Orlando passes 1 year moratorium on late night clubs

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The City of Orlando voted a second time to place a one year moratorium on after hours night clubs in the city. The ban will now be in place until November 2016, or until an ordinance is crafted to regulate them. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer admitted the ordinance stemmed from the opening of Club Nokturnal in November.

"We had not had that type of activity in our downtown, and so we wanted to say 'mmm before we allow wholesale after hours clubs, lets take a look at what processes and rules we should have in place related to them'."

That new ordinance does more than prevent new clubs from operating even if they sell no alcohol after 3 a.m. It also sets up a task force that will not only look at after hours clubs, but regular drinking establishments as well according to Mayor Dyer.

"On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, there's a lot of people in our downtown, and its a litrtle rough after probably about 2 o'clock when everybody lets out of the bars."

We asked Mayor Buddy Dyer if the new task force could revive the oft talked about idea of allowing downtown bars to serve alcohol until 3am?

"I don't know about that, and that's not necessarily part of the charge, but maybe looking at whether we can stagger when some of the bars let out?

The Mayor was just giving staggered hours as an example, one he knows won't work in practice.

"They'll just go over to the bars that are open until 2, so there's no real easy remedy for that, but the nice thing is we have a vibrant night life in downtown Orlando, and we just want to make sure it is safe for everybody."

OPD Chief John Mina and City Attorney Mayanne Downs will select the members of the task force.