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Just as Hamilton’s waterfront district appears to be taking off a possible lawsuit against the city may be dragging it down.
As Scot Urquhart tells us tonight Sarcoa, a popular destination in a key waterfront property, is gearing up to battle the city over the right to play music on its outdoor patio.
Sarcoa, an upscale lounge and entertainment facility, where well-heeled young clients commonly spend $1000-3000 a night for a private booth on the patio.
Sam Destro and his business partner opened the business nearly four years ago when almost no one wanted to invest in Hamilton’s waterfront.
Now, they say City Hall bungling is killing their business:
“What I cannot and will not accept, is failure as a result of bureaucratic conflict.”
The problem, is outdoor live entertainment that’s generated noise complaints not only from the adjoining waterfront neighbourhood, but from as far away as Burlington.
Destro says he’s sympathetic, but “we have a right under our agreement with the Hamilton Waterfront Trust to provide entertainment inside and outside, including DJ’s and bands.”
“The noise by-law and zoning by-law apply to all establishments within the City of Hamilton. There are no exemptions in place for Sarcoa.”says James Buffet, who works for the Municipal Law Enforcement.
The City has ordered Sarcoa to shut the patio music down and that hurts:
“If we lose this next month of business and we get back into our slow season; it’s going to be devastating for us.” says Destro.
The other side of this story lies just a short walk up the hill from Sarcoa.
“When people are drunk and kind of ignorant and making all kinds of noise and hanging out in your yard and stuff like that, then yeah, it became a big issue.” says Carmen Cooper, who lives in the area.
Here, in a north end neighbourhood undergoing an astounding revival a significant group of residents, led by Hamilton lawyer Herman Turkstra, oppose the commercialization of the waterfront.
“In a lot of ways it feels like once again, that money and business is going to be the driving motivation for what makes change happen here.”
Turkstra puts it another way. In his view the current state of the waterfront is an “absolutely fabulous resource for the entire city as it is.”
On the other hand Sam Destro says killing Sarcoa is simply crazy:
“What kind of signal are we sending to potential investors, if we don’t make this work?”
Turkstra however, is ready to oppose any further commercialization on the city’s newly acquired waterfront land.
” If that’s what the agenda is , ( he says ) there’s going to be a horrendous battle.”
And that battle is about to begin with a lawsuit against the city.
” I don’t want to shut this down. I do not want to shut this down, so that’s why we’re going to the courts now, to seek whatever remedies we can.”
No formal suit, or statement of claim against the city has yet been filed by Sarcoa. At the moment, it’s only a threat.
In June 2014 the Waterfront Trust came to City Hall to ask the committee of adjustment for a specific exemption that would allow Sarcoa to play outdoor music.
They saw the opposition here at City Hall, and withdrew their request.
