The owners of a new establishment in Fairfax call it a ballroom, but a pending special-use permit has already brought them two violations, with another one on the way.
The Rain Lounge and Ballroom is both a restaurant and a nightclub, equipped with a DJ booth and a dance floor. Like any restaurant that offers dancing and entertainment within city limits, owners must obtain a City Council-approved special-use permit, said Michelle Coleman, the city’s director of zoning administration. But since Rain opened its doors to packed crowds earlier this year, the pending permit hasn’t stopped patrons from dancing. And the owners haven’t stopped them.
"They’re operating without a dance and entertainment permit and they’ve been doing it for several months," said Mayor Robert Lederer.
The special-use permit public hearing was postponed at the last City Council meeting so the city could work with Rain’s six owners on the dancing issues, but also on the issue of the vandalism and fighting that seems to have increased in the downtown area since Rain opened its doors.
"These are very serious concerns about all of those issues," said Lederer.
Coleman’s office has issued Rain two civil penalty violations totaling $700, and a third is forthcoming, she said. The first violation for any civil penalty is $200, and each additional violation is a $500 fine, said Monty Lowe, zoning administrator. The city can issue a violation every 10 days, he said, but inspectors must personally see the violation happening before they can issue a citation.
"There have been some issues brought to my attention that give me reason to be concerned," said Councilmember Scott Silverthorne.
The downtown area also experienced an increase in vandalism and disorderly conduct around the same time Rain opened, said Capt. Bill Klugh of the City of Fairfax Police. That seems to have leveled off recently, though, he said.
"We’re obviously seeing a lot of people downtown," said Klugh.
Klugh said the police department does not have arrest statistics detailing who came from which downtown establishment, so they have no way to tell if the additional incidents were from Rain’s customers or any of the other downtown restaurants and bars. The police department asked the city for additional funding to hire new police officers to keep up with the increase in downtown activity, but the city failed to approve the funds.
The weekend of Friday, April 27, police officers worked overtime to test the success of some added downtown police presence. There weren’t any extra arrests, said Klugh, and the department isn’t sure it will continue the overtime details with any frequency.
"We will do them so people understand that certain behaviors aren’t permitted," said Klugh.
Rain’s owners did make some adjustments to their security staff since their first couple of weekends in business, said Klugh. "They have a large security staff," he said. The application for the dance and entertainment permit was postponed because of a "variety of reasons," said Lederer.
"The application was not deferred because it’s a cakewalk," said Lederer. "The application was deferred so the city and the applicant could sit down and try and address some of the serious community concerns related to the use of that business."
Two messages left for both Fito Garcia and John Croce, two of Rain’s owners, were not returned by the time the Connection when to press.