Published: May 16, 2008 02:44 am            

P&Z says no to downtown club

Members of the city’s Planning and Zoning commission turned thumbs down on a request for a private club permit, voting unanimously against it Thursday.

Downtown property owner Jimmy Vaclavik said he wanted to open a comedy club at the 201 N. Beaton address the permit request was attached to. He noted the history of the property.

“It’s been a private club for most of the past 30 years,” Vaclavik said. “It’s been four or five different clubs.”

He said he came into possession of the building during the last stages of life of the club “Fat Daddy’s” — operating it the last month or so. He said he opened the club “Paychecks” at the location, operating it for two years with only one incident where police were needed at the scene.

Vaclavik said he planned to be open from about 6 p.m. to midnight during the week, with the closing time going to 1 a.m. on Saturdays. Comedy would be the feature on Fridays and Saturdays with two shows each night.

Sherri Warren, head of the city’s Planning and Zoning office, said four notices sent to surrounding property owners were returned with one positive response and three negative responses.

Dan Wilkes, who said his property across the street from the location is also is residence, was ambivalent about the situation. However, he said he wasn’t comfortable with the serving of alcohol at night near his residence and ultimately was against the permit request made by Vaclavik.

Gordon Wilson made a motion to grant the permit request. That motion died for the lack of a second.

A second motion to deny the request got a second and the request was turned down.

“I know you don’t want to hear this Jimmy, but the feeling, as part of our master plan, was that there wouldn’t be any private clubs downtown,” P&Z chairman Ned Polk said. “That’s the way I see (downtown) going.”

The commission has turned down multiple requests for private club permits in recent months.

In other business Tuesday, P&Z members ordered four demolitions of deteriorating structures while granting extensions on three other structures — 60 days in one case, 30 days in the other two cases.

—————

Loyd Cook may be reached via e-mail at lcook@corsicanadailysun.com

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.