Orlando City Council likely to extend moratorium on new nightclubs downtown

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Photo by Jim Leatherman

It's likely that no new nightclubs will be coming to downtown Orlando for at least another six months.

Initially, city leaders agreed to a six-month moratorium, but voted unanimously to extend that last August, ahead of its expiration the following month. If approved through a second vote at their next regularly scheduled Council meeting, the moratorium — meant to discourage a nightly influx of rowdy party-goers and potential criminal activity — will be extended for a second time, set to expire on Sept. 20, 2024.

The first vote on extending the moratorium Monday occurred without any discussion by city commissioners on the issue, nor did anyone sign up to provide public comment.

According to city documents, the moratorium on nightclubs is meant to support the city’s mission of encouraging more daytime activity in the downtown Orlando area — a mission city staff believe could be negatively impacted by more nightclubs. Orlando City Council, the extension ordinance reads, “needs additional time to develop regulations to address the negative secondary impacts of nightclubs in order to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare.”

The nightclub moratorium ordinance — spurred by a July 2022 shooting downtown that injured seven people — was approved last year in conjunction with another, more controversial ordinance that placed new restrictions on the sale of alcohol after midnight. That ordinance requires existing club owners in the Downtown Entertainment Area to get a special permit to sell alcohol after midnight. It also established other security requirements, based on capacity, for late-night businesses that sell alcohol.

City staff did not predict any direct economic impact from the nightclub moratorium extension, which specifically applies to “the acceptance, processing and consideration of applications for development orders, development permits, building permits and zoning approvals for any new (which includes change of use and substantial improvement) nightclub use within the Downtown Orlando Community Redevelopment Area.”

According to city spokesperson Cassandra Bell, city commissioners are expected to receive additional recommendations for changes to city rules pertaining to nightclub regulation in the future, ahead of the proposed moratorium expiration date in September. This could include a change to land development codes. Bell explained that a state law (SB 250) passed last year, effective July 1, 2023, had restricted the city's ability to change its land development codes, among other things, for about six months.

Now, Bell says city staff “are working diligently to prepare and finalize recommendations to better support nightclubs and to better manage development and zoning implications related to them.”

A second vote on the nightclub moratorium extension, and its adoption, is expected to take place at the council's next regularly scheduled meeting on March 11.

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