PLANNING, BUILDING AND DEVELOPMENT Quality Services for a Quality Community

MEMORANDUM

TO: Planning Commissioners

FROM: Darcy Schmitt, Senior Planner

DATE: June 21, 2019

SUBJECT: Special Use Permit – 215 Albert (P.T. O’Malley’s) The Planning Commission requested an explanation of how the occupancy for restaurants with special use permits (SUP) to serve alcohol are determined. The following is a summary of how the final number is generally determined and what occupancies are established in the Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The Building Official and the Fire Marshal work together using the building and fire code requirements to determine the overall occupancy for the building based on the floor plans that are part of the application for the SUP. Staff provides the outcome of this collaboration in the staff report as a maximum occupancy for the facility. The Planning Commission and the City Council cannot increase this occupancy, but they can request additional seating be provided if they feel that it is necessary and it continues to meet the building and fire code requirements. There has been no fixed process or policy that I am aware of that has been used to determine desired ratio of seating to occupancy. It is at Council’s discretion to add additional seating requirements if they feel it is reasonable for the overall occupancy and size of the business. Most of the SUP’s approved for restaurants in the City do not have square footage allocated to dance floors or other entertainment such as games and pool tables. However, they will have maximum occupancies that are larger than the actual seating capacity because they include capacity for more than seated customers. The occupancy is calculated for staffing in the restaurant kitchen, behind the bar and in the dining area, as well as for, additional occupancy for those customers that are waiting to be seated or to pick up take-out. Customers waiting to be seated or to pick up take-out are usually accommodated near the entrance and/or extra space surrounding the bar area. There are records of four applications for restaurants in the City that have applied for SUPs for restaurants serving alcohol that provide additional square footage for dance floors and/or entertainment such as games and pool tables. They are for the former

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Memorandum – P.T. O’Malley’s June 21, 2019 Page 2 location of Buffalo Wild Wings on M.A.C. Avenue, Harpers, Dublin Square, and the current location of Buffalo Wild Wings. Harpers applied for a modified SUP to remodel and take over a previous business which included an upstairs and a downstairs. Both areas were approved with entertainment and dancing areas. Additionally, the upstairs area also had a separate area with pool tables. Each of the entertainment areas appears to be calculated as additional occupancy without requiring extra seating. Harpers modified SUP does not appear to follow the process that has been used with other SUPs. (see attached letter of approval dated August 13, 1996) Dublin Square modified their SUP two times. The first amendment was a request for an entertainment license and a 120 square foot dance floor with no change to the size of the restaurant or its occupancy. The second amendment was to request the inclusion of a 1,332 square foot banquet room that would increase the occupancy by 34 persons. (see the attached minutes and approval letters) Buffalo Wild Wings applied for a modified SUP for the M.A.C. location late in 1996 to add a game area. Since they could not increase their occupancy, they requested to reduce their required seating to allow for the game area. The Council gave them the option to reconfigure their seating to keep it at the same number or to reduce their occupancy based on the number of seating they could fit around the game area. (see the attached memo dated January 8, 1997 from Bob Owen) Buffalo Wild Wings applied for a modified SUP for the 360 Albert Avenue location to install a dance floor not to exceed 600 square feet. The request was denied by Council, see the attached referral letter dated June 27, 2002 and the minutes from the July 16, 2002 City Council meeting. The chart below lists and compares the occupancy and seating requirements for the restaurants with SUPs in the DDA for comparison to the initial and revised request for P.T. O’Malley’s. The condition of approval placed on previously approved restaurants for seating states that the required seating “shall be provided at tables and/or booths”, therefore the numbers in the chart do not include the seating at the bar for the existing SUPs. Restaurants with Special Use Permits in the DDA 

Occupancy Seating 

Requirements 

Seated at the Bar/Unseated 

Guests/Employees 

% Seated at the Bar/Unseated 

Guests/Employees 

P.T. O' Malley’s  ‐ initial request 

requested 212 

requested 112 (including 20 seats at the 

bar) 

100  47% 

P.T. O' Malley’s ‐ revised request 

requested 212 

requested 140 (including 31 seats at the 

bar) 

72  34% 

Cosmo/Punk Taco  154  142  12  8% 

Memorandum – P.T. O’Malley’s June 21, 2019 Page 3

Black Cat Bistro  110  105  5  5% 

Buffalo Wild Wings  313  283  30  10% 

Crunchy's  108  84‐108  24  22% 

Dublin Square 

290  (including the banquet room) 

184 (not including the banquet room) 

72 (minus the occupancy for the banquet room) 

25% 

El Azteco 

135 (customer load) 

Not stated in condition 

     

Harpers (downstairs)  375  288  87  23% 

Harpers (upstairs)  500  330  170  34% 

Hopcat  271  256  15  5% 

Los Tres Amigos  208  199  9  4% 

Omi  90  83  7  8% 

Fieldhouse  290 

Not stated in condition 

     

Beggar’s Banquet 250 

Not stated in condition 

   

Lou and Harry's  66  45  21  31%