The Hotel and Venue industry in San Francisco have clashed heads for years. The now so called “Nightlife Legislation” drafted by Supervisor London Breed is looking to change that. On January 5th, an amendment to the original legislation was approved by the Planning Commission, which states music venues will be protected from new hotel and motel developments, in addition to already protecting residential.
Various venues, such as Brick + Mortar, The Independent, Mezzanine, Ruby Skye and Temple, have dealt with near by residential developments. Up until 2015, even if a venue was built first, the residential developments were allowed to sue venues for noise complaints. Forget about ‘first come, first serve’.
Now, with this new legislation in place, the Entertainment Commission will collaborate and compromise with developers and venues to prevent future issues. Venues will no longer be accountable for conflict within certain perimeters if they are operating within their permits.
Conor Johnston, legislative aide to London Breed, highlighted that there are currently 26 hotel and motel developments pending, 17 of which are within 300 feet of a music venue or club. “Hotels by nature want to be near the action,” Jonhston said. “But we have to make sure that hotels and venues are both good neighbors. We’ve created structure to help these different uses [or use types] to co-exist before problems arise, as opposed to after the fact, when people are unhappy.”
This is a great step forward for the music community in San Francisco, and we are excited to see the city taking strides to aide venues.
Music is everything and everything is music. Jukely is a concert club that provides members with access to concert guestlists for just $25 per month, no additional fees. Go to a concert every month, every week, or every day – it’s up to you. Go to the venues you already love, or discover new ones. You’ll never pay more for going to more shows. Save $10 on your first month by using the promo code 4OVER4.
