Moratorium on tavern licenses starts

Dan Kulin

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council instituted a temporary moratorium on new tavern licenses Wednesday, giving time to review the current license rules with an eye toward expanding or establishing distance requirements between taverns and schools, parks, churches and day-care centers.

The council voted 4-0 to approve the license moratorium, which will expire on May 19 unless the council adopts new license regulations before then.

The moratorium will not apply to the four businesses that either have pending applications or are seeking an extension to the license approval so they can finish construction of a tavern.

Attorney Robert Gronauer, who frequently represents developers before the council, said the moratorium could hurt plans for developing commercial property.

Gronauer also said he doesn't think a moratorium was warranted, and the council could have just gone ahead and changed the tavern-license rules now.

But Mayor Michael Montandon said the moratorium gives the council time to study the matter. Without a moratorium, the mayor said, the city would have been flooded with tavern license applications just before more stringent rules were adopted.

The moratorium was first requested by Councilwoman Shari Buck, who said she was concerned by the number of bars opening in residential neighborhoods, and near schools and parks. Buck said having taverns, and the drunken drivers leaving them, close to where children play and go to school is a safety hazard.

Under the current rules taverns must be 1,500 feet from each other and 400 feet from schools. Buck said she would like to see those distances increased, but she's not sure by how much.

In a separate vote, the council was deadlocked at 2-2 over whether to extend a tavern license for the proposed Cheyenne Street Tavern on the corner of Cheyenne Avenue and Englestad Street.

The Planning Commission approved the extension, which would give the tavern time to open, but Fire Chief Jim Stubler appealed the commission's decision.

Stubler, named fire chief in February, said he is concerned about how the tavern would impact traffic safety. Stubler said he was not fire chief when his department initially signed off on the license.

Buck and Montandon voted against the license extension. Council members Robert Eliason and Smith voted to grant the extension.