Bend music venues could change to meet new city rules

(Updated with new comments from Bend Mayor Casey Roats)

The Bend City Council narrowly voted Wednesday night to put a limit on the number of large events a business can have that exceed a building’s occupancy. Currently, the Century Center is the only business truly impacted by the limit.

Some say the sunken grade and the ramp leading into the venue, which is the only way to get out, don’t meet safety standards.

That was a factor as the city council voted 4-3 to pt a limit of three times a year for the number of above-occupancy events businesses can hold. The limit applies to indoor or enclosed spaces only — not parking lots or open areas.

The word “enclosed” includes places such as the Century Center, where buildings surround the space on three sides. So even though it’s open air, it’s now required to abide by this new rule.

Mayor Casey Roats said Thursday the real goal is to work to make these venues safer, permanently.

“At some point, there had to be a line in the sand. Because even if it was just seven (above-occupancy events) today, what’s that to keep it from being 20 or 25 for the year? Well, now all of a sudden, if you had anything more than that, it’s becoming a regular use. And if it’s going to become a regular use, then people need to step up to make the improvements, to make it safe.”

Roats also said he would like to see businesses that want to hold more than three above-occupancy events a year make changes to increase their occupancy and safety, although that is likely to come with a high cost to the business.

Currently, the Century Center is the only place in town that these rules really apply to. No other business applies for more than three temporary change in occupancy permits a year.

Despite the vote, Roats did say the new rules could be changed at any time.

“What we decided to do last night is make sure when people are hosting large outdoor events, music or otherwise, and when those are located in a place that has confinements, that it is safe,” he said. “At the end of the day, we want people to have fun, and want to have outdoor music and indoor music, all those things. We want a vibrant culture, vibrant art scene.”

According to city staff, the Century Center has not yet applied for any event permits this year.

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Earlier story:

After a sometimes emotional hearing before an overflow crowd, Bend city councilors voted 4-3 Wednesday night to put a three-a-year limit on the number of concerts or other events that draw more people than a venue’s standard occupancy limit allows.

The changes proposed by city staff focused on temporary change of occupancy permits, or TCOs — and some businesses were not happy about the change, made after more than 30 people testified, all warning of the negative impacts. More than 60 people attended the council meeting, with many in the City Hall hallway because the council chambers were full.

Private locations will be limited in how many events they can hold per year. According to Good Life Brewery co-owner Ty Barnett, many businesses at the Century Center feel victimized by this code change.

“We’re just trying to create an environment that is safe, entertaining and fair for the whole community,” Barnett said. “This change in code is really being discriminatory to one property.”

City staff members recommended the council adopt a resolution to limit the number of TCOs to three events per private location per year. Not all properties are designed for large events, and TCOs allow them to temporarily host something like a concert.

“This will impact events that are in enclosed spaces or in buildings,” Bend Licensing Program Manager Lorelei Williams said. “It won’t impact any events that are in parking lots or outdoor areas or in buildings that already have an assembly occupancy load.”

Examples of facilities designed to accommodate the larger crowds are the Athletic Club of Bend and the Les Schwab Amphitheater. The Century Center — the focus of much of the night’s debate — has requested the most such permits, and could, at least for now, be the only venue affected by the TCO limit.

The location has close to a dozen businesses, and this TCO cap will limit the area to three events per year among all of those businesses, including the Bend Radio Group, which promotes several concerts a year. It was running frequent ads on its stations in recent days, warning of the rule change’s impact and urging people to attend the meeting and make their voices heard.

“We employ so many people through these concerts,” said Kayja Buhmann, concert and event director for the Bend Radio Group. “The vendors, the surrounding restaurants, the musicians, myself, the radio station, we are all impacted by this and so is Bend as a whole.”

From the city’s perspective, Bend’s growth means more businesses will begin to ask for TCOs and the city needs a template to follow.

“People can still show case their businesses and have events there,” said Williams. “But beyond that we want to make sure things are safe.”

Mayor Casey Roats said this is a technical issue concerning building codes and not an attack on music and arts.

Ultimately, TCOs are issued by city Building Official Joseph McClay, who said TCOs are not a workaround to the city code. They are allowed a couple times a year for a special purpose.

“I’m very consistent on what I do for one, I try to do for everybody, or I have to do for everybody,” McClay said. “If I say we can have unlimited TCOs for every building, that’s a lot of work and a lot of TCOs and a lot of process.”

Several people who testified claimed a limit of three does not make sense, if the issue is safety, because if a space is not safe for large events, none should happen. Others argued that less money would go to nonprofits and it would hurt everyone in the community.

“It would mean less regional and national acts to Bend which is a vital part of Central Oregon’s community,” Buhmann said.

City staff ultimately argued that TCO permits need a cap to insure future safety. Businesses can still work with the city to address safety concerns and possibly have more events.

Williams, the city’s licensing program manager, outlined the staff recommendations, and how they changed in part due to the results of a community survey – for example, the staff recommended no change in the noise ordinance that a majority of respondents supported. It was a fairly split survey result on a proposal to require a parking plan, she said, and that has been dropped, as some worried about over-regulating events while others noted the issue of enforcement that staff may not have the resources to handle.

Respondents were opposed to the cap of one to three temporary certificates of occupancy, but Williams said there was “definitely some confusion” about the complex issue, including what the impact of limits might be. It’s limited, she noted, to enclosed areas (the Century Center has buildings on three sides) and events that draw more people that the space was designed for. So the staff held to the proposal for a three-event limit per facility per year. (It doesn’t affect outdoor events like concerts in parks).

McClay told the overflow City Hall crowd the Century Center is a “tough venue” with “pinch points” in terms of quickly being able to evacuate, should the need arise.

“Bend is growing fast,” he said, with more and more such requests, and “what you do for one, you have to do for all.” That why he said he was “comfortable” with allowing three a year – as the stats showed only Century Center events had been seeking more.

As Williams put it in the issue summary, the facility’s “owner has regularly worked with the city to address safety concerns, (but) the use has intensified over the years and become more like an ongoing event center.”

And McClay said some bigger cities like Portland allow more such permits, one a month, but the facilities have to have sprinklers, for example.

“They (Portland officials) told me, ‘You’d better regulate everything, or they are going to happen without you,'” he said. “It’s the closure, ‘pinch point,’ exit. It’s getting people out fast. There’s a lot of things that can happen – not just a fire any more. … I don’t care if it’s a sprained ankle or a mess trample. … Sorry if I’m being overly safety-oriented, but that’s my job.”

“This discussion tonight is not about any one location – period,” Roats said, getting quite a laugh from some in the crowd. “I might have had that coming – I probably did,” he responded.

Roats also laid down the law with the packed crowd, saying he’d not allow any cheering or jeering to intrude on civility: “Your TV got stuck on C-SPAN tonight. Everyone needs to feel safe (to speak).”

Some opponents warned of major economic, tourism and business impacts if the number of such concerts is capped.

Neighbors who have opposed the Century Center concerts didn’t speak before what would have been a somewhat hostile crowd, but there were neighbors on hand, such as Brook Jackson, who lives within 1,000 feet and “can slightly hear” the concerts, which he appreciates having in the area: “It gives our neighborhood a soul.”

Mark Capps, a tenant and business owner at Century Center, said with seven TCOs last year, “That is not an event center. Why are you fixing a problem that basically does not exist? It’s either safe or not safe. I think this is a problem with a very, very small, very, very vocal minority of people.”

Derek Sitter, owner of the Volcanic Theatre Pub venue at Century Center, struck a different tone than most, saying he totally agrees on a need to be safe – and not just at concerts. “It’s tough to send my child to school in the morning,” after what happened in Florida, he said. “I see 200, 250 people in my venue, three, four nights a week. I see what happens in venues, and it scares me.”

He said he’s worked with the city “to make sure Volcanic Theatre Pub is one of the safest, most comfortable venues.” But he also said he’s sure Century Center “has been targeted very heavily,” despite months of meetings with neighbors and emails to resolve their concerns.

“Please understand this. We do have two exits. We only need one more to make it safe,” Sitter said, pleading with the council to “allow us to work” with the city building official to make it safe.

Councilor Sally Russell agreed that “a relative small group of people have been driving this” debate and urged a delay in the decision, or at least a higher cap, such as eight TCOs per venue: “We need to find a way as a community to make this work.” She also suggested whatever path was chosen, a sunset clause be included to see how things work and revisit the matter in a year.

But colleague Bill Moseley supported the proposed three-event cap, focusing on the safety issue and noting the concert at an Oakland warehouse that burned down and killed 36 people. And he was the first of several councilors to say he’s “not an expert in what’s safe and not safe. I trust our building officials.”

Councilor Bruce Abernethy agreed, saying that some who testified “made good points, but people in the music industry, to say that this action, which really impacts one locale, would kill the Bend music community – that’s laughable. That’s disingenuous. … I’m not saying no impact, but I think you’re really overplaying the impact.” He likened the issue to the city’s tussle over short-term rentals, where the city “didn’t get a handle on it initially, and it got out of hand.”

Colleague Nathan Boddie pointed the finger of blame at the city staff for bringing councilors not a broad policy issue but a detailed set of regulations that he said the staff should handle: “We shouldn’t be writing code on the fly,” or a “side deal that doesn’t address noise or how to hold events”

“This is kind of using a colonoscopy to treat a heart attack,” the physician by day argued, urging colleagues to table the matter and “give it to staff, have them bring us something useful. If it’s a safety issue, you either can have (concerts) or you can’t. An arbitrary number doesn’t make any sense to me.”

But Councilor Justin Livingston supported the staff recommendation and said he trusts McClay’s expertise and judgment: “If I expect a restaurant or shopping center to put in the improvements that their use requires, require it for an event center.”

Councilor Barb Campbell said her position was “somewhere between Sally and Nathan” and would support allowing more TCOs per venue, five or six a year. “If there’s a problem, it’s too much of a good thing,” she said, suggesting a solution might be to have other good venues distributed around the city to hold such events. “There’s more work to be done,” she said.

But Roats disagreed on waiting longer, saying that “mediation efforts have led to no movement, no conclusion.”

“I’m going to support this (resolution) tonight because I think it’s time to bring some clarity to this,” the mayor said, agreeing with Livingston that it’s hard to tell, “when does an activity become a use?” And he also aimed some sharp barbs at opponents and their radio ads attacking the proposed limit.

“I really detest the way this was drummed up to make this about music, because it’s not. … There’s a reason we have a building code,” Roats said, noting that Eugene has no such temporary uses beyond a building’s stated occupancy.

“An event a year in a building that wasn’t designed for it seems reasonable,” he said. “There are things that can be done. By no means is this shutting the door on music (or) culture. We’re in an awkward place as a city where we are approaching 100,000 people and we don’t have the facilities – but we will, soon.”

Campbell then made her move to amend the resolution and allow up to six TCOs a year at venues, saying the dozen-plus businesses at Century Center might make one to three per business, rather than venue, more workable.

Roats and other supporters acknowledged the three-permit cap was an arbitrary number, but said it was essentially a compromise between banning events exceeding a facility’s stated capacity and allowing plenty more – when the Century Center was the only venue that had sought more such exceptions recently.

Campbell’s amendment failed, 3-4, and the resolution then was quickly approved 4-3, with Roats joining Moseley, Abernethy and Livingston in favor, and Russell, Campbell and Boddie opposed.

There were no boos after the vote, but as the mostly disappointed crowd filed out of the council chambers, one man told councilors that the decision means some concerts would just move “back to the unsafe warehouse.”