How old do you have to be to get into bars in PCB?

PANAMA CITY — Superclub owners on Panama City Beach are livid about a proposal city officials are considering to ban people under 21 from going into their establishments, saying the city cannot justify the move by citing the latest shooting at a Spring Break house party.

They also said the restriction, if adopted by the Beach Council, could make the problem of underage drinking and crime even worse. 

Club La Vela and Spinnaker owners said their staff meticulously monitors underage drinking and that the new age requirement would significantly diminish the value of their liquor licenses and businesses.

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Saying they needed more information, the Panama City Beach City Council on Tuesday afternoon temporarily tabled a vote on an emergency motion the County Commission approved earlier in the day to ban people under 21 from entering bars and nightclubs, with the exception being military personnel with IDs.

Beach attorney Amy Myers said Friday that attorneys will be crafting a proposed ordinance that addresses the age requirement that could be introduced at the second Beach Council meeting in April.

“We are working on it, coming up with a couple of categories not tied to a specific license but more tied to the nature of establishment,” she said.

Spinnaker owner Sparky Sparkman said he saw no nexus between the shooting at a house party on the Beach last Saturday, in which seven people were shot, and the new age restriction on clubs.

“It would certainly stomp the life out of Spring Break, for sure,” he said.

Club La Vela owner Patrick Pfeffer, who is also an attorney, said the County Commission’s action to pass the emergency ordinance was illegal “because they failed to show, through the introduction of evidence, that the ordinances passed remedy the problem for which the emergency meeting was called.”

He said his club’s staff has had extensive training to stop underage drinking and strictly enforces it. “We have dozens of security that look out for underage drinking,” he said. “It doesn’t happen.”

Pfeffer said barring 18- to 20-year olds from entering the clubs simply will increase underage drinking on the beach, in the streets, in “pop-up” clubs and private parties, which don’t have supervision.

He makes his case in letters to the Beach Council, noting the superclubs have been actively working on solutions, as requested by Councilman Keith Curry, at addressing the crowds behind the establishments.

“La Vela and Spinnaker are in the process of devising a comprehensive plan to do their part in making it inconvenient, if not impossible, for our uninvited guests to congregate and engage in uncondoned activities,” Pfeffer wrote the council. “Some of the measures being discussed include closing the beach access on Club La Vela’s property, which is currently being used by the public to enter upon our private beaches unchecked. This will force everybody who wishes to enter the beach through the Club La Vela and Spinnaker main entrances. There, people will be asked for IDs and be subject to search to eliminate the introduction of weapons and drugs, and be marked over or under 21 for easy age identification. This, we believe, will be a strong step into taking control of our beaches.”

Last call: Pfeffer added that moving the bars’ last call for alcohol from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. has spawned the proliferation of unsupervised and unregulated house parties.

“There, underage drinking, drug use and illicit sexual activity can take place with impunity, and the introduction of weapons into the mix go unchecked,” he writes. “Furthermore, there is an increased chance that people may suffer from overindulgence in alcohol or a drug overdose since it is less likely that such activity is discouraged or that an ambulance is called. This directly endangers the participants and creates an unsafe environment.”

The proposal was debated at a joint meeting of the County Commission and Beach Council on Thursday.

City Councilman John Reichard said he has concerns about barring 18- to 20-year-olds from the clubs, which he said are secure and not about to serve an underage person a drink out of concern of losing their liquor license.

“My concern is when we turn them out on the street, we’ve got a brand new law enforcement problem, because where are they going to go?” Reichard said.

He added that he does agree the age restriction needs to be further studied in conjunction with law enforcement to “see what is practical, and are we creating something perhaps as bad, maybe worse, or not.”

But County Commission Chairman Guy Tunnell said it is very difficult to prevent someone who is underage from drinking when they come into the clubs with someone who can legally buy a drink.

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“Having them in these bars, it is very hard to restrict their access to alcohol and other things in that premises,” Tunnell said.

Commissioner Mike Thomas said it should take all of 15 minutes to do the research necessary to adopt the age restriction.

“Push up the rules that Fort Lauderdale has,” he said. “They’ve already done it. They’ve defined: What is a bar? What is a restaurant? If three or four of us take somebody into the bar with us who is 18 and they are sitting next to me, they are probably drinking out of my drink.”

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