end employers to want to move their headquarters to downtown Orlando, and create higher-paying jobs, and get the hotels and the restaurants and the retail, because nighttime is unsafe,” said District 1 commissioner Jim Gray, who added that if the city had it his way, he’d want all downtown nightclubs to be forced to close at midnight. (This is not currently on the table.)

“The good operators will figure out a way to survive and make money,” Gray asserted, responding to concerns expressed by longtime club owner David Siminou during the public comment period.

Gray, whose district doesn’t include the downtown area, wasn’t having it. Orlando Police Department statistics for downtown area show that for the month of June, there were 144 arrests made, 22 fights, 34 “disturbances,” and 24 firearms seized during nighttime hours. OPD explained to Orlando Weekly over email that “disturbances” specifically refer to verbal confrontations with police that have not escalated to physical altercations.

Needless to say, Gray went on a bit of a rant during discussion, which he apologized for multiple times before continuing with his thoughts. Gray, representing the area of Lake Nona and the Orlando International Airport area, was first elected to his office in 2012, and has been re-elected several times since.

Mayor Dyer, a local of College Park, also acknowledged that the Orlando Police Department has noted a “myriad of fights” downtown, while Downtown Development Board representative Sherry Gutch compared the rowdy situation to “recovering from a Mardi Gras every weekend.”

“We have this concentration of clubs that create a party atmosphere in the street every night on the weekend,” said Gutch, who serves as Director of Placemaking for the city. “It's recovering from a Mardi Gras every weekend. So, it’s a challenge for us.”

Some commissioners, however, shared their concerns. Ortiz, the lone "no" vote on the proposal, said he felt the city needed more time to determine a more comprehensive plan to address downtown safety that wouldn’t risk disrupting business.

“I don't want to find our city to be empty, to become a ghost town at night,” shared Ortiz, a commissioner for District 2, representing parts of the Curry Ford area.

Ortiz said he would like to see other measures taken to address concerns around safety, security, and “incidents” happening in parking lots and garages before giving his OK to the proposal on the table. “I'm not ready to accept something like this until I see some other measures that we need to take,” he said.

Shan Rose, the newly elected commissioner representing District 5 (which DOES include parts of downtown), shared that she also had some concerns, and had been working to field feedback from business owners in local nightlife. Her primary concern was the six-month grace period (and two-year extension) for existing clubs.

Under the proposal, the grandfathered-in status would apply to the “real property,” meaning the right would stay with the land, even if it's sold to another owner or there's a different management company or tenant.

“A lot of the businesses downtown have long-term leases, so I've expressed a concern [that] if someone does leave it and break their lease, I'm not sure that six months is enough time for a new tenant to be brought in,” said Rose.

While the new commissioner approved the proposal Monday during its first reading, she said she’d like staff to make changes to address this concern before the proposal’s next reading next month.

The goals of the proposal, according to city staff, are to address what they’ve identified as safety concerns, and to avoid an over-concentration of nightclubs. City staff maintain that bad actors in local downtown nightlife are disrupting daytime activity and visitation to the downtown area — a less-than-ideal scenario for a city that’s trying to polish up downtown’s image.

The city recently backtracked on a late-night parking garage rule that they say was only in effect for one weekend in May,  and have buzzed on about their business incentive programs that they tout as a way to support and draw in restaurants and such (that is, ideally businesses that aren't nightclubs).

“I get frustrated because I continue to hear from the folks in the nighttime economy that things won't work,” said Gray, during his post-Siminou ramble. “Nobody from the nighttime economy has come here and given us a proposal,” he continued. “We're trying to come up with ideas to fix this. And every time we do, we hear from folks that things just don’t work.”