This email is from Jeff Lehman, and I felt that it should be posted to show Jeff's support of our position.  Jeff is quite right in saying that the letter should have been specific to the downtown core. 

Ben

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Hello Ben and the BDNA Steering Committee – in advance of tonight’s council meeting I wanted to send you a note regarding the letter you sent to Council and to the media requesting a city-wide ban on new liquor licenses.

I will be pursuing a municipal resolution to the AGCO against more bars downtown.  As you know, I think we may also be able to restrict the number of new bars in the core through zoning as well through the minimum separation distances.  The public meeting on the zoning change for minimum separation distances on certain uses downtown will occur at Council in September, that initiative is already in the works and may have the effect of restricting or preventing more large bars in the downtown; however, the current motion does not address this issue so I am going to need to do some more work with Planning on this first.  

In short though I agree with the intent of the letter and we were already moving in that direction with the proposal for a LLA review committee, like Kitchener.

However, the letter specifically requests a moratorium "on any and all licensed premises being established or expanded in Barrie".  Was that the intent, or should it have read "in Downtown Barrie"?  Why is the suggestion to ban all new licenses anywhere in the city?

I don’t believe Council will support a city-wide ban on all new licenses due to problems in one part of the city with one kind of establishment.  I can’t support denying the Kelsey’s on Bryne Drive a liquor license because of the problems in Downtown Barrie.  As another example, it so happens that the next item after your letter on the correspondence list at tonight’s meeting is an LLA application from a diner (capacity 40 people) on Huronia Road. This lady would like to be able to serve beer and wine at her restaurant in the industrial area near Big Bay Point and Huronia, which I don’t have a problem with.   So I don't think we would want to put a moratorium on licenses in all of Barrie, most restaurants cannot survive without a license, and I'm not aware that the same problems exist in other parts of the city.  

Also, I tend to think the problem downtown is not generally with restaurants, it's the nightclubs and bars.  Frankly, the restaurants that have opened recently in the core are some of the few businesses that are coming downtown from other areas of the city, instead of going the other way.  I really don’t think we want to prevent people like Marco Ormond, who opened the North Restaurant, from coming downtown.  So I think the restrictions should apply to those establishments that are nightclubs and bars, not those that are fine dining restaurants. I recognize the distinction is blurred by some places that are restaurants in the evening but really become bars late at night, and it’s not always cut and dry, so we will need to make sure there aren’t loopholes on restrictions.

In summary I agree with the intent of the letter and frankly would go further than the moratorium you’ve suggested - I'd actually be ok with a ban, or a limit on total capacity downtown, or another equivalent permanent measure. However I really don't agree with a city-wide moratorium on all liquor licenses, and I'm quite sure Council will not support that, given the problems have been downtown and not in other areas of the city.  That being said, I do think Council may support a freeze or even a ban on large club licenses downtown, and I intent to bring that forward as early as next Monday night.  A motion tonight is not possible as 3 days notice is required to have the item on the agenda.  I am in communication with the AGCO to make sure I’ve got the wording right.  Tonight however, I will raise the matter during the Inquires section of Council, so if you’d like to see or hear the discussion, it will be around 7:30 PM I imagine, maybe a little later.  

Jeff

p.s Ben could you pass this along to anyone on the Steering Committee that I missed, I am missing a few of their email addresses – thanks.