By Jane Smith
Starting April 1, the Delray Beach Fire Department began sending letters to East Atlantic Avenue restaurants reminding them of city rules.
The owners will be required to comply with set occupancy limits and follow a city code provision that does not allow a restaurant to become a nightclub after food service ends. The city approves only restaurants or stand-alone bars, not hybrid operations.
Repeat offenders will have to pick up the cost for the fire inspectors’ time to make sure the restaurant follows the occupancy rules, said Neal de Jesus, the interim city manager. Up until March 31, the city taxpayers paid for the fire inspectors’ time.
The city has five inspectors already trained to look for problems that arise when a restaurant changes over to become a club after hours. In April, 65 fire-rescue department paramedics will be trained to assist, de Jesus said. Repeat offenders could lose their city operating licenses, he said.
The cost charged to restaurants will vary by the inspectors’ overtime rate and will be for a minimum of four hours. Inspections will be done from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., primarily on Friday and Saturday nights, acting Fire Chief Keith Tomey wrote in an email.
At least two inspectors will be sent for each establishment’s inspection. Thursday and Sunday inspections may be included, he wrote.
This situation “has been going on for a few years,” de Jesus said at the March 28 City Commission workshop. He likened it to speeding every day: Even if you don’t get caught, it’s still illegal.
Commissioners gave him approval to enforce the city rules about occupancy and not allow the restaurants to transition to nightclubs by pushing the tables against the walls, in the kitchen or alleys.
Some even have put the tables in hallways leading to the exits, said Capt. Joe Cafone, who is a fire inspector and works weekend nights.
“We’ve seen restaurants with double the occupancy than allowed,” Cafone said.
The fire inspectors started working in the downtown area in January. They had not been authorized to inspect in the downtown area in past years.
Restaurants are coming into compliance, Cafone said. Most of them don’t understand that the occupancy also includes their staff.
“I see this as two different issues,” Vice Mayor Adam Frankel said. “There’s a capacity issue that you have to enforce. … But the morphing has been going on a long time. I can point to the now-closed Tryst restaurant, next to the Bull Bar, which used to do it all the time.”
Frankel stressed that it’s changing the nature of Atlantic Avenue on weekend nights.
“It’s turning into a show, like on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale and Clematis Street in West Palm Beach,” he said. “No one wants that.”
De Jesus said managers and owners of restaurants have told him that it’s been going on for years. “Now that we know, we can’t turn a blind eye to the occupancy problems,” he said.
The latest problem erupted during the SantaCon pub crawl, held Dec. 18 on Atlantic Avenue, de Jesus said. For $25, patrons received free drink coupons to five restaurants and bars. The crawl ended at 2 a.m.
The crowds pushed the restaurants and bars beyond their capacities and police had to be called.
Commissioner Ryan Boylston talked about a recent change in Boca Raton that allowed restaurants to change over to nightclubs after a certain time.
That idea was quashed by the four other commissioners, who said they wanted to protect Atlantic Avenue as a valuable economic driver to the city. The restaurants are spread out in Boca Raton, not concentrated in a five-block strip like Delray has, Mayor Shelly Petrolia said.
“We are in the known economic cycle of a destination location,” Commissioner Bill Bathurst said. “We have to manage it well.”
He talked about the Doxey Irritation Index, which says residents initially like tourists coming into their city. Then they become apathetic, after which irritation grows and is often followed by downright hostility. Canadian economics professor George Doxey created the index in 1975 when he was studying tourist economies in Canada and the Caribbean.
“If you do it the right way, you will make more money,” Bathurst said to the two rows of restaurant owners and their representatives in the commission chambers.
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