Plan for new nightlife rules packs hearing at City Hall

Dozens of Seattle bar owners and nightclub neighbors testified about proposed nightlife regulations during an emotionally charged, standing-room-only public hearing at City Hall Monday.

Mayor Greg Nickels and the City Council are considering requiring such venues to obtain special licenses and comply with unique operating standards regarding noise, litter, crime and violence.

Most in the crowd at the council committee Monday evening make their livings in the nightlife industry. They said the rules would be unfair and business-killing.

On the other side, some who live near venues complained that raucous crowds and drunken patrons destroy quality of life.

Nickels proposed the new licenses, which his office says would likely apply to 200 to 300 venues.

Committee members reviewing the proposal have said they'll put together their own package. They have not released a draft of their legislation. Committee Chairwoman Sally Clark has said she'd pursue the basic elements of Nickels' proposal, with revisions.

Although Councilwoman Jan Drago has said in a news release that she will co-sponsor such legislation, Drago said Monday the licensure component is not a done deal with her.

"I won't consider having that if it's not casting a much tighter net," on which venues would be required to participate, she said.

The committee plans to discuss the matter further Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall.

Club owners and their backers said Monday night that the new license requirement would be unfair and would unreasonably hold clubs responsible for behavior outside their property. Many said the city should instead hire more police and better enforce existing rules.

Todd Nelson, who's lived in Belltown since 1991 and has worked there nearly as long, said he found a solution far short of a new form of license.

Earplugs.

"I learned early on that it's noisy," Nelson said. "I sleep with them every night."

To "the people who want the noise to go away, I would suggest you move to Magnolia," Nelson said.

The city's recycling trucks are more disruptive, he said, and treating nightclubs differently from other businesses is unfair. "That's a form of discrimination and all discrimination is equally ugly," Nelson said.

But residents of club-heavy communities supported the rules to clamp down on clubs and their patrons, who they say leave a path of litter, noise and drunks stumbling down the street -- smoking and wreaking havoc at sidewalk food stands.

Mike Webb said he and his neighbors in the community of East Barclay Court near Seattle University have struggled for three years to get peace in their community. As did some others, Webb complained that rowdy, disruptive nightclubs too often sneak in under the guise of restaurants.

"Right now there are no effective tools for enforcement," Webb said.

"All industries complain about regulation," he said. But, even under regulation, "they still exist and they're still profitable."