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owners of Duval's New World Cafe at 1435 Main St. want to upgrade their alcohol service from beer and wine to cocktails and other hard liquor. Because of the way the zoning code works, that requires the restaurant to request a "nightclub" designation. The restaurant owners and operators do not want a nightclub, just the ability to provide additional drink options. Thus, they have tried to mute any opposition by making a variety of promises, including limits on the hours of operation and foreswearing live music except on three nights of the year. The restaurant opened in 2011 with 76 seats. To meet state and local regulations, it must ask for a zoning adjustment because of its prox- imity to the First United Methodist Church on Pineapple Avenue. And it needs approval for a "conditional use" because the facility's "footprint" is 300 square feet less than the minimum required for a full liquor license. Staff also needs to review and approve a site plan for the new use. The owners say they will offer live music on only three evenings per year. One would be New Year's Eve, to complement the big party downtown. The second would be Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and part of the pre-Lenten celebration. And the third date would be Nov. 14, the anniversary of the restaurant's opening in 2011. City staff is leery of approving any new "night- club," after a similar request was granted to allow a jazz club and wine bar that eventually turned into a full-blown, late-night club called the Ivory Lounge in downtown Sarasota on Central Avenue. Joel Freedman, representing Duval's owners, said the business would offer an additional "proffer": that it would continue serving its full menu until closing and that any piped-in background music would be of low volume. Gretchen Schneider, a senior building and zoning official, reminded Freedman and his clients that all these proffers and promises would "go with the land," so if the property were sold, the same conditions would be imposed on any new owners. The city's downtown economic develop- ment coordinator had written a letter to the Development Review Committee (DRC) to object to the restaurant's proposal. "Having reviewed the requested approval for a night- club use, I find that I cannot support this application," wrote Norm Gollub. "This is not desirable to the continued development of the district for retail uses. There is also concern that an additional nightclub will fur- ther encourage this block of Main Street to continue development as an 'entertainment' block." Freedman will be back at the May DRC meet- ing to present the restaurant's case again. The matter is scheduled to show up on the Planning Board agenda in June. % SarasotaNewsLeader.com Sarasota News Leader April 18, 2014 Page 25