Why city council voted to convert half of the Granville Room into a lounge

Over the years, I've covered numerous applications by business people seeking to gain Vancouver city council's approval for more licensed liquor seats.

Most of the time, the applicant hires a lawyer or a consultant to present arguments to council.

Not Jeff Donnelly, the founder of Donnelly Hospitality Management. At last Thursday's city services and budgets committee, he delivered  a smooth,  unscripted presentation that eliminated council's concerns about adding more licensed seats to a zone with a heavy concentration of liquor-primary venues.

Even though there are 1,373 licensed liquor seats in the 900 block of Granville, council voted in favour of letting  Donnelly Hospitality Management  convert  38 of the 80  restaurant seats in the Granville Room.

Donnelly told council that  his company hopes to create the first lounge in the Granville Entertainment District.

"What's happened on Granville Street, unfortunately, is all the restaurants have acted like bars," he said at the meeting.  "So there is a lot of problems with policing on Granville Street and it's not just with the big nightclubs. And I think one of the reasons that police are supporting this application is because a 40-seat lounge in an entertainment district in any other city in the world would be a fantastic idea."

At the same time, council ensured that no other restaurant owners in the 900 block of Granville  would be allowed to convert their food-primary seats into licensed liquor seats  until  after a new report comes back estimating the potential implications on policing costs.

At the outset, it  appeared uncertain whether or not Donnelly's application would succeed. The chief licence inspector, Barb Windsor, did not recommend that it be approved. Instead, she asked council to consider two options: approval or rejection.

If staff don't "recommend" and simply ask council to "consider" a proposal, it  sometimes means they're opposed.

A staff report written by Lucia Cumerlato pointed out that there is a "high concentration" of liquor-primary seats already in the 900 block.

"If council supports this conversion, other restaurants on this street will likely be interested in also applying to convert their food primary seats to  liquor primary seats," Cumerlato wrote.

She told council that there are 613 food-primary seats in the  block in addition to the 80 in the Granville Room.  That prompted NPA councillor Suzanne Anton to remark that she usually supports these types of applications, but she was "a little dubious about this one".

COPE councillor David Cadman then said he was concerned about some of  the  consequences of additional liquor-primary seats on Granville Street.

"I want to deal with what else may be coming in terms of conversion and what that implies for the policing of this neighbourhood and which is costing the taxpayers quite a bit of money," he said.

Cumerlato said,  "It could mean another 600 liquor-primary seats in the 900 block."

She then added that council can restrict other lounges from being created within 50 metres of one another, so this could  reduce the number. "But we will see other applications," Cumerlato stated.

Cadman noted that this could  mean up to 2,000 liquor-primary seats in the block. He then asked the Vancouver Police Department's representative for a comment.  

Det.-Const. Alex Clarke responded that she didn't think the police  could possibly handle an extra 500 or 600 liquor seats in the Granville Entertainment District. "Policing that would be very difficult, especially on a Friday and Saturday night," she said.

But then Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer decided to ask a pertinent question: why did Cumerlato's report mention that Vancouver police had reviewed the application and expressed no concerns?

Clarke responded that the police had never been called to the Granville Room in a "call for service". The only time police were required to visit the business was in 2008 after it had been a victim of mischief. "The Granville Room, by itself, is not a problem for police," she said.

Then it was Donnelly's turn to speak. "The first thing I would like to do is put this in context a little bit," he said at the outset,  "because I think we're getting a way ahead of ourselves saying there will be 600 more liquor-primary seats on the 900 block of Granville Street."

He emphasized there is far more stringent enforcement on liquor-primary licence holders, and he also  offered praise to the Vancouver Police Department for working with Barwatch to improve the Granville Entertainment District. Donnelly is a director of Barwatch, which promotes tighter security in local nightclubs.

Donnelly then  suggested that there is "no enforcement" over liquor service in Granville Street restaurants. And he promised that the Granville Room wouldn't be converted into a club.

"Half of it is going to be a lounge; half of it is going to be a restaurant," Donnelly insisted.  "We're proud of the restaurant. We're not going to turn it into a nightclub on Granville Street."

Rick Douglas, co-owner of the Morrissey at 1227 Granville Street, then offered council assurances that the district could accommodate an extra 38 liquor-primary seats.

"In this particular situation, I don't think this should be taken out of context with perhaps a fear that the entire street is going to transform into something that probably will never happen," Douglas said.  "Jeff is a really good operator who has been in the business for a long time."

Reimer then proposed that council approve Donnelly's application. But she inserted two additions:

* That city staff through consultation with stakeholders including the Vancouver Police Department provide a report back to council on the impact of adding more liquor-primary seats to Granville Entertainment District.

* In the interim to receiving this report, council will consider no further applications to  convert food-primary seats to liquor-primary seats in the  Granville Entertainment District.  

"Obviously, the Granville Room is trying to be honest with us about the nature of their business," Reimer said.  "I think it's important to reward that behaviour."

Anton said her "initial" thought was to vote "no", but she was persuaded to approve the application based on what she heard. "We do need things on Granville Mall that appeal to more than just the very young adults who wait in those lines outside the nightclubs," she said.

Cadman said that he appreciated Reimer's two additions,  emphasizing that these measures gave him sufficient  comfort to support the conversion of the 38 food-primary seats to liquor-primary seats.

"I   do not want to see applications coming in for additional seats until we get a very clear policy here and we understand precisely what the additional policing is going to cost the taxpayer, because we're in a restrained financial situation right now," Cadman said.  "And  I don't think the taxpayer is prepared to continually support liquor primary with additional policing to deal with a lot of testosterone and a lot of liquor."

In the end, council unanimously approved Donnelly's application. Anton was the only one who opposed asking staff to report back on the implications of adding more liquor seats to the Granville Entertainment District, saying  her preference was to deal with these situations on a "case-by-case" basis.