- April 25, 2024
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There aren't any bottle clubs in Palm Coast, and the city is working to keep it that way.
The city held its ninth public hearing on bottle clubs — establishments where patrons bring their own alcohol and have it served back to them — at a City Council meeting March 1. And for the ninth time, not a single person came forward to oppose a proposed ban on the clubs.
The City Council voted unanimously at the March 1 meeting to ban the clubs, and the process is almost over: There will be one more City Council vote on the proposed ban, on March 15.
The city moved swiftly this past fall to enact enact a moratorium on issuing permits for bottle clubs while it studied the issue after owners a of a former Volusia County-based club proposed opening a bottle club in City Marketplace.
About a dozen alarmed local residents and business owners emailed the city, worried that the clubs, which have a reputation for being associated with crime, would be bad for the area.
The Flagler County Sherifff's Office looked into bottle clubs, and repeatedly told city staff at public meetings that just one Volusia County bottle club had 453 emergency calls — with 44 fights and two associated homicides — over a 33-month period; and a cluster of three bottle clubs in Hillsborough County had 130 emergency calls — including 12 cases of battery and four shootings, with one fatality — in one year.
After some bottle clubs in Volusia County closed, Sheriff's Office Palm Coast Precinct Cmdr. Mark Carman told the council at the March 1 meeting, "these deputies and the patrolmen are relieved that they don't have to deal with this anymore. ... They said, 'Urge your council, you do not want this type of business in the city of Palm Coast.'"
The city's planning staff worked to craft an ordinance that defines bottle clubs in a way that would not include civic organizations and other clubs that occasionally have patrons bring alcohol.
The ordinance would add bottle clubs to a list of banned land uses that includes hog farming, puppy mills and asphalt plants.
The city of Flagler Beach and the city of Ormond Beach already ban bottle clubs.
