Planning Commission approves amendment to allow more music venues, creative spaces

The Planning Commission has approved an amendment to the city’s building code that could clear the way for more music venues and creative spaces throughout the city.

At its July 25 meeting, the commission unanimously approved the amendment, which was initiated by a pair of City Council votes last year that sought to add specific definitions for music venues, theaters, art studios and other creative spaces to the building code. The goal was to make those uses more prevalent outside of the downtown core where they are generally allowed by right, but real estate costs make it difficult for those uses to remain.

The amendment has been pushed by live music and creative advocates for about a decade, with the hope of separating culturally significant uses such as music venues from the bar and nightclub use specified in the building code. Because bars and nightclubs face a high regulatory standard to open outside of downtown, they have been seen as financially risky for would-be owners.

The ordinance amendment made minor changes to the theater and personal improvement services land use definitions to give more allowances to businesses like music and photography studios. The addition of the performance venue use spells out the requirements for a business to qualify as a site for live music, plays, motion pictures or other performances. The performance venue use will be allowed in the Central Business District and be a conditional use in seven other zoning districts, including Downtown Mixed-Use (DMU), Commercial Recreation (CR), Warehouse/Limited Office (W/LO) and Limited Industrial Services (LI).

According to analysis by the Economic Development Department, the change – if adopted by Council – would increase the number of lots where a theater could be located by 23 percent, or 3,402 lots. For music venues, the change could open up 12,700 lots citywide that could potentially include a music venue, an increase of 685 percent.

Prior to the vote, commissioners discussed the possibility of using the land use code to create a one-size-fits-all set of regulations for music venues, specifically outdoor venues that currently are permitted individually on a case-by-case basis by the Entertainment Services Division.

Brian Block, nightlife and entertainment services manager for the Development Services Department, said the context of surrounding uses, the contours of a venue and its staging and sound equipment make it most effective to visit each site to create specific guidelines for noise limits and other considerations.

“The whole purpose of it is to be customized, context sensitive, allow outdoor live music and entertainment where it’s appropriate and have it scaled back or not allowed where it’s not,” he said, noting that the absolute maximum allowed noise level is 85 decibels at the property line, though permitted businesses typically operate below that level.

“All the permits include a sound impact plan that details the allowances and restrictions, including decibel limits and operating hours, as well as any other more detailed conditions that might be set. … The city code is focused more robustly on hours than it is on sound levels,” he said.

In response to a question about the possible effects of writing a one-size-fits-all sound regulation plan with a 70-decibel limit into the city’s land use definitions, Block said music venues would more than likely be negatively affected, especially outdoor live music.

“It would be extremely difficult and potentially nearing not possible to have any significant amount of scale of intensity of live music outdoors and achieve that 70 (decibels) unless you were hundreds of feet away from the stage,” he said.

The formalized definitions for music venues and creative spaces will make it possible for the city to create incentives for developers to provide those uses in new projects as a community benefit, similar to parkland dedication or affordable housing.

Some members of the Arts Commission have participated in a working group around the broader issue of land use relative to creative space preservation and creation. At last week’s Arts Commission meeting, Commissioner Acia Gray said feedback from developers suggests the creative space incentives would be well received.

“What we’re seeing in the working group is that it’s not just the artists trying to get this done. It’s coming from all directions to try to get this through the city,” she said. “It seems like the developers are just as much wanting to see it move as much as we do,” Gray said.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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