New Orleans city planners to vote on plan to legalize live music in

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jul 26, 2004 by Deon Roberts

It is against New Orleans law but that wasn't enough to stop Tom Thayer and many others.

Three years ago, Thayer, co-owner of a club on Frenchmen Street, started giving musicians another venue to play in a city famous for music. It would have been legal if Frenchmen Street was zoned for live music or if Thayer would have obtained a live entertainment license. It isn't and he didn't.

We just heard that there was moratorium on entertainment licenses in the city of New Orleans. We heard they weren't available, Thayer said. That's why I didn't try to get one.

Thayer let the musicians play at his place in the belief the worst that could happen was he would be fined. I basically was going to do it until someone told me to stop. And no one ever did, he said.

Today, Thayer's club, d.b.a., is one of about 10 venues featuring live music on popular Frenchmen Street. Only half of those venues have the proper licenses.

After years of not enforcing the licensing law, city planners are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a plan to legalize Frenchmen Street clubs through a proposed Arts and Cultural Overlay District - the first of its kind in the city. The overlay would legalize live music in a 2 1/2 block area of Frenchmen Street from Royal Street to Esplanade Avenue.

Disc jockeys and karaoke clubs would be banned. Restaurants could have no more than a three-piece combo. A music curfew would be set at 1 a.m. on weekends and 11 p.m. on weeknights, said Paul Cramer, principal city planner. There would also be more emphasis on daytime operations such as art galleries and an increased trash pickup schedule will be encouraged. More attention would be paid to enforcing noise laws. Vehicles would use more off-street parking.

Residents said the overlay district's intention is to preserve today's mix of live music clubs, restaurants and other land uses along the street while preventing the area from becoming another Bourbon Street, riddled with T-shirt and gift shops.

Lisa Suarez, head of the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association, said the district makes a better relationship between the businesses and the residents and also provides a strong basis for businesses to coordinate for events such as Satchmo Summer Fest, Carnival and Halloween.

Suarez said the association was the catalyst for the overlay district concept, which was hatched about three years ago.

We really started this to be able to communicate with the businesses who are reticent to form a business association, she said.

City Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, who represents the area, won Council approval in January to direct the Planning Commission to study the concept of the Arts and Cultural Overlay District.

Clarkson said she's glad residents and businesses are working together. Although the aim is to legalize live music, we're not encouraging noise, she said, adding that she enjoys listening to music at the clubs on Frenchmen Street.

We're trying to create viable businesses in an area that's suited for it, she said. I would not have asked the Planning Commission to do the study if I did not believe in it. I think it'll make Frenchmen Street unbelievably viable.

But Clarkson, like other city officials, could not say how long live music has been played illegally.

This problem has been going back for as long as we've had the current zoning, said Scott Aiges, city director of music business development.

If businesses were breaking the law, why didn't the city fine them?

I have no earthly idea, he said. We didn't really think in those terms to be honest with you. All I can guess is, the city just wasn't enforcing the law. I don't know that this area (of the city) would be unique in that respect.

Some businesses seem unaware that live entertainment licenses exist, said Chris Bonura of the mayor's Office of Communications.

City officials aren't sure why only five businesses were permitted.

Mayoralty permit is another term for live entertainment license some of them do have legally or they have gotten legal permits for this over time by establishing a legal non-conforming use. Some of them have been around a long time like Snug Harbor, Cramer said.

In the past, it might have made sense to zone Frenchmen Street without live music, Aiges said. But after clubs like Snug Harbor and Blue Nile grew over the years, attracting international attention, the look and feel of the street changed at some point, he said.

Aiges said zoning prohibiting live music on Frenchmen Street is out of whack with our culture.

We have to adjust our laws, he said.

City planners said the district is not intended to flood Frenchmen Street with more live music.

Limiting the number of bars will preserve space for uses that are more likely to provide daytime hours, Cramer said.

About 30 percent of the slice of Frenchmen Street in the overlay district offers live music while the remaining 70 percent are restaurants and other businesses and residences, according to City Planning.

Since that's what mix the people like, that's what we want to preserve, Cramer said.