Iowa City Shifts Gears on Split-Bar Idea

By Gregg Hennigan, Reporter

A doorman checks ID's outside of Summit in downtown Iowa City on Thursday, May 13, 2010. Along with several other Iowa City bars, the Summit allows 19 and over entry, which will change when the 21 ordinance goes into affect on June 1 of this year. (Julie Koehn/The Gazette)

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By Tracey McCullough

Story Created: Sep 7, 2010 at 8:19 PM CST

Story Updated: Sep 7, 2010 at 8:20 PM CST

IOWA CITY - The City Council will explore whether to designate certain Iowa City bars as “entertainment venues” and make them exempt from the 21-only ordinance.

The council Tuesday night voted 5-2 to defer a vote on a related proposal that would have allowed bars to physically separate their spaces into alcohol-free and alcohol-allowed areas during city-approved special events, like concerts.

Instead, a majority of the council wants to first look into the entertainment venue idea, which would allow bars that often host cultural performances, such as live music, to admit people younger than 21 into the entire establishment at night.

The new 21-only law prohibits people younger than the legal drinking age of 21 from being in Iowa City bars after 10 p.m. The public will vote Nov. 2 on whether to overturn the law and again allow people 19 and older in bars.

What would constitute an entertainment venue remains to be figured out. The council plans to take up the matter at its Sept. 20 work session.

Council members have talked about ways to protect Iowa City’s active music scene since the 21-only ordinance passed last spring. Wary of bars trying to take advantage of any exception to the law, if the council moves forward on the entertainment venue proposal, who is eligible is likely to be narrowly defined and there would be a very low tolerance for alcohol-related offenses, Mayor Matt Hayek said after the meeting.

“You don’t want to be able to drive a Mack truck through” the exemption, he said.

Assistant City Attorney Eric Goers said ideas tossed around include allowing people 19 and older in the venues until midnight and not counting karaoke and maybe even DJ’s as an allowed performance. Exempt establishments also may be required to maintain low ratios of underage customers cited by police for possessing alcohol, he said.

Representatives from The Mill, the only bar to take an active role in the issue, have proposed defining entertainment venues as those providing musical, literary or theatrical performances 75 percent of the days they’re open, along with other requirements.

Andre Perry, talent buyer at The Mill and executive director of the Englert Theatre, said the 21-only ordinance as it stands now has already led some national music agents to question the validity of the local music scene.

He said after Tuesday’s meeting that he was confident if city officials and representatives from cultural venues worked together, they could craft something would protect the arts as well as the goal of reducing binge drinking among young people.

Susan Mims and Connie Champion voted against deferring the first reading of the split-venue ordinance. Mims said she thought it was a separate item from the entertainment venue idea and the city may want both on the books.

But other council members said they either wanted more time to consider split venues or thought it didn’t make sense to vote on something they may change it in light of the entertainment venue option. The vote was deferred until Sept. 21.

Next Article Dubuque Group Pushes Prayer at Council Meetings

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