ORLANDO, Fla. – A temporary moratorium on new nightclub openings and after-midnight alcohol permits are being considered to increase safety in downtown Orlando, according to city officials.
Two proposed ordinances will be reviewed during Monday’s City Council meeting.
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According to a city spokesperson, the pause would impact new nightclubs under the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which covers downtown. The moratorium would give the city time to study the concentration of nightclubs in downtown Orlando and make additional recommendations to better support them, the ordinance says.
Mike Mendes has been living in downtown Orlando for a decade now and said he’s been way more cautious now because of the violence he’s seen over the last year.
“I’d like it to be more of a neighborhood than just a nightlife environment. It’s just not as pleasant as it was when I first moved here,” Mendes said.
Juan Melendez works in downtown Orlando delivering food and believes the proposals from City of Orlando could change things up when it comes to safety.
“Someone tried to slice me once just because he asked me for a cigarette, and I smelled liquor all over him and I told him no. I told him to get a job and he tried to slice me with his razor,” Melendez said.
The other proposal would require a permit to sell alcohol from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. It would change alcohol sales in the Downtown Entertainment District to midnight and give businesses the option to receive an “After Midnight Alcohol Sales Permit.”
The alcohol permit ordinance aims to increase safety during “late night hours when the majority of violent crime occurs.”
To serve past midnight, bars would need extra security on site, which could come at huge cost for business owners.
“Unfortunately, I think what’s going to happen is it’s going to put a lot of small businesses, they are going to go out of business. They are not going to be able to handle hundreds of thousands of dollars of just extra costs out of the blue prioritizing police force,” Dave Green with Orlando Hospitality Alliance said.
The city of Orlando has tightened procedures with regard to downtown area nightlife over the past year, including implementing access points to particular downtown areas where police can check for illegal weapons. The move was the result of a July shooting in downtown Orlando that injured nine people.
At the time, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the city normally used the access points for large events, and was now expanding it to weekends.
Just last month, the gun used in the shooting was found though the suspected shooter is still on the run.
If approved, the ordinances would go into effect as early as February.
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