{"id":600857,"date":"2026-02-19T10:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/600857\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:54:16","slug":"task-force-proposes-new-permitting-process-after-dallas-bars-and-restaurants-were-cited-for-music-violations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/600857\/","title":{"rendered":"Task force proposes new permitting process after Dallas bars and restaurants were cited for music violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A special city task force unveiled a proposed overhaul to Dallas\u2019s permitting process for bars, clubs, and restaurants after several popular establishments were cited for violating city code.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Task force chair Terry Lowery said the hope is to \u201cbring code into the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The task force was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfaa.com\/article\/entertainment\/music\/dallas-launches-task-force-to-examine-code-changes-after-bars-cited-over-noise\/287-5affafbe-2112-4a14-b94c-65b2099c9523\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:formed last fall;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">formed last fall<\/a>, after enhanced code compliance efforts aimed at combating crime resulted in restaurants in Bishop Arts and Deep Ellum receiving ticket-like citations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The businesses were accused of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfaa.com\/article\/news\/local\/revelers-hall-music-fees-halted-amid-dallas-code-restrictions\/287-d5449aff-251d-46c1-b1c5-4449bf1efae2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:violating a never-before-enforced city code;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">violating a never-before-enforced city code<\/a> prohibiting anyone licensed to operate as a restaurant from charging a cover fee for live music. At the time, Dallas city council member Chad West said the city was using a sledgehammer for what really called for a scalpel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In October, he created a 14-member task force that was charged with finding solutions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The task force unveiled its proposal to the public on Wednesday night at a meeting where they got a lot of feedback from stakeholders in the industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The task force suggests that the city implement a new tiered permitting system. They would be issued based on capacity, hours of operation and venue category.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A dance club operating until the early hours of the morning would face different scrutiny than live piano music in a restaurant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIf you\u2019re a good operator, you can serve food and charge for musicians. If you\u2019re a bad operator, your permit can be denied,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt\u2019s a way to hold people more accountable but also opens the door for more people to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Several venue owners were hoping for more clarity on whether it would add or take away a layer of regulation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThere\u2019s a gray area in Deep Ellum on whether you\u2019re a restaurant, music venue, club,\u201d said Jeff Biehler, owner of Dusty\u2019s on Elm Street. \u201cObviously, there are a lot of questions about what we can and can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI don\u2019t think this meeting necessarily answered those questions, but it did give us guidance on where they\u2019re moving to try to answer those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The task force is operating in a tight time frame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They will tweak their proposal based on the feedback they received from stakeholders and will present their findings to a Dallas City Council committee in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A special city task force unveiled a proposed overhaul to Dallas\u2019s permitting process for bars, clubs, and restaurants&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":600858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,177342,258764,1596,14840,63992,258765,258763,11455,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-600857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-chad-west","10":"tag-city-code","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-city-council","13":"tag-music-venue","14":"tag-permitting-process","15":"tag-restaurants-in-bishop-arts","16":"tag-task-force","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116096930240670503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}