Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing and grant an Entertainment Permit with conditions on the application of Casto Corporation, Inc., dba The Brit, 1744 East Broadway, for Entertainment With Dancing by Patrons.  (District 2)
Thank you. The first hearing involved financial management department with a recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the hearing and grant the entertainment permit with conditions on the application of Cascade Corporation doing business as the Britt at 1744 East Broadway for an entertainment with dancing by patrons permit. This is in District two. Okay, I'm going to turn this over to our city manager. This item will be held will be taken care of by Jason MacDonald, our business services manager and Commander. Farfan. Mayor Council Members. Jason MacDonald Purchasing and Business Services Manager for the Financial Management Department. Tonight you have in front of you the application for entertainment with dancing forecast of corporation doing business as the Britt 1744 East Broadway in District two. All the necessary departments have reviewed the application. The application and proposed conditions are contained in the packet that was provided. We would like to highlight the fact that this is an existing business that had previously held a short term entertainment permit. We are prepared to address any questions or concerns along with the police department regarding the application or conditions. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to first begin by going if there's any public comments on the hearing, this would be now the time for you to come forward. And just please identify yourself for the record. I am Tom Hertzog, property owner at 1725 East Second Street. My partner and I and our two sons live there. Well, my partner I have lived there for 20 years. Our adopted sons for up to ten or so. Anyway, the threat has been more of a problem in the last five years since the city first granted the variance for the outdoor patio, gogo dancers and even karaoke. I live two blocks away or 2 hours away, and we have constant, ongoing issues with the noise. In the last year I didn't bring my calendar, but I've called the police probably approximately ten, 10 to 12 times, maybe a little bit more. But there is a record of that because the city council directed it to the residences to manage this issue instead of addressing it themselves. So we have a noise noise issue where the board is not complying with the noise ordinance. And I don't know if you've read the noise ordinance, but it is at from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at 55 decibels at the property line. Actually have a noise meter from my project work where I know from my bathroom window they exceeded. So we have that calling the threat they will respond. But I've also been told any number of language that it's not my business knowing that I am a property owner vested and financially inclined. It does affect my property value. It does affect our quality of life. Finally, it is the City Council's duty to implement the noise ordinance and the general plan and that does disturb, does do disturbing noise with language, loud music in close proximity to residential sleeping court facilities, which if you look it up, it's 880 dash 130. So anyway, I've called all the officers strongly opposed to this being in favor. It doesn't generate enough revenue to allow dancing in a bar of 880 800 square feet. It's going to put more people out onto the patio, which doesn't have any noise restrictions, puts more smoke, more general nuisance out into the neighborhood, which address public a number of properties. So even with the, you know, the apartments right around it, we have to deal with it. So you may vote for it thinking that, oh, it's business, but no, it's our life and it's our homes. So please vote against that. There are not a good business. Thank you. Any other comments? Please. Hi, my name's Reg Latham. I'm the property owner at 1747 East Second Street, which is directly behind the Britt. Our property lines are right next to each other, so our little courtyard in the back of our house, I've. Got a wife and two kids. In elementary school. I live there. But the place in 2005 did a really good remodel and it's a good property. I can tell you when we first moved in it was okay. We knew we were behind a bar. We knew what we were getting into. There's there's no secret there. We've been fine. The variants five years ago that increased the noise level substantially. Is there smoke that we can count that we smell coming into our home at night? Yes. Is there a lot of noise? Yes. Are there people walking in that door next to the bar and defecating and sleeping and doing whatever in that in that space between our house and apartments next to us? Yes. However, we've been living close in proximity with these people and we've been working with them and we haven't really complained. But I can tell you now that if you vote with them even more noise rates, there's going to be some serious problems and there will be. The police called your services will be will be used. And it's just going to waste a bunch of people's time and effort and money. Owning a home, owning a rental property, that's a business, too. And when we sell our house, we don't want exterior issues with an appraisal saying that there's smoke coming in the house that you can hear cursing. You can see vagrants. And it's very loud. So common sense would give you guys a little bit more insight as to how to vote on this one. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers, please? Very good you cook as he dress circumstance circumstances have it. I was here at the last hearing you had and the dialog is the same. Essentially my take is essentially the owners are giving the middle finger to the residents. Nothing has changed substantially. So they're in violation of a code. You need to take action in concert with that and bring down the hammer period or close the place down. There are a lot of bars or, you know. I've yet to hear of any complaints out of of Jojo's. And there are a lot of other bars around this town that can act responsibly. Period. It's just a question of whether or not the owners want to be like that and whether or not the elected representatives want to keep taking the cash from the people to allow them to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker put. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. City Council. My name is Jerry Cochran. I'm the property owner at 1735. East Second. Street and 1732 through 1738 Broadway. My apartment building is adjacent to the brick, particularly the patio, and I have been unable to keep tenants in one of my units based on the noise and more importantly, the smoke from the patio. I've had to turn over like every 90 days in one of my units, and I've had several people that move out my one rear unit and number three backs right up to the patio. And as somebody has. Said previously, we have people defecating, doing a little bit of everything. Right, actually, between my building and the Brett and the noise is extreme and the smoke is just absolutely ridiculous. And I know Long Beach is very considered over smoking and where you can and can't, but when you have residential around this facility and as the president, the previous speaker spoke, he has little children. This is a problem. And I, I beg you to not allow them to go forward with this project. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other public comment. I'm going to close the. There's more public comment, please. If there is public comment, please come forward. If you have public comment, I need you to line up at the at the at the podium right now. And there's something else that's beeping. Can someone turn that off? Used to have. Thank you so much. This general manager. I just took over managing it seven months ago. I know their concerns. The gate on the left side is not our property. It's the apartment complex. It used to be locked since the new people took over. It is unlocked so we can't really control people going in and out. I have put a doorman out on the patio to control the noise on Friday and Saturday nights when it's open till midnight. It actually closes at 1145 because we're on bar time on Friday and Saturday nights during the week. It closes at ten, so it's actually closed at 945. We are working on, you know, controlling the issues, the smoke. I can see it as being a problem. There's you know, it's a smoking patio. We could go nonsmoking on it. I don't you know, I would hate to do that for the patrons, but it is under doing it. I spoke with both the neighbors. And commented up there in the past trying to control issues and problems with it. They both have. My personal cell number to call me at any time. I haven't, you know. Trying to do our best there. So I don't know. I say that. Thank you. Could you please state your name for the record? Yeah. Joe Meeker. Julia. Thank you. And see no other public comment. I'm going to close the comments and bring the public hearing back to the council with Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a few questions for staff, and I'm wondering if the owners in the audience. Mr. Beaker is the owner here. Okay. Thank you. So, two staff. I wanted to ask about Mr. Herzog's comment regarding the noise ordinance and violation of our noise ordinance based on a decibel reading that he's received. Did staff send anyone out? I don't know if Mr. Kurz in the audience. But Vice Mayor Lowenthal. The business license department doesn't have meter readings for noise complaints that I would want to speak to health before we could answer that question if they sent someone out for those. I don't see how in the audience. I see general health in the audience, but I don't see our health department in the audience. I'm just Lenny phrases delicately. If a constituent is concerned about a noise ordinance violation, would we not have contacted Health to investigate that? Vice versa. The process would have been that the complaining party would have called either the police department after hours or the health department during working hours. And then the police department did their normal review of the entertainment permit. So I'd let them speak to any other issues they identified there. But we were not made aware of any issues regarding noise from health prior to the to the tonight. And I can't see past Councilmember Richardson. Is that PD sitting next to you? So would you be able to answer that question in terms of the violation? Well, a part of the investigation. We contact residents within 100 foot radius, and it was 46 residents total. None of the. 4617 were not opposed to or opposed to an entertainment permit and 24 were not home. However, with the 24 that were not. Home, we do leave notes to contact the police if they have any positive or negative input. As far as the concerns for for noise or music from June 28th. 2014 through today, we responded five times to location. One was for a dispute. One was for an intoxicated person. Two were for misdemeanor assaults, and one was a theft of a passport. So basically, since. June 28th, we have not received any calls for service regarding loud music. And I think Mr. Herzog feels differently, correct? Yes. And I appreciate the report. I and I appreciate Mr. Becker being here. I understand that you're new and you're put in a precarious situation. So I'm not going to ask you to answer to anything or any questions. But I will say this has been in place for five years and we've had plenty of time to work it out. And hitting the reset button every time someone comes forward for an application is not fair to the residents. And and I appreciate the summary of what our outreach resulted in. It resulted in 17 people being okay and two people opposed. But unfortunately, when we talk about quality of life, it can't be that numbers game. The people that live the closest are impacted the most. And so we have to make some mitigation efforts. And so tonight, I don't I didn't know this coming here that I would feel this way, but I don't know that I feel comfortable proceeding tonight. I'd like to speak with the owner who's not here. I want to address the issue of the patio noise. I understand that it is a smoking patio and people do have a right to smoke outdoors. But in the second district we have such density of units very close together. And so it's a little different when your patio is right under someone's window. And I do think that that matters, whether that leads to a no smoking policy in the entire building, that's something we can talk about. I'd like to talk about that with your owner and the noise ordinance. I do want health to go out and and perhaps partner with Mr. Herzog and and his family. So when you do feel that a noise ordinance violation took place, perhaps we we can contact help that night. Mr. Kerr does provide his mobile number. And so I know it's a late night call, but I'd like us to be able to get that reading as well. And so that's going to take going to take a little bit of time. And so, Mr. Mayor, I'm going to ask to put this over. And Mr. City Attorney, would that require a time certain? I believe the answer is yes. But if the if you had a date that you wanted to continue to. Or they could bring it back as a new item at a future date. Or they can bring it back when? At a date. A future date. After you've we can put it back on the agenda at a later date. It doesn't have to be to a time certain. Okay. I would appreciate that, because I'd like to respect people's schedule and I'm not sure when we're able to get that on our end. And so if we can. December would be a great time if we can bring it back. But if it's not possible, then we will schedule it to when we can. And so for now, that's my motion is to put the item over until we have the opportunity to talk with the owner and collaborate a little bit more with our residents that are primarily impacted. I understand there are others that might be in support. Is there is there is a second kit has been in motion in a second we did the public comment period please cast your votes on to holding this over. The motion carries eight votes. Motion carries. Moving on. Mr. Kirkup, we're going to do the public comment period first. I have eight members of the public that want to speak. I'm going to ask the first four to please line up at the podium Fred Potter, Ricardo Ceja, Shawn Lanigan and Larry Goodhue.