New ordinance would allow tavern clustering

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002 | 9:26 a.m.

After a roughly 15-year moratorium on new taverns, followed by three years of allowing a limited number of tavern licenses, Henderson city officials are considering new licensing regulations that would add fees and allow market forces to determine the number of taverns in town.

Under the proposed regulations, daycare centers would lose protective buffers from bars and in some commercial areas, and bars would be allowed to cluster closer together to encourage pedestrian friendly entertainment areas to prosper.

But a tavern will have to be a tavern if the ordinance passes, said David Lee, director of business licensing.

"A tavern doesn't have to have food," Lee said. "The idea is, you go in and you drink."

The city has tired of chasing after bars that pretend to serve enough food to pass themselves off as "supper clubs," Lee said.

So the "supper club" designation would be dropped altogether. And new taverns would be limited to five slot machines rather than the 15 allowed today.

The new regulations would also add a $60,000 fee for a new tavern or an existing tavern changing ownership, the same as is charged in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, Lee said.

But new tavern licenses would no longer be limited by population. Current laws allow a new tavern license for every 8,000 new residents, to be issued by random drawing.

Under the proposed laws, the required distance between taverns in most areas would increase from 1,500 feet to 2,000 feet. The required distance between taverns and schools and churches would remain at 1,500 feet.

But daycare centers, today provided with a 500-foot buffer from taverns, would lose such protections.

Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said by Oct. 15, when the City Council is scheduled to have a final vote on the regulations, she hopes to have secured support for keeping buffers for daycare and adding buffers from residential areas, too.

"If we're protecting our churches and our schools, and hopefully our daycare centers, why aren't we protecting our neighborhoods, too?" Cyphers said.

In commercial areas of at least 5 acres, another provision would allow taverns to be clustered to promote pedestrian oriented areas, Lee said, noting MonteLago Village in Lake Las Vegas resort as a possible beneficiary.

John Heiser, a planner at MonteLago Village, said the new laws would help create an outdoor pedestrian entertainment district, but his lakeside development will be primarily restaurant-driven, he said.

Cody Walker, an administrator for the city's downtown redevelopment district, said his agency had not yet explored the possibility of clustering taverns in the old downtown, where City Hall is located.