City rejects Gator Club street closure request

City Attorney Robert Fournier sees a fundamental flaw with an application that Gator Club filed with the city’s special events office to close a segment of Lemon Avenue for almost every Friday and Saturday night through November 2022.

“The problem I see is that what is being requested is not a special event,” Fournier wrote in a memo Friday. “It is not really an ‘event’ at all. It is more accurately characterized as simply a request from a business establishment to expand its business operations into the public right of way on a twice-weekly recurring basis.”

That’s why, on Wednesday, the city sent a letter to Gator Club General Manager Jamie Brester informing her that it was rejecting the street closure application. 

“Our city code, as presently written, does not allow for the approval of such a request,” City Manager Marlon Brown wrote in a letter.

In August, Brester filed an application with the city seeking to close Lemon Avenue between Main Street and an alley north of State Street from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The proposal sought to implement the closure beginning Dec. 10. The application listed the event type as a “celebration.” Brester described the request as an effort to “extend (the) business area onto the closed street.”

The bar said the event would include food and alcohol sales, and a food truck would occasionally be present. The application said there would be no tents, stages or amplified sound at the event, though a separate section left open the possibility of adding outside entertainment.

The requested street closure drew the attention of some residents at The Mark, a Pineapple Avenue condominium building located near Gator Club. Emails from those residents expressed opposition and asked the city to hold a public hearing to discuss the request, rather than let the special events office handle it administratively. Fournier said more than five residents requested a public hearing, meeting the threshold necessary to send it to the City Commission for consideration.

The Mark resident John Bordeaux called the bar’s request absurd and linked the street closure to noise and disorder.

“What’s next, will the 1400 block of Main Street be closed so that Smokin’ Joe’s can sell liquor in the street until 1 a.m. every Friday and Saturday night?” Bordeaux wrote.

In a response to Bordeaux, Commissioner Erik Arroyo described the requested street closure as a nuanced issue and said officials had to balance the interests of residents with the rights of business owners. Arroyo said the city’s consideration of changes to its sound ordinance — another topic that has pitted residents of The Mark against Gator Club and other downtown nightlife establishments — added a layer of complexity to the conversation.

“Ultimately, there is no perfect solution that will make everyone happy,” Arroyo wrote in a Sept. 19 email.

Brester did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication. In June, a post on the Gator Club Facebook page encouraged patrons to contact the city about extending the weekend Lemon Avenue street closure that was in place in 2020 and early 2021 during a state of emergency associated with COVID-19, calling it a strategy for boosting local businesses. In a previous interview with the Sarasota Observer about the noise ordinance, Brester expressed frustration about complaints from what she characterized as a few vocal residents of a downtown building that opened in 2020.

“I feel like we’re very respectful of the neighboring businesses and the neighboring residents,” Brester said.

Irrespective of anyone’s personal opinions on the requested closure, Fournier said that there is currently no mechanism in place for the city to approve a proposal like the one Gator Club submitted. Still, that doesn’t mean the city couldn’t approve such a closure. Fournier said the commission has the authority to allow private entities to use the public right of way for limited purposes that might provide some general public benefit. Fournier cited the city’s sidewalk cafe program as the best example of that authority.

Fournier said any policy authorizing a street closure like the one Gator Club requested must meet the standard of providing “some incidental identified public purpose” and that a closure could be subject to a legal challenge if it is solely benefiting a private business. Fournier also said that if Gator Club is allowed to pursue such a closure, other businesses must have the same right.