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Health & Fitness

Time for another moratorium banning bars?

LCC meetings usually last 90 minutes, 2 hours at the most. The March 15th meeting lasted about 5 hours.

LCC meetings usually last 90 minutes, 2 hours at the most. The March 15th meeting lasted about 5 hours.

Public comment speakers usually number 1 or 2, most frequently Brendan Wehrung and Laura Harrison. This meeting had a dozen.

Dialogue about the three major agenda items was unusually thorough, yet conducted politely. The Police Department opposed granting either of the two new requests. When the night was done, the LCC had:

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  • Postponed one decision, essentially asking for a re-do of the request.
  • Denied one request, 2-1.
  • Approved some, but not all, of several requested changes in the Plan of Operation of an existing license holder.

Those recommendations will be on the agenda for CITCOM's first regular meeting in April.

NOTE: The CITCOM agenda for March 19 contains this statement about Cantina Diablo: " These recommendations would normally have been scheduled for the April 2, 2012 City Commission agenda. However, pursuant to a request from Commissioners Fournier and DuBuc under existing Commission policy the recommendations are being brought forward on March 19, 2012." (Emphasis mine: FJV)

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The majority of the comments from the public were as usual in opposition to more alcohol licenses. Not usual was the presentation by Tom December. Speaking for himself and for the Board of the Sky lofts Owners Association, December presented a folder with page after page of documentation seeming to demonstrate that Royal Oak in general and t he Fifth Street cluster of restaurants/bars in particular have the highest accumulation of liquor sales in the country and the highest density of police visits in Oakland County.

Separately, I was told that visits to YouTube will reveal videos of some of the frequently complained about activity, including fights, in downtown Royal Oak. And there were reportedly several incidents calling for multiple cop cars the night of St. Patrick's Day.

It didn't help the cases of the petitioners that there was/is confusion over whether Royal Oak's Central Business District is legally defined by ordinance or by a map. The focus of the confusion is whether that added portion of the CBD north of Eleven Mile includes the commercial developments or only the Barton Towers.
Nor did a request to include bar stools with their sidewalk cafe go down well. Or to provide purchases of beer and wine from a walk-up window.

The current LCC is composed of three city commissioners. Seated to the audience's left-to-right in March were Mike Fournier, David Poulton -- co-chair, and Pat Capello -- also co-chair. Poulton, although weary at the end, conducted the meeting effectively. Capello was the most involved with the petitioners, Fournier, newly elected, listened for the most part, asked a handful of questions, and cast the No on the split vote.

This is probably the place to mention that at least two members of CITCOM, not of the LCC, have been reported as telling citizens, in essence, that for downtown Royal Oak, "Retail is dead" or doesn't matter, that we must work to make downtown even more of an entertainment destination than it already is. So those who had hoped that the Downtown Development Authority would re-establish a real Downtown Manager charged with the task of attracting more than just restaurants and bars will be disappointed.

Which has already led to the first murmurings of establishing a 3-year moratorium on granting new alcohol licenses -- "not that it will happen with the current commission. . . But there's always petitions to put it on the ballot."
The March 2012 Liquor Control Committee meeting may have been a turning point.

Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.

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