Bang the Drum, SLO church must vacate ‘unsafe’ property after appeal fails
Popular brewery Bang the Drum and SLO City Church will have to vacate the property at 1150 Laurel Lane after the city denied an appeal Monday that could have potentially staved off eviction.
A vacate notice was issued to the building’s tenants March 10 claiming because ongoing construction had lapsed at the warehouse property, it was unsafe and unfit for occupation.
In the months since then, supporters have urged the city to try to find solutions that would not result in the tenants having to leave the property.
Developer Patrick Smith, writing on behalf of property owner Laurel Creek LP, submitted an appeal of the eviction order March 19, claiming the city’s concerns about the safety of the property were generally unfounded.
That appeal was heard by the city’s Construction Board of Appeals on Monday afternoon, in front of a crowd of roughly two dozen people — some of whom continued to urge the board for alternative solutions.
The writing was on the wall, however, as the board’s sole power Monday was in determining whether the city’s building official had erred in issuing the initial March 10 order to vacate.
Ultimately, board members said he had not — and they additionally had some strong words for the property owners.
“We’re all here today due to inaction on the part of the property owner,” board chair Niel Dilworth said toward the conclusion of the lengthy hearing. “Quite frankly, Mr. Smith, you’ve made a lot of promises you haven’t been able to keep.”
Building official calls SLO property city’s ‘greatest ... unaddressed public safety threat’
In a lengthy report issued Friday ahead of Monday’s hearing, city staff recommended the Construction Board of Appeals reject the appeal and uphold the order for tenants to vacate 1150 Laurel Lane.
The Board of Appeals hears appeals of “orders, decisions or determinations” made by the city’s chief building official and fire marshal.
During the hearing Monday, chief building official Michael Loew detailed some of the conditions that prompted him to declare the property “unsafe, unlawful, unfit for human occupancy and ... dangerous” and issue the vacate notice to tenants.
“It’s my assessment as chief building official that this building presents the greatest known active and unaddressed public safety threat that currently exists within our city’s built environment,” Loew said.
Chief among those was incomplete fire suppression and safety work at the property that put tenants and visitors at risk.
According to the staff report, work on required “fire walls” — essentially fire-resistant barriers meant to prevent the spread of flames — was never completed, and inspectors confirmed “dozens of missing or capped sprinkler heads throughout the building’s fire suppression system,” but particularly on the side of the building that houses Bang the Drum and several offices.
The building’s water system has also been using a temporary fire pump for two years after its main one suffered several breaks.
The fire safety concerns were extensive enough that Fire Marshal Josh Daniel said he would not feel comfortable sending first responders into the building in the event of an emergency.
“It is not reasonable to ask our firefighters to go into a building that we already know is not safe and not structurally sound,” he said.
During his presentation, Loew also said the property was in a state of “advanced disrepair” with portions of the building exposed to the elements, short-term additions to the outside walls that have deteriorated and an “accumulation of junk and debris.”
Furthermore, the property has an extensive history of expired work permits, with 18 permits having lapsed since the project began in 2020, he said.
In the meantime, temporary certificates of occupancy for several of the units at the building — including the one for Bang the Drum that the business was unknowingly operating under — expired, and permanent ones cannot be issued unless the previously permitted work is completed.
“By late 2023, construction had visibly stopped, following multiple extensions on the (temporary occupancy certificates)“ he said. “Throughout 2024, site inspections and reports confirmed that the building had been effectively abandoned by contractors and was left in an open state of decline.”
Loew noted that the last official inspection of the site took place in September 2023.
He added that he was not unsympathetic to the plight of the 1150 Laurel Lane tenants, however.
“I couldn’t be more proud of being a part of a community that has a bar and a church in the same building,” Loew joked. “It’s really, really a wonderful thing to have in our community, and I think speaks a lot about our community and who we are. And it is one of the most difficult decisions that I have to make in this role.”
At the end of the day, however, Loew said the primary duty of the city was to ensure the safety of everybody at the site.
“The concern that I have, particularly for this neighborhood, for the community as a whole, is what is going to happen with this site if this building is going to be left in this continued open nature and without progress continuing,” Loew said.
In light of these findings, he and other city staff found there was not sufficient evidence to support the appeal and recommended the board deny it on Monday.
Work is ongoing to bring building up to code, Laurel Lane architect says
In the appeal, Smith asserted that the majority of the city’s safety concerns were unfounded — notably saying that the building was not structurally compromised — and said that required work at the site has been ongoing.
This included spending nearly $1 million over three months on needed construction and safety work, he wrote.
“We acknowledge that this work still needs to be completed but believe that there must be a more reasonable approach to ensuring safety of the tenants in the meantime besides forcing the tenants to vacate the building,” he wrote.
In the hearing Monday, architect Thom Jess of Arris Studio Architects spoke on behalf of the property owners, describing how construction was getting back on track at the Laurel Lane property after a series of “funding issues and lender issues” waylaid the project.
Those issues have since been resolved, he said.
“Actually, the notice was a big kick in the rear to get this resolved from the bank’s perspective,” Jess said. “So we have much better footing now, and we’re really moving in the right direction. Work has proceeded.”
That includes closing up one of the building’s unfinished walls, sealing other areas that have temporary material covers and completing work on the property’s fire suppression line.
He also noted that there was a plan to finish the building’s sprinkler system, with only one of the bottom floor units and several of the unfinished apartments on the south side of the building remaining to be installed.
In all, Jess said the plan is for all the work on the fire safety elements to be completed within 30 to 60 days, and all essential work to be completed within about 90 days.
Jess also reiterated the appeal’s assertion that though the building was unfinished, the property has not suffered any significant degradation from the stalled work.
He called the city’s assertions to the contrary largely conjecture.
“Many of the claims are either inaccurate or rely on conjecture to reach a conclusion that this building is dangerous and unfit for tenant occupancy,” he said. “We respectfully request that the board consider both intent and specific language of the code of health and appellant’s appeal, rescind the current order to vacate and authorize the city to renew the temporary certificates of occupancy.”
‘We are not in control,’ SLO building official says of stalled project
The architect’s rosy timeline had some members of the audience urging the board to consider allowing tenants to stay in place throughout the construction.
“We have active construction going on,” SLO City Church member Kathy Borland said during the meeting. “We have a plan. So let’s give it till July 1 and see if they’ve completed everything they’ve said and and then revisit where where we’re at.”
Loew, however, characterized the timeline as “optimistic” and said previous contact with the property owners had resulted in unfulfilled guarantees of work being completed within similar time frames.
“These are discussions that I had with the ownership group all of last year,” he said. “And in November when the temporary certificates of occupancy expired, I didn’t just say we’re done working with you — we actually sent a team of board inspectors out to survey this site and verified that it was in a state of decline.”
Loew said at the time, he was told it would be 90 days, and that work would be done by May 1. The permits on that work have since expired, he said.
“So we are hopeful as a city organization that this project will pick back up, will continue,” he said. “But ultimately, we are not the driver and we are not in control.”
Bang the Drum owner says will ‘celebrate the moments we have left’ at Laurel Lane property
What the board was in control of, however, was whether it felt there was merit to the appeal or not.
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to deny the appeal, though at least one member said he was hopeful the project would now have the push to get back on track.
“There’s a lot of moving parts here, folks, a lot of things going on, a lot of complexity,” board member Craig Smith said during discussion. “The Building Department has bent over backwards. The Fire Department has been very, very cooperative. For lack of a better word, I would really like to put the emphasis and put the discussion on essentially, how to make this work. And I think it can.”
Whether the project construction continues as planned now, Monday’s decision marked a major blow for the building’s tenants who must now vacate the site and figure out next steps.
According to city spokesperson Whitney Szentesi, the city “will now enforce the order, which could result in daily fines against the property owner per violation assessed for each unit occupied.” She said it will also continue to make staff available to tenants to help with any questions or provide support finding new locations.
“We understand that there are beloved organizations operating in that unsafe building, which is why this issue is so important,” Szentesi said.
Bang the Drum owner Noelle Dubois previously told The Tribune she planned to stay in the space until roughly May 9.
“I will say that every day that has passed without concrete information on the stability and longevity of our occupancy has made it increasingly difficult to keep the business in a position to pivot and continue operating after our May 9th deadline,” Dubois told The Tribune in an email Monday morning.
“As the writing forms on the walls, we have been appreciating each other and what this space has provided,” she continued. “It is bittersweet to hear all of the comments of love and encouragement.”
Dubois said she is now looking to the future of her beloved business.
“Whatever happens next will take some time,” she said. “We want to make sure we do it right. And that also means finding a place or a concept that lights us up so we not only have the energy to build it but we do it thoughtfully.”
She concluded: “For now, we will celebrate the moments we have left at Laurel Lane, amongst the redwoods and perpetual construction, and plan little ways we can connect with our community.”
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This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 5:57 PM.
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