Cabaret owners in White Plains are waiting to hear from the city on changes to its cabaret licensing law.
They”™re just not sure how long the wait will be.
The city placed a moratorium on the licensing of new cabarets on July 7, saying the regulations needed to be reviewed to address safety and health concerns.
“Our concern is how long the moratorium will go,” said Kevin Nunn, executive director of the White Plains Business Improvement District. “There are plenty of legitimate businesses that need the cabaret license to operate.”
While Nunn”™s group is generally in support of White Plains businesses that operate under cabaret licenses, he said he understands the
reasoning behind the moratorium on new cabarets.
“It”™s like zoning or other resolutions ”” things get out of date,” Nunn said.
“We”™ve had quite a few applications for new cabarets,” White Plains Building Commissioner Damon Amadio said in an interview shortly after the moratorium was enacted. “We decided we should take a breather, update the ordinance and apply it to the new cabarets. Everyone who is in good standing will be allowed to operate their cabarets under the moratorium.”
Two cabaret license applications came up for review at the Sept. 2 meeting of the White Plains Common Council, both of which were adjourned to later this year.
The first license application, by Daniel Coughlan, the proprietor of Coliseum on South Broadway, was postponed at Coughlan”™s request, as his family recently welcomed a new baby. Coughlan spoke against the moratorium at the July 7 council meeting.
“I operate my cabaret without any harm whatsoever to the safety and welfare of the public while providing a significant benefit to the economy and quality of life in White Plains,” Coughlan said at the July meeting. He has operated a cabaret doing business as Coughlan”™s, Prophecy and Coliseum in White Plains for the past 10 years. “I”™m strongly in favor of reviewing laws to ensure the public”™s safety and welfare are adequately protected. However, here the laws likely sought to be enacted will only strangle small-business owners such as myself who have poured their life savings into our businesses.”
The second application for a cabaret license by Executive Billiards at 109 Mamaroneck Ave., was adjourned until the Oct. 6 Common Council meeting.
“As you know, there”™s a moratorium on issuing these right now, and so because we don”™t have the new law ”” you don”™t have a current cabaret license, so right now the moratorium”™s in effect and we can”™t issue them,” Mayor Thomas Roach told Executive Billiards”™ general manager, Russell Masciotti, during the public hearing period.
Masciotti did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Reached by phone Sept. 9, Coughlan said he is worried about what the moratorium on licensing cabarets means to White Plains if it should be extended or if the city were to stop licensing cabarets altogether.
“We have over 160 vacancies in downtown White Plains right now,” Coughlan said. “I”™m 100 percent against underage drinking, bar fights and rough crowds. Other cities and towns are dying to have what White Plains has and White Plains is trying to shut it down. They should let anyone have a cabaret license if they are complying with the law.”
[box type=”info” color=”#2E2E2E” bg=”#D8D8D8″ font=”arial” fontsize=”12″ border=”#2E2E2E” head=”Cabaret defined” headbg=”#2E2E2E” headcolor=”#D8D8D8″]Under the White Plains municipal code, a cabaret is a “place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, entertainment or amusement, where refreshments of any kind are served for gain or profit, and where dancing, entertainments or exhibitions are given or permitted in connection therewith, or a place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, entertainment or amusement where exhibitions or other forms of entertainment or amusement are given or conducted for gain or profit and dancing and serving of refreshments of any kind are permitted.”[/box]
