Acting with unusual alacrity, City of Healdsburg staff whipped together a new city policy governing the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in movie theaters in the downtown area—preemptively approving a proposal from AVFilms, which has yet to come to terms on their downtown Plaza Cinema Center location.
The exception for theaters or auditoriums with live audiences to purchase and consume alcohol was necessary because in 2017, the council voted to limit alcoholic beverage businesses to one per block face in the Downtown Commercial zone. That measure was seen as a way to control the number of tasting rooms in the core downtown business district.
But for businesses such as a movie theater, serving a glass of wine or a beer with the show has become increasingly common, almost de rigueur for such venues. At the Raven Theater just a block away on North Street, such beverages are available at nearly every performance, theatrical, musical or film; and at the now-closed Raven Film Center on Center Street, beer and wine sales had been a part of their operations for several years before they closed in 2020.
The difference is that the proposed location of the Plaza Cinema Center would straddle two downtown zones, the Downtown Commercial (DC) zone where limited use is permitted at one per block face, and in the Plaza Retail (PR) zone where it’s subject to a conditional use permit.
“The current code does not allow for uses in which alcohol would be ancillary to the primary use,” read the report as prepared by Senior Planner Ellen McDowell, presented at the City Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 17. In the interest of encouraging a diversity of business in the downtown area, city staff proposed to “allow a broader range of uses in the downtown area, some of which may include the sale of alcoholic beverages as an ancillary use.”
Businesses who wish to incorporate such beverage service must still apply for a conditional use permit, in Downtown Commercial as well as Plaza Retail or other zones that allow such permits.
Parking fee reduction
Along with the code adjustment of allowing theaters to serve alcohol as a permitted use, the council also adjusted the parking in-lieu fees for downtown businesses, again to encourage a wider range of businesses downtown.
The requirement of either mandated parking spaces or “in lieu” fees which would allow a business to pay money in compensation for not being able to provide the parking spaces evolved over several years of planning commission and city council study.
At present, the fees are set at $17,145 for new development, and $7,091 for change of use. While many new developments can absorb such fees, paying the change-of-use fee was a different matter.
According to the staff report, “City staff has received feedback from the community and prospective businesses indicating that the change in use fee is too high for small businesses and, in some cases, impedes the occupancy of vacant commercial spaces. City staff has since identified an opportunity to incentivize small and local businesses in the downtown area that may have otherwise been deterred due to the cost of providing in-lieu parking fees for reuse of existing commercial spaces.”
In other words, if a business takes over a pre-existing operation that has already paid the in lieu fees, the new business would not have to pony up more fees unless the new applicant plans on expanding the existing square footage of business.
The land use amendments were previously reviewed, and approved, by the planning commission on Sept. 3, 2022.
Taken together, the land use amendments to the municipal code are expected to make it easier for local, small companies to operate a diversity of businesses in the core downtown area, and perhaps offset some of the advantages out-of-town businesses may have.
The only public comment on these code adjustments came from Kathryn Hecht, the executive director of AVFilms, who asked the city to look into the matter at the beginning of the year. “I also just have a very special thanks to the City of Healdsburg staff in particular for being so proactive in bringing these amendments before the council before the planning commission and the council…especially in light to diversify businesses downtown and increase family friendly components for the city.”
“Cities move really slow, and I do appreciate (them) seeing these issues and addressing them,” said Councilmember David Hagele when he moved to pass the amendments, applauding the staff’s rapid and efficient changes to the city code.Following the unanimous passage, Mayor Ozzy Jimenez weighed in. “It’s really important to be able to continue to support small businesses and organizations within our community. I think over the last eight years we’ve seen a lot of heavy investment coming from different parts of the country, and so I love having an organization, small businesses that are like homegrown here in Sonoma County to get support here in Healdsburg.”
