Residents and business owners of downtown Morgan Hill this week
will ask the city’s elected officials to consider new guidelines
for the sale and service of alcoholic beverages at restaurants and
bars.
Residents and business owners of downtown Morgan Hill this week will ask the city’s elected officials to consider new guidelines for the sale and service of alcoholic beverages at restaurants and bars.
The Morgan Hill Downtown Association wrote a letter to the city council asking them to consider a draft of a new policy that has been in the works for more than a year. The letter asks the council to put the policy on a meeting agenda for discussion “at your earliest convenience.”
The suggested policy, which is supported by 13 downtown establishments that serve alcohol, is intended to provide the city with control over alcohol service through use permits, in order to limit the potential for violence, loud noise, littering and vandalism that occurs late at night when intoxicated people spill onto the public streets.
Spearheaded by the DTA’s residents’ committee, the organization has spent the last several months drafting guidelines that are acceptable to existing businesses, though they would be exempt from some of the heavier restrictions.
Supporters of the policy cite the possible conflict between out-of-control drunken revelry, and the city’s plan to redevelop downtown into a viable site for people to live, work, dine and celebrate peacefully.
Recent violent incidents in downtown Morgan Hill, such as the May 29 shooting between Second and Third streets, highlight the need for extra precautions, DTA President Dennis Kennedy said.
“The more incidents we have like (the shooting), the more support we get for having an alcohol beverage control policy that protects the residents – especially in light of the fact that we want to bring residents and businesses downtown,” Kennedy said.
The proposed policy, which is almost identical to one in place in the nearby city of Campbell, would allow the city to consider the number of police responses to a business, arrests associated with that business, as well as complaints from residents and the state Alcoholic Beverage Control office when making licensing or renewal decisions.
Other restrictions in the draft policy would allow the city to “strongly discourage” new standalone bars that do not have dining rooms or serve meals. It would require any applicant who wants to serve alcohol on-site, to offer a full-service food menu during all hours of operation.
For new restaurants that plan to have separate bars, the bar area would not be permitted to hold more than 25 percent of the entire business’ seating, under the draft policy. Plus, live entertainment would be limited only to musicians, dining rooms could not be converted to dance floors, and doors and windows would have to be closed by 10 p.m. to minimize noise pollution.
On-site consumption of alcohol would have to stop by 1 a.m. every night, and some businesses – possibly subject to individual review – would be required to hire uniformed security personnel.
The policy would also facilitate communication among downtown businesses, the police department and state regulatory agencies.
Downtown residents who are routinely exposed to both the benign and the destructive when it comes to libational behavior are still in the process of gauging the local business community’s feelings on the proposed new policy, according to downtown resident Laura Gonzalez-Escoto.
And they hope the city council responds soon, as now is the right timing for a downtown alcohol policy. Not only last month’s shooting, which sent a victim to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but also the city’s recent selection of a developer for two downtown sites show the need for the policy now, Gonzalez-Escoto said.
“I think Morgan Hill is growing up and growing out in the downtown. It’s a good time to pause and take a look,” she said.
The city of Campbell is a “benchmark city” where residential properties abut the city’s growing and established night-life district, Gonzalez-Escoto said.
Campbell is roughly the same size as Morgan Hill, but has already gone through the growing pains that can accompany redevelopment and unregulated night life. In February 2009, Campbell’s city council enacted its downtown alcohol policy, on which the local proposal is based.
That policy was drafted for almost identical reasons cited by downtown Morgan Hill residents – an increasing volume of police calls to downtown Campbell, and growing responses to incidents of violence, public urination, vandalism and other crime.
Such incidents have not decreased but have “stabilized” since the policy was enacted, according Campbell Police Chief Greg Finch. While police call volumes to downtown Campbell went up 200 percent in the first three to four years of the city’s own downtown revitalization, last year the number of calls remained flat.
The policy has thus been successful as it slowed down the opening of new nightclubs or standalone bars that could have added to the problem, and it put existing businesses with bars “on notice” that they could lose their permits if they don’t follow the downtown alcohol policy, Finch said.
“It prevented things from continuing at the pace they were going,” he said.
Finch added that criminal and disruptive behavior is likely to accompany any project that aims to redevelop a city or neighborhood as a popular destination, and Campbell’s policy was designed to “put a cap on it.”
Rosy Bergin, owner of Rosy’s-at-the-Beach restaurant on Monterey Road, said the new policy would ensure that all existing and new food-service businesses downtown will “be on the same page.”
“When new businesses come on board, they’ll know what they’re getting into. It’s not meant to be restrictive,” said Bergin, whose restaurant serves alcohol.
One downtown business with a bar that is not listed as a supporter of the policy in the DTA’s letter to the council is the M & H Tavern on Monterey Road. Downtown Morgan Hill’s only standalone bar, the Tavern would likely be able to keep its permits intact if the council approves the new policy.
However, the new policy would make it more difficult for new businesses like the Tavern to open in the downtown area. The Tavern’s owner declined to comment on the policy.
