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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-03-15 Steve Williams Chris Johnson From:Robert Simison Sent:Monday, March 15, 2021 8:58 AM To:Steve Williams Cc:Chris Johnson Subject:RE: Oasis club concerns Mr. Williams, Thank you for your email. I appreciate you taking time to share your thoughts and comments. Because this project is part of an open application, myself and City Council members are prohibited from commenting outside the public hearing. We take public feedback seriously and want you to know that I have received your email and have read your comments. A public hearing before the City of Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission will be held on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 6:00pm. The Planning and Zoning Commission will make the decision on this project unless their ruling is appealed. If that occurs it would then be heard by the City Council. While I do not have a vote unless there is a tie, any comments regarding the project should be reserved for that public process. Your email and my response will be included in the public record. The City Clerk has the project file available online for review: The Oasis CUP H-2021-0004. Prior to the public hearing anyone is able to review the application materials at any time as well as submit testimony. If you have any additional comments you are able to submit testimony in advance in a number of ways. Please note, all forms of testimony hold the same weight. Written testimony may be submitted by email to cityclerk@meridiancity.org or by text message by texting “Comment” to 31996. Video testimony can be recorded in advance and sent by email to cityclerk@meridiancity.org. Comments can also be left by voicemail. Please call (208) 288-5607 to record your voice testimony. For additional information associated with this application please contact the City of Meridian Planner Joseph Dodson at 208-884-5533. Thank you again for sharing your comments. Respectfully, Mayor Robert Simison City of Meridian All e-mail messages sent to or received by City of Meridian e-mail accounts are subject to the Idaho law, in regards to both release and retention, and may be released upon request, unless exempt from disclosure by law. From: Steve Williams <jslams2@aol.com> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2021 7:44 AM To: Robert Simison <rsimison@meridiancity.org> Subject: Fwd: Oasis club concerns External Sender - Please use caution with links or attachments. Greetings, 1 I wanted to share a few thoughts on the upcoming planning proposal of the Oasis “Night Club” being petitioned in Meridian at Eagle and Ustick. I understand as council members you strive to make decisions to ensure or improve the quality of life for its residents, business patrons and people that frequent the area. I currently live in Eagle, but sometimes decisions by one city have a great impact on neighboring cities as well which has prompted me to correspond. As a retired law enforcement officer of 29 years, I dealt frequently with night clubs while working for the city of Fullerton in Orange County, California (population about 140k). When I retired, Fullerton had over 55 “drinking establishments” within only a 1/4 mile radius in its downtown area. However, our small downtown area was only a couple short city blocks surrounded by residential. It was/is also the highest purchaser of alcohol in Orange County. The influx of the majority of those drinking establishments occurred about 15 years ago. I wanted to share some of my expertise when it comes to night clubs being put in nice suburban towns. I know you will be getting opinions from people for or against this type of business, so I will address things that can be verified through due diligence. Addressing the most likely arguments for: 1. Gives people a place to go and socialize in the evening? For a night club to be successful it needs to be filled towards capacity with people spending money. This frequently is cultivated with club ambiance and/or drink specials. Drink specials promote over- serving or overindulgence. I'm not mentioning this from a moral standpoint, but a reality of that situation often resulting in more public intoxication, drunk driving and subsequent injuries/fatalities, fights and sexual assaults. It would be naive to not realize drug abuse also occurs in or around these types of businesses along with other subsequent illicit behavior. If they are to capacity, fire occupancy codes are typically ignored as they won’t turn away money. 2.. We have a dress code and a cover charge to keep it classy? These are two very common tactics night clubs use to sell to cities that it's going to be upscale to try and get approved. The problem is, neither is typically enforceable by the city. When a club this size with as much money that is claiming to be invested isn’t filled up to capacity, the “world class and going all in” goes out the window to get people inside. They will do whatever it takes to get a favorable return on their investment. So the dress code will most likely be short lived or modified. As far as the cover charge of $15 for males, it won’t last. You wouldn't fill a club this size in Southern California for that price, let alone Idaho. It's not an insult, it's a financial fact with the lifestyle and the economies of scale of the two states. This most likely will be an under 30 crowd. Does he really think that many males in the area will spend over an hourly wage just to get in the door to fill his club? Night club owners know males are typically the bigger paying drinkers and they need them in the club. They also know males typically go where there are females. This is often why females don’t pay a cover charge or pay less to get in. The management often encourages females to dress more provocatively to get in and often waive their cover charge for doing it. Fights over females are not uncommon when you have Intoxication mixed with testosterone. It's not the moral approach here, but as Mr. Tsai is trying to paint a virtuous picture here of his club, mine is realistic with years of experience in dealing with his type of business. It should noted I supervised one of my departments investigative units for several years also. We would handle dozens of reports a week from the night clubs dealing with drugs, assaults, DUI and sexual assaults. 3. This will benefit Meridian residents? This ‘Night Club” understandably won’t be able to survive on Meridian residents alone. So the community benefit should not be a real expectation. Out of towners don’t have a buy- in to behave because it's not their town. Rarely were one of our crime reports involving one of our residents, unless they confronted an intoxicated patron in front of their house. Our city would spend over 800K a year paying for extra police and fire to deal with keeping the peace and 2 medical responses for things related to behavior from the night clubs. This also includes city public works having to respond in the mornings to clean-up and wash down vomit, urine, condoms and drug paraphernalia before the regular business opened in the morning. Needless to say, the residential areas nearby would regularly attend our city council chambers complaining about such activity in front of their houses late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Some of the charm of Meridian as a family community is that around 9pm people are often home with their family. With this night club, 9pm is just the starting time and very close to a residential area. 3. Plenty of parking? I saw some numbers of 120 spaces versus 1000 vehicle space need at capacity for this potential club. This speaks for itself. Where do they park? On the nearby residential streets of course. I wouldn't want loud intoxicated patrons going to their car in front of my house late at night or early morning. Not to mention the things occurring in the previous paragraph in front of my house. 4. We will have paid parking to generate money for the city? In reality when you're talking about the age group most likely patronizing this club, most will save any parking fee and park in the nearby residential area anyway. Its also not uncommon for that group to drink ahead of time to get the pre- club buzz on to save money. Often tossing the empty bottles and cans on the homeowners front yards or nearby closed businesses. As far as any potential parking fee by the club, any fee imposed by the club would be minimal at best as they don’t want dissuade patrons. 5. It's also a nice restaurant? For a restaurant to be successful with repeat customers, the food must obviously be good and the service and atmosphere to be reasonable to the cost of the menu items. Some night clubs start this way, as a facade to get their foot in the door of opening a business and for a cheaper liquor license cost. Many times the “kitchen" is only kept open to maintain the cheaper alcohol permit of a restaurant but not the driving force of the business. 6. It will generate lots of revenue to the city of Meridian? Night clubs often process alcohol transactions as a cash business. This means alcohol revenues are greatly under reported. It was not uncommon in Fullerton to have IRS investigators coordinate with ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms) to contact these clubs because of the major discrepancies between how much alcohol they have on record of purchasing versus sales receipts. 7. Is there a place for a business like this? Sure, downtown Boise is good place, not a suburb like Meridian. Having a nightclub anywhere near a residential area, diminishes quality of life for the residents and property values. Also where there is one, there will be others. Once you open Pandora’s box, you will be subject to litigation for not allowing similar suitors to open their night club. You would be hard pressed to find a night club that is a financial boom for the city it's in. When weighing the peripheral costs of allowing such a business in a suburb and factoring in quality of life for its residents, it's a simple decision. 8. Isn’t this a little far fetched as this isn’t California? 15 years ago it was the same argument in Fullerton, except it was "this isn’t Los Angeles"? Well, Fullerton is/was very similar in make up to Meridian. I also think with the influx of people moving into Idaho over the last couple years, you can see some of the changes here. However, this is a subject that is being tabled and currently under your control. I know there are other business options available to the city of Meridian that will benefit more people during normal business hours than the dangerous risk of opening a night club in a suburb such as Meridian. You don’t want to be on record as the one who voted for opening Pandora box. Sincerely, Steve Williams 3