Changes coming to St. Augustine nightlife, businesses unsure of possible new late night permit fee

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Making the night life in St. Augustine safer. That's what city officials are after with their proposed changes.

Some changes dozens of stakeholders, businesses, city officials and neighbors voiced their concerns about Tuesday evening.

RELATED: Quality of nightlife town hall puts St. Augustine's changing downtown landscape on display

No one is arguing with the fact that St Augustine is growing, and that changes need to be made, but some local business owners aren’t sold on every change the city is hoping to make.

​ Things need to be safer in downtown St. Augustine, but it does need to be done in a respectful way to businesses,” explains Jayson Befort, General Manager of No Name Bar.

It’s a tough task for the city, but City Manager John Regan says that’s why they’ve been putting a hold on rewriting the city’s alcohol ordinance, to hear from everyone involved.

“After this we will start sitting down as a staff and take all the input start drafting a custom piece of legislation.”

Befort tells Action News Jax his biggest concern with the changes is the three-strike policy that comes with the added permit fee for places opened past midnight that serve alcohol.

“Whether it be an altercation or a fight or a fender bender is that going to be a strike towards us?”

A question the city still needs to work out as they start re-writing the ordinance in the coming weeks.

And while some of the other changes are already in motion, including increased police presence, Befort says he’d rather just have more active police outside his bar at 2 a.m. when there’s a mob of people overcrowding the sidewalks.

“The police can be a little bit more of a presence on keeping the sidewalks moving.”

St. Augustine Police Chief Barry Fox says with a whole city to keep safe, it’s just not possible to do that.

But with more officers expected, he believes that could allow for more community engagement from local police.

Regan tells Action News Jax it will most likely take about 30 days to re-write the alcohol ordinance, but nothing will be implemented until 2020.

Cox Media Group