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Day 19, CoLab and legal shenanigans
Some words on the recent drama and controversy surrounding CoLab...
I will open by saying that I am an avid supporter of the Colaboratory. This may make me biased or partial, but at least most of the things that I present below as facts are actually so. There are a lot of opinions on either side of the issues that are up in the air right now, but people who make things up to support their position detract from their overall credibility, so I tend to avoid doing that. I have invested perhaps a hundred hours of my time into buildout and setup for events at CoLab, ranging from building walls to laying bricks to clearing gravel.
CoLab is a multi-purpose warehouse venue. It provides residential space to a number of members of the local burner community, including some members of the board of directors for Alchemy. Another section of the building houses artist studios and workspaces, desks and crafting tables, and a moderately equipped woodworking shop, access to which is controlled by monthly membership fees from artists who wish to have temporary or permanent space to work on their pieces. The third section, which provokes the most controversy, is the event space. This space makes up about half of the building and is segmented into one large room and 5 smaller rooms, plus two large outdoor porches. The event space is used for many things, including "rave"-like dance parties, circus art performances and classes, roller skating on at least one occasion, very large art project assembly, and pretty much whatever else the community wants to approach the proprietors about using for.
Recently a few late-night parties with loud music have attracted the attention of the police, occasionally through the action of our neighbors in the Adair Park community and occasionally through the malicious interference of competing venue management. On one occasion the proprietor of CoLab was arrested but the continuation of the party was not impacted. More recently a similar incident resulted in the party being shut down around 4AM (instead of the advertised 6 or 8AM). While noise complaints draw the attention of the police, their actual interference is more often the result of small fire code violations (a single unlit exit sign in the whole building), permit law violations (see below), or whatever the cops can think of when they don't like the way the crowd looks or acts.
The single legal issue that I want to bring to light is the "Adult Dance Hall" permit law in Atlanta. Since my coverage of this will be broad, I am foregoing my usual paragraph format in favor of nested lists (of paragraphs):
Some neighbors complain about the noise, despite our noise output being well under the legal limits. When visited by neighbors with noise complaints we have turned the music down for them. Multiple other neighbors who participate in social news sites (such as the comment thread for this story) have repeated misinformation regarding our events and their experiences with us. Some of them blame us for loud music that comes from other parties (at houses in their neighborhood) or from cars. Some of them claim that our music is loud enough to rattle their walls and windows hundreds of feet off our property, when we are putting out less than 70dB at our property line. A few of them even complain about the attire of people who attend the parties, if that gives you any idea the sort of people we are dealing with.
It makes me sad when a few people who make unreasonable demands on their neighbors can ruin the enjoyment of thousands of other people. I know CoLab will prevail, as long as the community stands strong and the people in charge are willing to endure the discomfort required of them for our benefit.
Anyone who has read this far is welcome to join us for a cook-out tomorrow night, or most other Friday nights, where we hang out and chat, possibly spin some hula-hoops or poi, and generally have a good time of a more sedate nature than the parties that so rile a very few of our neighbors.
I will open by saying that I am an avid supporter of the Colaboratory. This may make me biased or partial, but at least most of the things that I present below as facts are actually so. There are a lot of opinions on either side of the issues that are up in the air right now, but people who make things up to support their position detract from their overall credibility, so I tend to avoid doing that. I have invested perhaps a hundred hours of my time into buildout and setup for events at CoLab, ranging from building walls to laying bricks to clearing gravel.
CoLab is a multi-purpose warehouse venue. It provides residential space to a number of members of the local burner community, including some members of the board of directors for Alchemy. Another section of the building houses artist studios and workspaces, desks and crafting tables, and a moderately equipped woodworking shop, access to which is controlled by monthly membership fees from artists who wish to have temporary or permanent space to work on their pieces. The third section, which provokes the most controversy, is the event space. This space makes up about half of the building and is segmented into one large room and 5 smaller rooms, plus two large outdoor porches. The event space is used for many things, including "rave"-like dance parties, circus art performances and classes, roller skating on at least one occasion, very large art project assembly, and pretty much whatever else the community wants to approach the proprietors about using for.
Recently a few late-night parties with loud music have attracted the attention of the police, occasionally through the action of our neighbors in the Adair Park community and occasionally through the malicious interference of competing venue management. On one occasion the proprietor of CoLab was arrested but the continuation of the party was not impacted. More recently a similar incident resulted in the party being shut down around 4AM (instead of the advertised 6 or 8AM). While noise complaints draw the attention of the police, their actual interference is more often the result of small fire code violations (a single unlit exit sign in the whole building), permit law violations (see below), or whatever the cops can think of when they don't like the way the crowd looks or acts.
The single legal issue that I want to bring to light is the "Adult Dance Hall" permit law in Atlanta. Since my coverage of this will be broad, I am foregoing my usual paragraph format in favor of nested lists (of paragraphs):
- In theory, this law governs Adult Dance Halls.
- No one in the city government knows how to get this permit, or what department is responsible for issuing them.
- Any attempts to pursue such a permit will encounter endless redirection or dead ends.
- Feel free to try, any unexpected progress that you make would be of great value to us.
- The enforcement of the law regarding the permit is exceptionally selective, as the only previous cases I can find where this law was enforced were against other "warehouse parties".
- The law is unconstitutional and contrary to common practice on multiple levels. To be clear, we are discussing a place where adults gather to dance (in the context of the creation of the law, such events as church dances or ballroom dance events), not a strip club or gentleman's club.
- Every such place requires this permit, which includes churches, high schools, community centers, dance halls, night clubs, etc. None of them have it, as far as we have been able to discern.
- The law segregates "Adult Dance Hall" from "Teen Dance Hall". It is illegal for 17-year-old people to dance at the same event and in the same place as 18-year-old people. Prom, anyone?
- The law requires that premises with such a permit give up their freedom from unreasonable search, permitting law enforcement and permitting officials to come onto the property at any time.
- An Adult Dance Hall cannot coexist with an establishment that allows alcohol. Even if they had the permits, which they don't, every night club in town would still be violating this law.
- Plenty of other silly requirements, such as clean premises, pre-approved sign-offs by all sorts of inspection officials, onerous requirements for independent individuals who can 'vouch for' the event in question, etc
- Fortunately, there is an exception to the entire permit requirement for various classes of businesses, including charitable organizations and federally recognized non-profits. Getting 501(c)(3) status for CoLab as part of their artistic endeavors should neatly eliminate this particular concern.
Some neighbors complain about the noise, despite our noise output being well under the legal limits. When visited by neighbors with noise complaints we have turned the music down for them. Multiple other neighbors who participate in social news sites (such as the comment thread for this story) have repeated misinformation regarding our events and their experiences with us. Some of them blame us for loud music that comes from other parties (at houses in their neighborhood) or from cars. Some of them claim that our music is loud enough to rattle their walls and windows hundreds of feet off our property, when we are putting out less than 70dB at our property line. A few of them even complain about the attire of people who attend the parties, if that gives you any idea the sort of people we are dealing with.
It makes me sad when a few people who make unreasonable demands on their neighbors can ruin the enjoyment of thousands of other people. I know CoLab will prevail, as long as the community stands strong and the people in charge are willing to endure the discomfort required of them for our benefit.
Anyone who has read this far is welcome to join us for a cook-out tomorrow night, or most other Friday nights, where we hang out and chat, possibly spin some hula-hoops or poi, and generally have a good time of a more sedate nature than the parties that so rile a very few of our neighbors.
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I've pretty much learned that ANYTHING is illegal in ATlanta, if someone looks hard enough.
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It's not unbearably long, but it gets kinda dense in a few spots. Most of the highlights are in relatively plain language.
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So, do you have any idea who keeps up with that, and what I would need to bribe them with to keep the event calendar up to date? :)
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Just to clarify...
In regards to #3 and specifically bullet 1, churches, high schools, and community centers are all likely to be exempt under the same list of exemptions that you noted in #4.
Regarding bullet 2, I suspect that a multi-age range dance would not be "illegal" so much as not covered by this section of law. If your parties are open to both teens and adults then I would suggest that you are not an "adult dance hall" and therefore this law should not apply to you and that this would be a reasonable legal defense. However, there may be other sections of law which do apply to you and further research would definitely be necessary. Also, Article IX Division 2 should be read in full as it is referenced more than once within the sections you linked.
Regarding bullet 3, freedoms can be voluntarily voided at any time. By defining yourselves as an "Adult Dance Hall" you voluntarily void that freedom. Welcome to the "Miranda's" of this particular law.
Regarding bullet 4, I would suggest that no night club serving alcohol would refer to themselves as an "Adult Dance Hall" specifically because they are not operating a "dance" nor is their age range 18+, likely it is 21+ which is more restrictive than the definition for "adult dance hall". Theoretically if this is the legal argument used you could avoid the law by having an age requirement of 19+ although I wouldn't use this argument personally.
Regarding bullet 5, have you ever tried to build a house? Talk about onerous.
Now, for the important disclaimer. This is not in any way legal advice nor should it be taken as such. I am not legally qualified to practice law nor provide legal advice in any capacity and highly recommend that you, or more specifically CoLab consult a qualified legal professional on the matter.
Peter
Re: Just to clarify...
The law is explicit that "Adult and teen dances cannot, however, be conducted at the same time in the same place."[1].
Good point, re Miranda.
You do not define your own "Adult Dance Hall" status. If the city says you are hosting adult dances[1] then you are an Adult Dance Hall by definition and need a permit.
Building a house doesn't require nearly the level of commitment and support that getting and keeping this permit would, if it was possible at all.
[1] Almost all of this hinges on what the city defines as a "dance". The law does not define that term, so it's left up to the cop and the judge to decide. I do not see how what CoLab does could possibly be a "dance" when the same sorts of events at other venues are not a "dance".