City seeks alcohol policy

The City Council has begun the task of developing more uniform policies covering alcohol-serving establishments, which have been much discussed by some residents who believe the downtown area has become too loud and rowdy.

Council members called upon the city’s Planning Commission to identify specific problems that would trigger reviews of individual establishments and their behavior. In recent years the council charged the commission with holding the reviews, but offered little specific direction.

Councilman Kit Bobko praised the commissioners for doing “an exemplary job in muddling through” the review process, despite the council’s “murky and opaque directions.”

Council members also said they will stay abreast of liquor license requests made to state officials by local businesses.

Earlier this month, the council on a split vote declined to challenge plans for Il Boccaccio restaurant on the Pier Plaza to remain open past midnight, after Police Chief Greg Savelli unsuccessfully asked state officials to impose an earlier closure.

The Il Bocaccio affair left council members expressing a desire to stand by their police chief – whom they had tasked with riding herd on the downtown – while also blaming themselves for inconsistency in their handling of individual establishments.

The council also heard from Allen Sanford of Saint Rocke, a noted live music venue, to whom city officials are turning to produce this year’s summer concert series at the pier. City officials want to shift the cost of producing the 15-year-old concert series to private producers, who will seek sponsors.

And the council received an email from Otto Palmer of Sushi Sei restaurant, who said the lack of a clear city policy on alcohol-serving establishments figured into his decision to abandon his quest to remain open until midnight in conjunction with a planned move into the historic downtown Bijou building.

“The lack of regulations and a clearly defined policy by the council makes any potential outcome of our appeal, positive or negative, seem capricious, arbitrary and frankly a ‘crap shoot,’” Palmer wrote.

In an interview, Palmer also said the Bijou’s landlord, San Jose-based Federal Realty Investment Trust, had declined to back Sushi Sei before the council, and was “negotiating with another tenant” for the space sought by Sushi Sei.

At Federal Realty, the leasing agent for the Bijou building referred questions to a press spokeswoman who was unavailable before press time. ER

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