The misguided beast that is Baltimore's City Council Bill #08-0163, aka the Live Entertainment - Licensing and Regulation bill, is once again rearing its head. Last Wednesday, March 4, the council held a formal hearing on the proposal, which would eliminate live-entertainment zoning in favor of annual live-entertainment licensing. Over the next several weeks the city will be holding a series of "community work sessions" in advance of a May 6 final vote.
While well-intentioned--opening new areas for clubs and giving neighbors some power over problem clubs, ostensibly--the bill is poorly written and just kind of oblivious as to how venues in Baltimore operate. For club owners and fans of music in general, there's much to be concerned about. Notably, the bill has a provision that would send a club's license into mediation after 10 complaints by "neighbors" within a 10-block radius of the establishment. As we've mentioned before, a neighborhood association would barely have to be awake to take care of that.
Additionally, venues would have to compile what the city is calling a "white book"--a collection of plans regarding practices such as security, sanitation, parking, and traffic management--and have it on hand for inspection. There's really no discussion in the bill on what the standards for these things will be, how uniform they must be, or how they are going to be applied. Applications for licenses will be judged on a broad range of criteria including "maximum authorized occupancy load of venue; volume and types of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the area of proposed entertainment venue; establishment and maintenance of: traffic management plan, parking plan, indoor and outdoor security plan, sanitation plan; amplification; noise levels and sound proofing; limits on size of premises or area within premises to be used for live entertainment; number of live entertainers, exterior lighting; whether to limit live entertainment to dancing only; and proximity of residences, schools, religious institutions or parks to proposed entertainment venue."
The bill also includes a provision for assessing the "moral character" of the business' owner, mainly an examination of the owner's criminal and business history.
And who's going to be making the call on these things? A five-member board made of "the Director of Hospitality Services, the City Council President or President's designee, a member of the City Council," and, in keeping with Baltimore's pay-to-play tradition, "two citizen representatives appointed by the Mayor." Note that this license is something that's going to be re-evaluated annually by the city and has no provisions for existing clubs, whether 30 days or 30 years old.
Of course, bureaucracy doesn't come free, and this is where things get really onerous. In a memo commenting on the bill, the city's finance department estimated that the total yearly cost of the office this bill would create would be $315,600. "If there were 200 businesses that would ultimately apply for the live entertainment license, the average license and renewal fee would need to be approximately $1,584 to cover costs of operation," the memo states. Recession, wha?
We imagine 200 businesses could stage an impressive revolt against this bill and City Hall--you have to wonder how and if the political calculus of this is playing out in the brains of City Council members. Metro Gallery owner Sarah Williams is organizing a meeting this Monday to "discuss how we [venue owners, fans, etc.] are affected by this bill and what changes we would like to see made." It's at 4 p.m. at Metro. The Hexagon has added a second Monday meeting for the same purpose at 7 p.m., at its space up the block.
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