
DATE: Monday, October 20, 1997              TAG: 9710200065

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, staff writer 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  122 lines

LIQUOR LICENSING UNDER SCRUTINY 2 ON BEACH COUNCIL WANT A WAY TO CONTROL BARS, NOT RESTAURANTS.

What's the difference between a restaurant and a bar?

In Virginia's rule book: none.

And that has at least two council members pondering what they could do to more heavily regulate one without penalizing the other.

Councilwoman Reba S. McClanan is turning an inquisitive eye to the city of Richmond, where a program implemented last year gives that city greater control over the liquor license review process.

And Councilman Linwood O. Branch III is looking to the legislature in Richmond to make that distinction in the law.

``Ultimately, the state has to strongly consider a restaurant category as well as an adult nightclub/-bar category because they're not the same thing,'' Branch said. ``Their impact on neighborhoods is not the same, their hours of operation are not the same - to treat them as such is not addressing the issue.''

That issue centers on the city's struggle to maintain the integrity of neighborhoods threatened by incompatible businesses, such as restaurants catering mostly or entirely to adults by serving alcohol and offering entertainment into the early morning hours.

``A bad bar can change the ambience and peacefulness of a neighborhood,'' Branch said.

No distinction is made between bars and restaurants under current law because all restaurants that serve alcohol must sell food.

In Virginia, restaurants selling mixed drinks must make sure that 45 percent of their total gross sales are for food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Recently the restaurant-bar issue resurfaced when a local businessman attempted to convert his sports bar and grill into a J.B.'s Gallery of Girls. Neighbors and businesses near the Lynnhaven Mall area site banded together to defeat the proposed go-go club.

Before the bar and grill's owner, Frank Beal, dropped his proposal, the city tried to deal him one of its trump cards.

The city told Beal and partner Jack Bolno they needed a conditional use permit to convert the business. To get a permit, an applicant must go through a rather long process before the Virginia Beach Planning Commission and City Council, which also would allow for public input.

Beal said he didn't need to go through that process and threatened to circumvent it.

McClanan, who represents the Princess Anne Borough, has begun her crusade against restaurants catering mostly or entirely to adults by proposing to close the loophole that Beal vowed to jump through.

According to city code, a use permit is required for any eating and drinking establishment if it meets all of the following criteria: serves alcohol; is located within 500 feet of a residential area; operates between midnight and 2 a.m.; and excludes people on the basis of age at any time during the day or night, or provides entertainment that is audible at an adjoining property.

McClanan's proposal, which got the Planning Commission's endorsement earlier this month, would delete the midnight to 2 a.m. requirement. Beal had said he would close the doors to his J.B.'s before midnight to duck the process. The council is scheduled to vote on McClanan's plan at its Oct. 28 meeting.

McClanan and Branch, however, say the change won't be enough.

That's why McClanan sees the need to implement a process similar to one established a year ago in Richmond.

City officials there work with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department whenever a new application is made for a liquor license or whenever a problem with an existing establishment occurs.

The city then notifies surrounding property owners, and sends them a questionnaire that asks for comments on such items as the applicant's ``moral character.''

Those comments are prepared for the city manager, who then prepares a statement for the ABC department, which is overseen by a three-member, governor-appointed board charged with regulating the sale and distribution of distilled spirits.

``I think the process is working,'' said Selena Cuffee-Glenn, a principal planner for Richmond. ``We're just trying to educate the board on the sensitivities of urban neighborhoods.''

Virginia Beach's process with the ABC department is more informal.

The board informs the Virginia Beach police chief whenever a new application comes in. It's then up to the police to check the applicant/-owner's criminal record and to meet with him or her about ABC laws. On a case-by-case basis, the police also will canvass the area where the restaurant is proposed, informing people about their rights to speak for or against the establishment to an ABC Department hearing officer.

Branch, the Beach Borough representative, has seen and tried to deal with his share of problems involving bars in the resort area.

``What we had were restaurants being established in the (resort) district in close proximity to residential areas, or hotels for that matter, that suddenly became late-night reveling establishments,'' Branch said.

By having the General Assembly distinguish between a bar and a restaurant, Branch said, the city could then create zoning laws requiring permits and a public hearing for those places that will be more bar than restaurant.

Del. Harry ``Bob'' Purkey, a Beach Republican, said the needs of businesses need to be balanced with neighborhood concerns when it comes to liquor licenses.

He conceded that maybe the ABC law requiring that restaurants with liquor licenses sell a good portion of food is ``archaic and a bit arcane.''

``If given the opportunity, an awful lot of so-called restaurants would run 95 percent alcohol (sales) or more,'' Purkey said. ``With percentage of sales it just encourages all sorts of noncompliance games.''

Bolno, owner of five of the area's six J.B.'s Gallery of Girls and owner of Phil's Grill on 11th Street, said the city should leave the business up to the ABC board.

He said people who go against go-go bars have a bias against them to begin with, and aren't speaking with an open mind.

``I don't want the city being able to get involved in things like the ABC board and dealing with them,'' Bolno said. ``I don't think that's their job - there's too much government already.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

FACTS

According to city code, a use permit is required for any eating

and drinking establishment if it meets all of the following

criteria:

serves alcohol;

is located within 500 feet of a residential area;

operates between midnight and 2 a.m.;

excludes people on the basis of age at any time during the day

or night, or provides entertainment that is audible at an adjoining

property. KEYWORDS: LIQUOR LICENSE