DORAL, Fla. – The Doral City Council met Wednesday to discuss a new last call time for bars and clubs following last month’s deadly shooting at CityPlace Doral.
The mayor is essentially proposing new regulations on when alcohol sales and consumption would be allowed in the city.
“It’s worse to have a bad reputation as a city than it is to keep the safety of the community, because then people feel safe coming to your business,” said Doral Mayor Christi Fraga.
The proposed ordinance would change the city’s current rules on when you can serve alcohol and permitting.
It’s being dubbed the “George Castellanos Ordinance,” clearly in response to the shooting that claimed his life back on April 6.
Castellanos, who was an aspiring police officer and an FIU student, was working as a security guard at Martini Bar in CityPlace when he was shot and killed.
More than half a dozen other people were injured during the mass shooting.
The alleged gunman who got into a shootout with police was also killed.
During the meeting, businessmen and their attorneys spoke against the proposals.
The proposed ordinance would ban alcohol sales from 1:30 a.m. to 8 a.m., and venues would have to close at 2 a.m., except on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day when the cutoff would be 3 a.m. to 7 a.m.
“I think it’s about putting our residents’ safety and piece of mind first,” said Fraga.
Certain venues would also have to have safety and security plans in place, such as security cameras, off-duty police or private security, and weapons detection systems, among other things, or risk their permits being suspended.
“I don’t think we’ll get much pushback,” Fraga said. “This is a very family-oriented community. There’s very few businesses that’ll be impacted, and I think that they’ll do great. They’re going to have more benefit from having a community that says it’s safe to go and, you know, have a social life in Doral for a limited amount of time, than the bad publicity that can come from another incident.”
Another council member is proposing a similar ordinance, but with some minor tweaks.
The mayor’s new measure was passed on Wednesday, but the ordinance still must come back for another reading and potential vote at a later date.
If the measure survives all of that, it still would not go into effect until October.