It’s already hard enough to boogie downtown, so giving police
the power to veto live music at theaters is going too far, the city
council agreed.
It’s already hard enough to boogie downtown, so giving police the power to veto live music at theaters is going too far, the city council agreed.
Requiring all downtown theaters to get an “entertainment permit” from the Gilroy Police Department to host live music and regulating the potential for dancing in the name of public safety seems unreasonable despite past problems with raucous downtown bars and restaurants, council-members told staff Monday night.
GPD and city staff came up with the permit idea as part of a larger “theater use” policy after Mark and Susan Gaetano applied to reopen the Gaslighter, 7430 Monterey St., last November. Their initial application included a live music component, but city officials balked at the idea because of “near riots” in 2004 at the shuttered venue.
“What we’re trying to do is find a medium balance for what it used to be at the Gaslighter … We want to focus on those areas where we see the highest risk (to public safety), which are bringing in live bands that are playing alternative music and attracting different crowds,” GPD Chief Denise Turner told the council Monday night. She added, however, that “we’re not trying to shut down civil liberties or free speech.”
Since GPD Capt. Deborah Moore said she declined the Gaetanos application last November, the couple has re-applied and now plans to host only melodramas and vaudeville shows twice a week inside the retro-Western-themed business scheduled to re-open Sept. 6. After hearing about the entertainment debate Monday night, Susan Gaetano, who was not present, said she understood GPD’s responsibility to ensure public safety, but “we were completely shocked” that live music and dancing have become such a contentious issue.
Dance halls are only allowed by special permits in a fraction of the downtown. Happy Dog Pizza, for instance, lies just outside the boundary of the city’s “historic core,” in an area where dance halls and alcohol sales are permitted in the absence of food service. But in the core, where Chips N’ Salsa and the Gaslighter sit, alcohol must complement food, and any live music cannot morph into a full-blown dance club.
The theater use policy attempted to build on said regulations by requiring downtown theaters to have interlocking seats throughout the area in front of the stage to prevent out-of-control dancing. Beyond this, the proposal mandated that the ancillary dance floor could not exceed the total floor space by 10 percent, or 400 square feet, whichever is less.
“This is why we decided to go the route we are now,” Susan Gaetano said. “Originally we wanted the Gaslighter to be more flexible, with the option for live music, but we could just tell that was becoming increasingly difficult. Now with just melodrama and vaudeville, there shouldn’t be one ounce of problem with that.”
Downtown developer Gary Walton owns the building that hosts the Gaslighter. While he said the debate around his building frustrated him, he lauded the council for “applying common sense” Monday and he vowed to work with the city and GPD to create a “code of conduct” for downtown businesses – a sort of self-policing, he said.
Before things cooled off, however, Walton said the city’s behavior upset him and amounted to the left hand not knowing what the right was doing.
“It was bizarre. I’m just trying to provide a place for people to stay in town and be entertained. To me, that’s one of the three pillars of the downtown revitalization: food, entertainment and leisure activities,” Walton said. “You can’t eliminate one and expect your revitalization efforts to be successful. That would be programming downtown housing to fail.”
When it comes to the city preventing a theater from turning into a troublesome dance club, Walton said, “it’s hard to prove a negative: How do I prove in the future that I would not do this?”
GPD Capt. Kurt Svardal pointed to the past as an indicator. He reported that there were 34 calls for service to the Gaslighter in 2004 that included warrant arrests, an armed patron and one “little riot” that required a paddywagon. Councilmembers acknowledged those problems, but said the idea of imposing a blanket theater policy and permit requirement on all downtown businesses because of one problematic business was inappropriate.
“It seems like we’re trying to fix a problem with the old Gaslighter by imposing a policy on all of downtown,” Woodward said. “That’s puzzling to me.”
The council directed staff to tweak the tabled policy, but the body shirked at the idea of targeting an entire industry instead of the one venue that caused problems.
“It seems like we’re punishing good people who want to open up legitimate businesses also,” Bracco said. He added that the city should just have a three-strike policy with entertainment spots: “It’s real simple,” he said.
Walton and Councilman Craig Gartman agreed with Bracco.
“If I were to turn the Gaslighter into a dance hall, then they have every right to shut me down because I violated the terms of use,” Walton said. “But I’ve invested more money downtown than the city has. I would have to be certifiably insane to put a use in the downtown that deteriorates property value and drives people away … Why would I do that?”
“If they’re violating the conditions under which they operate, you yank their business license,” Gartman echoed. “Why are we making police code enforcement officers?”
Local developer James Suner likened the permit proposal to GPD “hijacking the zoning code” and warned that broad language in it could allow GPD to regulate other theater uses such as poetry readings. But this is not the intent of the proposal and would not happen, according to Community Development Director Wendie Rooney. She said there would be no need for an annually reviewed entertainment permit “if (a theater is) not proposing a staged musical event.” Rooney added that semi-annual events such as 5th Street Live require special ad hoc permits and would not be affected by the proposal.
Still, Suner and other downtown players cautioned that the permit seeks to place conditions on theaters, which the Downtown Specific Plan Task Force identified as an unconditional use.
Controversy aside, Susan Gaetano said the new Gaslighter will be a family place. She encouraged actors and singers to contact her at (408) 202-0441 if they want to come out Saturday, June 28, to audition.
“Our business, in our mind, has always been a positive thing in the community,” Susan Gaetano said. “I think it will be a positive thing again for the city of Gilroy.”
