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Tag: Orlando nightclub moratorium

  • Downtown nighttime parking restriction is no more. City says it was in place for only one weekend

    Downtown nighttime parking restriction is no more. City says it was in place for only one weekend

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    Image via Google Maps

    Downtown Orlando’s Central Boulevard garage

    The City of Orlando alarmed downtown patrons in early May by limiting nighttime parking as part of ongoing safety measures. Now, the city says the restriction was in place for only one weekend.

    The city, along with the Orlando Police Department, quietly put in place a ban on entry and reentry to downtown parking garages after 11 p.m. starting Friday, May 10.

    City spokesperson Ashley Papagni told Orlando Weekly at the time the city implemented “limited entrance to city parking garages after 11 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights” starting May 10. Downtown business owners and patrons were left to believe the change had no end date.

    Business owners and downtown workers expressed concerns on social media about the change, which they said would worsen traffic and decrease business.

    The move echoed a series of downtown safety policies, including requiring special permits for late-night alcohol sales and adjusting the noise ordinance, passed around the same time.

    But two months later, the restriction is no longer in effect. The city made no public announcement about the change.

    City spokesperson Ashley Papagni told Orlando Weekly Friday the restriction was in place for one weekend.

    “Access was limited to the downtown parking garages for one weekend as part of a measure taken as we work to ensure the safety of downtown,” she said.

    Orlando Police Chief Eric D. Smith said the parking change was an “experiment” that ended after the public voiced its discontentment at a City Hall meeting July 9, Orlando Business Journal reported Wednesday.

    The city did not elaborate on why the change was made for that weekend in May, why it did not clarify the confusion resulting from the policy or why it didn’t publicly announce the lifting of the restriction.

    Earlier this year, the city extended its moratorium on downtown nightclubs and bars for another six months. Prompted by concerns such as a high concentration of nightclubs downtown and safety and security issues, the moratorium was initially enacted as an ordinance in March 2023, then extended for another six months in August.

    City commissioners voted in March to extend the moratorium through Sept. 20, 2024.

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    Zoey Thomas

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  • Orlando City Council likely to extend moratorium on new nightclubs downtown

    Orlando City Council likely to extend moratorium on new nightclubs downtown

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    Photo by Jim Leatherman

    It’s likely that no new nightclubs will be coming to downtown Orlando for at least another six months.

    Orlando City Council on Monday unanimously voted to extend a moratorium on the opening of new nightclubs downtown, priming it for a final vote of approval in March. The moratorium, first established on March 20, 2023, is set to expire next month on March 20, 2024.

    Initially, city leaders agreed to a six-month moratorium, but voted unanimously to extend that last August, ahead of its expiration the following month. If approved through a second vote at their next regularly scheduled Council meeting, the moratorium — meant to discourage a nightly influx of rowdy party-goers and potential criminal activity — will be extended for a second time, set to expire on Sept. 20, 2024.

    The first vote on extending the moratorium Monday occurred without any discussion by city commissioners on the issue, nor did anyone sign up to provide public comment.

    According to city documents, the moratorium on nightclubs is meant to support the city’s mission of encouraging more daytime activity in the downtown Orlando area — a mission city staff believe could be negatively impacted by more nightclubs. Orlando City Council, the extension ordinance reads, “needs additional time to develop regulations to address the negative secondary impacts of nightclubs in order to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare.”

    The nightclub moratorium ordinance — spurred by a July 2022 shooting downtown that injured seven people — was approved last year in conjunction with another, more controversial ordinance that placed new restrictions on the sale of alcohol after midnight. That ordinance requires existing club owners in the Downtown Entertainment Area to get a special permit to sell alcohol after midnight. It also established other security requirements, based on capacity, for late-night businesses that sell alcohol.

    City staff did not predict any direct economic impact from the nightclub moratorium extension, which specifically applies to “the acceptance, processing and consideration of applications for development orders, development permits, building permits and zoning approvals for any new (which includes change of use and substantial improvement) nightclub use within the Downtown Orlando Community Redevelopment Area.”

    According to city spokesperson Cassandra Bell, city commissioners are expected to receive additional recommendations for changes to city rules pertaining to nightclub regulation in the future, ahead of the proposed moratorium expiration date in September. This could include a change to land development codes. Bell explained that a state law (SB 250) passed last year, effective July 1, 2023, had restricted the city’s ability to change its land development codes, among other things, for about six months.

    Now, Bell says city staff “are working diligently to prepare and finalize recommendations to better support nightclubs and to better manage development and zoning implications related to them.”

    A second vote on the nightclub moratorium extension, and its adoption, is expected to take place at the council’s next regularly scheduled meeting on March 11.

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    McKenna Schueler

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