Despite objections from local business owners and citizens during a public comment period, the White Plains Common Council passed a moratorium on cabaret licensing at its Monday meeting.
Mayor Thomas Roach repeatedly said during the session that the law would halt licensing of any new cabarets while the city reviewed and updated the regulations regarding the establishments.
During the public hearing, local attorney Gary Jenkins said the measure harkened back to the Prohibition era, and he invoked phrases used by prohibition proponents while stating his opposition.
Seven people addressed the council during the hearing, all opposed to the moratorium. The measure passed the council by a vote of 6-1. Councilwoman Nadine Hunt-Robinson was opposed to the measure.
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.”
Correction: The council’s vote tally was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.
