SLO Brewing Co. pursues permit for live music at new venue

SLO Brewing Co. is one step closer to having live music at its new brewing facility, The Rock, near the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport.

A new production facility, which will expand SLO Brew’s brewing and bottling capacity, was approved last year and is under construction at 855 Aerovista Place, near Broad Street (Highway 227) in southeastern San Luis Obispo. The new location also includes a beer garden and a taproom that will serve casual pub food.

But another part of the plan — to offer indoor or outdoor live music and host concerts for up to 600 people — still needs approval from the San Luis Obispo City Council, which could consider the request in April at the earliest.

The city’s Planning Commission earlier this month voted 5-2 to recommend the council approve the request to allow live entertainment, which falls under a “nightclub” use in the city’s zoning rules, and weddings or other events. Commissioners Ronald Malak and Michael Multari dissented.

In a separate vote, the commission recommended the council allow nightclubs in a specific part of the city, which would encompass SLO Brew’s new venture: the business park zone of the city’s airport area, including areas west of Highway 227 and around Tank Farm Road, and the San Luis Ranch property between Madonna Road and Highway 101.

Five commissioners voted in support of that recommendation; Multari voted against it and Commissioner William Riggs refrained (which technically counts as a vote in favor).

Both recommendations will go to the City Council at the same time.

SLO Brew’s downtown nightclub and restaurant closed its longtime Garden Street location in December and is moving around the corner to 736 Higuera St. The capacity for concerts there will be smaller — about 300 people, compared with the former location’s 437 people — and the brewery’s owners hope to enhance their music offerings with The Rock.

The company’s website urges patrons to “tour the brewery and distillery, grab a bite at lunch, try a flight at our tasting room or stay for a concert in our outdoor beer garden.”

Hamish Marshall, co-owner of SLO Brewing Co. and founder of AuzCo Developments, told planning commissioners that the brewery is planning a summer concert series with outdoor music on Saturdays and Sundays.

During the week, he said, “we’re running and acting as a production facility with some auxiliary services, such as the tasting room and restaurant, which will service the local community out there.” SLO Brew’s plans do not include opening a “nightclub” he said, but hosting concerts which would end by 11 p.m.

Events could be held on Friday evenings from 6 to 11 p.m. (the later hour is an effort to avoid peak traffic congestion times along Highway 227) and weekend days from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., according to the conditions of the use permit that will go to the City Council.

The city’s general plan states that entertainment facilities should be located downtown, according to a city staff report, but no sites exist downtown that would allow for live outdoor entertainment for a large number of people without impacting nearby residents. The Rock site is located more than 800 feet from the nearest residential area.

Still, the question of whether allowing a nightclub use outside of downtown could set a precedent for future projects concerned Multari, who said: “If we start dissipating that concentration of uses away from the downtown we jeopardize its long-term vitality.”

“I’m really on the fence,” he added, “because I think this would be kind of a nice use in this location, but sometimes the one example you think is the nice use then opens the door that creates problems for the community at large over time.”

Other commissioners, though, said that live music was appropriate based in part on The Rock’s unique location away from homes on the opposite side of Highway 227 and buffered by other buildings in the office park. Commissioners also decided that any future requests for nightclubs by applicants in the business park zone around the airport area would have to come before them as well for a use permit.

“This particular location I think is unique and well-suited for what they’re proposing,” Commissioner Michael Draze said.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 3:08 PM with the headline "SLO Brewing Co. pursues permit for live music at new venue."