DATE: Saturday, April 26, 1997              TAG: 9704260265

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   89 lines

NEW HURDLES FOR HONKY-TONK BARS SOME FEAR MEASURE MIGHT DRIVE NEW BUSINESS AWAY.

In Ocean View and other neighborhoods citywide, go-go bars and honky tonks grind in locations that began as quiet, family-style restaurants serving beer and wine.

Time and again, frustrated residents have complained to City Hall, where officials sometimes have persuaded state officials to revoke the transformed businesses' ABC licenses or found other reasons to shut them down - but only after lengthy, costly efforts.

In many cases, community civic leagues have crowded into City Council meetings to oppose a mom-and-pop restaurant wanting to sell beer and wine for fear that it might create a nuisance later if the business changed hands or came under new management.

Now, after kicking around the issue for nearly three years, city officials think they have figured out a solution.

Norfolk's Planning Commission on Thursday approved and forwarded to the City Council recommendations to prevent eating and drinking establishments from changing the nature of their business unless they first obtain a special city permit.

Restaurants that provide entertainment - defined as including dancing, go-go dancers and amplified or live music with more than one instrument - would have to receive a special exception from the city to do so.

City Councilman W. Randy Wright, who represents Ocean View and sits on a council criminal justice committee that has reviewed the issue, said the proposed change to the city's zoning code should give neighborhoods the protection they've been seeking.

``I'm very comfortable that the community has gotten the safeguards it was looking for,'' Wright said Friday of the proposal.

The local restaurant association, worried about over-regulation, initially fought the idea, but has since signed off on the recommendations after winning language changes.

Still, some fear that the city might send an unintended message: Restaurants wanting to offer entertainment aren't welcome. That could cost the city much-needed tax revenue and possibly harm its efforts to promote itself as a tourist destination, they worry.

``Clearly, it's a higher standard that's going to be applied to an establishment of that use,'' said Vincent J. Mastracco Jr., an attorney with the Norfolk law firm Kaufman & Canoles who has represented the local restaurant group.

Mastracco said overcoming community opposition might be more difficult for those restaurants and that obtaining a special exception likely would be tougher.

While the Planning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend the zoning code changes, one commissioner, the Rev. Anthony Paige, cautioned that the city should ensure that certain sections of the city aren't denied restaurants and other establishments that want to offer entertainment. Paige has voiced concerns at previous meetings that the city's black neighborhoods, especially its young adults, lack night-time entertainment businesses.

Ernest Freeman, director of the city's Department of Planning and Codes Administration, said the city is striving for balance.

``Nobody's trying to stifle development, retail opportunities,'' Freeman said, ``but there's a reality that has to be faced that those activities have a neighborhood impact.''

Under the proposal, the Planning Commission recommends that three new definitions of restaurants be added to the city's zoning code, based on the type of services offered.

The definitions are:

An ``eating establishment.'' It could serve food but no alcohol.

An ``eating and drinking establishment.'' It could sell food and alcohol but couldn't offer entertainment except as an accessory function restricted to a live performance with only one non-electric musical instrument or recorded background music.

An ``entertainment establishment.'' It could offer entertainment, such as live bands or go-go dancers, and could have a dance floor larger than 10 percent of the space used for seating.

The proposed rule would apply to all new restaurants and nightclubs and to existing establishments that wanted to expand to include entertainment. Existing businesses that now offer entertainment of the sort causing concern would be ``grandfathered'' and could continue without obtaining the special exception.

The City Council, which has final say, could take up the matter as early as next month. A public hearing would be required before the council could act. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo W. Randy Wright

Graphic

THE PROBLEM Neighborhoods have seen restaurants become honky-tonk

bars that residents find undesirable.

THE SOLUTION Proposal would keep restaurants from changing or new

go-go bars from opening without a permit. KEYWORDS: ZONING OCEAN VIEW

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