Campbell City Council Gives Socialight a Shot

The Campbell City Council met before a packed council chambers on Tuesday night, June 17, 2014, to hear the appeal of the Socialight for a conditional use permit (C.U.P.).  The Socialight was seeking a C.U.P. in order to operate a restaurant with a bar, live entertainment and for late night hours past 11:00 p.m.

The majority of the speakers spoke in favor of the restaurant's concept of "farm to table" and organic ingredients.  As part of addressing the council, it is customary for each speaker to state their name and address for the record.  The majority of the speakers in support of the Socialight application were not Campbell residents but rather supporters of Mr. Bonner (one of the owners) or people who frequented downtown restaurants.

Only a handful of residents spoke of their concerns about approving yet another restaurant/bar with late night hours of operation.  They painted a vivid picture of the negative impacts of such late night alcohol establishments.

In the end, the argument that seemed to carry the day was the statement by Mr. Bonner and his architect that the bar area was not really a bar, but rather more of a "counter" for food service.  They said it was not an area for large groups to carouse around to watch a large screen TV but rather an upscale dining establishment.  

In it's deliberations, the council acknowledged the issue of over concentration of alcohol establishments (restaurants with bars, stand alone bars, wine bars and the like) but were unable to arrive at criteria or standards by which to address the issue.  Council member Jason Baker highlighted that other cities like Mountain View have issued a moratorium on new restaurants in their downtown because of their unchecked proliferation.  Unfortunately, the council punted on this issue to another day.

Mayor Rich Waterman addressed the "elephant in the room" by acknowledging that the City has been burned by prior applicants seeking to open a restaurant with a bar only to convert their operations to primarily bars when their restaurant isn't as profitable as originally planned.  He was open to allowing the Socialight to prove it is a viable restaurant but at the same time ensuring it does not later convert to a bar.

On the other end of the spectrum, vice mayor Jeff Cristina made a motion to approve the appeal and allow the Socialight to include its bar and operate past 11 p.m.  The motion did not pass as only Cristina and Kotowski voted in favor of it.  Council Member Low was not present.

In an attempt to reach a compromise (as the Planning Commission had previously tried), the Council approved a motion to allow a C.U.P. for the Socialight to stay open only until 10:00 p.m. with an additional hour for staff to clean up.  The physical bar was also approved given its characterization as a food service counter.

On the positive side, Mr. Bonner has an opportunity to demonstrate that he can operate an upscale restaurant that is respectful of the community and surrounding residents.  On the downside, the City has approved yet another C.U.P. that runs with land, meaning that there is nothing to prevent a future owner from operating a bar within the confines of the C.U.P.

Let's hope the City gets serious about two things:
  
1) putting in place guidelines or a mechanism to address over concentration soon otherwise it will be groundhog day again for the next restaurant/bar application and,

2)  adopt a zero-tolerance policy to enforce the conditions of approval for existing restaurants and bars operating under a C.U.P.

Remember that there is an election coming up in November.