Miami Beach voters passed 2 a.m. booze ban referendum. What will commissioners decide?
Less than 24 hours after Miami Beach voters passed a straw-ballot referendum to ban early-morning alcohol sales, Mayor Dan Gelber met with city staff Wednesday to discuss how to craft new legislation to overhaul the city’s nightlife.
Gelber, who made efforts to stop booze sales at 2 a.m. citywide the crux of his victorious reelection campaign, said the successful referendum gives the city a “green light” to begin recasting the South Beach entertainment district into a cultural area rather than a party hub.
“We’re gonna get to work on it,” he said. “We’re going to treat this as a seminal opportunity to really recast and reimagine this area in a way that I think we all want to be proud of.”
But how exactly the City Commission will translate the will of the voters into law remains unclear. Despite voters’ support for the 2 a.m. booze ban, the referendum wasn’t binding, and states that it will be up to commissioners to determine any “specific locations and related restrictions and exceptions.”
At least two different visions have already been put forward.
Gelber said he would propose an exception for large hotels able to provide their own security and a way for customers to line up inside. He said street-side clubs, especially on Ocean Drive, have created a “party zone” in South Beach that creates disorder in the area. What’s happening in hotel nightclubs or bars, like the LIV nightclub at the Fontainebleau, is hidden from the street, he said.
“What’s happening is typically well ensconced in the facility. They have security, they have all sorts of barriers to the streets,” he said. “It’s not fomenting an all night party district.”
But Commissioner Ricky Arriola said he would prefer a performance-based restriction that sets 2 a.m. as a baseline and gives businesses the ability to serve alcohol until 5 a.m. if they meet certain requirements, like enhanced security, noise mitigation and crowd control.
He said adopting that model would still follow what voters decided because the referendum states there may be exceptions.
“I don’t think a one-size-fits-all approach is the way to go,” he said. “I think what this vote gives us is leverage over businesses that don’t want to work with the city in improving their business operations.”
Elections have consequences
Nothing will be voted on until early December at the earliest, after the Nov. 16 runoff elections in commission races for Groups I and III and the swearing in of the two victors, according to Gelber’s chief of staff, Michelle Burger.
The candidates in both runoffs have said they would honor the will of the voters. Most sitting commissioners have also said they would support some type of alcohol rollback. But it’s too early to tell what kind of legislation will gain majority support on the seven-person commission.
Raquel Pacheco, who is running against former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez in Group I, said she would “lean toward” Arriola’s position of evaluating early-morning clubs by how often police are called there or their complaint history rather than whether they are located inside a hotel.
“I think what the will of the voters reflects in this vote is that they’re fed up with the crime and disorder,” she said. “Ultimately I think that’s what it translates to. I’m just really committed to resolving that. We have a lot of legacy businesses in this city, we have a lot of good operators and we have a lot of bad operators. So let’s evaluate performance.”
Rosen Gonzalez, who like Pacheco did not personally support the referendum, wrote in a text message that it will be up to commissioners to “make sure that this rollback is effective, fair, and has maximum impact.”
“I think people are worried that this is going to create a ‘nightclub mafia’ on the commission, where certain nightclubs get an exemption and others do not,” she said. “What is this going to look like? This rollback must be fair.”
Stephen Cohen, who is running in Group III against Alex Fernandez, said he needed more details on the possible exceptions but would “carry out the will of Miami Beach families and taxpayers.”
Fernandez did not respond to questions Wednesday. He has previously said he would support a conduct-based 2 a.m. rollback, similar to Arriola’s position, if voters approved the referendum.
Nightclubs and bars remain influential
Alex Tachmes, an attorney representing the Clevelander hotel, said his clients would support a 2 a.m. rollback that sets conditions for businesses to get a 5 a.m. liquor license, like having in-house security and a good record of compliance with city laws. The Clevelander successfully sued this year to block a newly passed law limiting alcohol sales specifically in the entertainment district. Gelber has said the city is appealing the ruling.
“What we can never support is some sort of law that completely ignores the individual characteristics of the business and just says, ‘You’re in this area, so were shutting you down,’” Tachmes said.
The Clevelander’s parent company, Jesta Group, contributed $325,000 to the Citizens for a Safe Miami Beach political committee organizing against the referendum. The committee issued a statement Tuesday vowing to “continue to oppose solutions that do nothing to solve crime,” and asserting that an earlier last call would cost the city jobs and cash.
Commissioner David Richardson, who has long held himself out as a supporter of the current 5 a.m. cutoff, said he expects the City Commission to listen to the voters but that it is still too early to determine what the new alcohol restrictions will look like.
“Our work is just beginning,” he said. “It’s going to be complicated. I expect this conversation to be going on for a very long time.”
Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who has supported Gelber’s previous efforts to roll back alcohol sales, said in a statement that he would “strongly support citywide legislation, including fair exceptions” but did not say what type of exceptions he would support.
Still, he and Gelber said the results of the referendum sent a message to City Hall that residents are ready for change.
“Today is a new day for Miami Beach and residents have provided clear direction for fundamental change,” Samuelian said.
Gelber said despite the difference of opinion, city leaders are no longer divided on whether residents support rolling back alcohol sales. In his previous attempts to enact liquor-sales restrictions, Gelber faced opposition from critics who noted that in 2017 voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar referendum to restrict booze sales on Ocean Drive at 2 a.m.
“There was this division. Now I think there is a uniformity of thought that this is what we need to do,” Gelber said.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 6:58 PM.
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