OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Denver Finance and Business Committee Meeting – June 23, 2026

Council Committees — Tuesday, June 23, 2026
BodyDenver, Colorado
SessionCouncil Committees
DateTuesday, June 23, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:33:19
Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

That was just something that drove home the need to really develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent and mitigate some safety issues that we see in this spaces.

0:08

And this license is just one of those, you know, pieces of the strategy, but it's one that we wanted to start with that we think is pretty important.

0:19

So to address some of the safety issues, something else that we really looked at is how safety can contribute to creating that thriving nightlife scene and nightlife economy.

0:29

And so, you know, we really came at this with the approach that safety measures are in the best interest of all that are involved, not just the patrons, but the businesses as well, the surrounding neighborhood and the community of those businesses.

0:42

We know that a lot of these businesses are already using some of these best practices around safety.

0:48

So what this ordinance does is it brings all of those entertainment businesses up to basically a minimum level of safety requirements in order for those businesses to be able to operate, and then it gives us just more of a preventative approach rather than the reactive stance that we have right now.

1:08

So just to summarize before Abby gets into some of the more details of the proposal, just to summarize some of our objectives, we really have these complementary goals around increasing safety while also decreasing regulations, and that we really want to use those two objectives to continue to create a nightlife and entertainment scene that is all safe, vibrant, but still thriving as well.

1:35

Alright, so I'm gonna go in over some of the basics of one of those objectives, which is how are we reducing over-regulation of entertainment in Denver.

1:46

There's three key improvements that I want to highlight that are in the ordinance.

1:50

The first and the biggest is that we'd like to streamline the license categories and types to make it much simpler for businesses to understand what license they actually need to offer the entertainment that they want to offer.

2:03

Complementary to that, we'd like to simplify our license fees for these licenses.

2:08

And then, you know, the third is that we'd like to shift to a discretionary hearing model that's really meant to balance the need for neighborhood input on these types of licenses with the need for government efficiency and fiscal responsibility.

2:24

So this is what our current licensing framework is today.

2:28

For those who aren't familiar, the Denver Revised Municipal Code lays out four different license categories with 14 different license types.

2:37

We have the cabaret licenses, which are issued to businesses that also have a liquor license and want to offer some type of entertainment.

2:44

We have seven types of cabaret licenses.

2:46

We also have amusement licenses, dance halls, and social rooms.

2:51

All of these have they allow for fairly similar activities in terms of entertainment and they have fairly similar requirements.

2:59

And so we have all these different license types that aren't really distinguished from each other that significantly.

3:05

And so that's part of what we are trying to change and what we're trying to simplify.

3:08

So for some context, we have 445 cabaret licenses active currently.

3:14

We have 55 permanent amusement licenses, just one social room license, and no dance hall licenses from the 1920s.

3:24

So let's take a look at what we are proposing to replace this with.

3:30

We instead of 14 different license types, we're proposing just three.

3:35

As we worked through the types of entertainment that we currently license, we realized that we were really over-regulating fun generally and entertainment generally, and so we wanted to really narrow in on the places where the community impact is the greatest.

3:49

And so we heard from neighbors that the existing license framework wasn't working to address their concerns about noise and about patron behavior in and around these establishments.

3:59

We heard from our safety partners that this license isn't really working, these licenses aren't really working to prevent certain safety issues, and we heard from businesses themselves that the existing framework is confusing, it's uh it creates barriers for businesses that are just trying to offer some entertainment for patrons and bring in more business.

4:17

So, as a result, we're proposing to shift our focus in the code from entertainment broadly to just live entertainment and adult entertainment.

4:28

The definitions in the bill really cover the core activities that the new framework will cover.

4:34

So, live entertainment includes live music, live performances, including performances by a DJ or a dance floor.

4:44

Live entertainment does not include some specific things that are listed in the bill.

4:48

It doesn't include adult entertainment, which has its own definition.

4:52

Adult entertainment includes performances by adult entertainers.

4:57

Live entertainment doesn't include ambient or background music, sports on TVs or radios, recreational activities, so things like lawn games, darts, billiards, and then MC'd audience games like trivia or bingo.

5:14

So we have three types of licenses that we're proposing.

5:18

First is the limited entertainment license.

5:20

This is for a business that offers live entertainment and does so before or up until midnight, and then can offer entertainment up until 2 a.m.

5:29

up to 12 times per year.

5:31

So on an intermittent basis, they can go past midnight to 2 a.m.

5:35

so long as they provide notice to the neighborhood and provide notice to us 72 hours in advance that they're planning to do that.

5:41

And that's really meant to address special occasions, holiday weekends, things like that.

5:48

But generally these businesses are offering entertainment before midnight.

5:59

And those businesses can offer live entertainment up until 4 a.m.

6:03

They don't have to offer entertainment until 4 a.m., but they do have that option with this license because it is subject to enhanced safety requirements as well.

6:13

And then finally, the adult entertainment license is for any business offering adult entertainment.

6:19

They can offer adult entertainment until 4 a.m.

6:21

as well, and are subject to enhanced safety requirements.

6:27

So what does that mean for all the businesses that are offering other types of entertainment aside from live entertainment?

6:34

Under our proposed framework, we expect that many businesses that currently need an amusement or a cabaret license to offer certain types of low-impact entertainment will no longer need an entertainment license at all.

6:46

So that they will still need their liquor license, their food license, whatever other activities they're doing, but they wouldn't need a specific license to offer entertainment.

6:55

So that would include things like trivia at a brewery, restaurants that have ambient background music, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and then events that go through a permitting process through the city already, would not have to go through another duplicative permitting process with us.

7:25

And it reduces some of the confusion and some of the red tape for our businesses that just want to offer a place for Denverites to have fun and bring in more patrons to their business.

7:37

So the second improvement to reduce overregulation is to simplify our fee structure.

7:43

Currently, our fees for cabarets and amusements are in four different code sections and include application and license fees, as you can see in this complex chart.

7:53

These are all the fees that are in place in the current framework.

7:56

I won't read through all of them because that would take a while, and also because this is what we're proposing instead.

8:03

So pretty significantly simplified.

8:06

Instead of four different code sections with 30 different line items, we'll just have application and license fees for each of the categories as well as the cost of the underage patrons endorsement, which Molly will talk about shortly.

8:20

And then we've included standard license transaction fees like transfers of ownership and modifications of premises, also in the bill.

8:29

And just as a note, the fees in this table do align with a recent fee study and are meant to just cover the cost of administering the license.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Cannabis Regulation███████████████████████23%
Public Safety██████████████████18%
Homelessness█████████████13%
Legislative Affairs███████████11%
Economic Development███████████11%
Fiscal Sustainability██████████10%
Public Engagement█████5%
Worker Protections███3%
Transportation Safety██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Denver Finance and Business Committee Meeting – June 23, 2026

The Finance and Business Committee of the Denver City Council met on June 23, 2026 at 10:30 AM (local time) to consider two action items and five consent items. The committee voted to advance an ordinance modernizing Denver's entertainment licensing code (26-0921) and a resolution reallocating ARPA funds for family homelessness shelters (26-0926) to the full council for final approval. All consent items were approved.

Consent Calendar

  • Approved Purchase Order 26-0913 with Kaiser Premier, LLC for $523,901 for one Kenworth T480 Urban X Vacuum Truck for the Wastewater Division (citywide).
  • Approved contract 26-0914 with Novus Construction LLC for $1,000,000 for on-call general contractor services at All in Mile High sites.
  • Approved contract 26-0915 with Catamount Constructors, Inc. for $1,000,000 for on-call general contractor services at All in Mile High sites.
  • Approved lease amendment 26-0924 with CA New Plan Villa Monaco, L.P. adding $1,119,023.08 (new total $2,293,823) and extending the term to December 31, 2030 for the DMV and business license bureau at 2223 South Monaco Parkway.
  • Approved Land Acquisition Ordinance 26-0925 for the Smith and Sandown over Quebec Bridge Project, authorizing acquisition via negotiated purchase or condemnation of property interests.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Donald Coo (LoDo Neighborhood Association board member) expressed support for the entertainment license modernization, but urged the committee to ensure mandatory hearings in high-density areas to maintain balanced relationships between businesses and neighborhoods.
  • Devin Dewey (Donster Rights founding director, dancer) took a neutral position but requested that the ordinance require a warrant, subpoena, or court order before law enforcement can access records from adult entertainment businesses, citing privacy concerns for sex workers.
  • Regas Christowe (Denver business owner for 40 years) opposed the changes, arguing that the proposed framework gives too much discretionary power to the licensing director and that the public comment period was insufficient given the complexity.
  • Rebecca Green (MADD Colorado executive director) opposed the provision allowing nightlife businesses to operate until 4 a.m., stating that the city has not provided data on late-night DUI patterns or crash statistics, and that research from eight countries shows extending bar hours increases alcohol-related harms. She requested a traffic safety analysis and finalized security requirements before the ordinance takes effect.
  • Gabe Evans (nightlife industry worker) expressed concern that extending hours to 4 a.m. without also extending alcohol service creates an unsustainable business model, as alcohol sales are the primary revenue offsetting increased late-night costs.
  • Adam Stappen (hospitality attorney) expressed cautious support, noting existing laws already address bad actors, but warned that the ordinance contains vague and ambiguous terms that could harm compliant businesses. He suggested a location-based approach rather than broad changes.
  • Nico Christelle (would-be venue operator) opposed the ordinance, arguing it creates undefined duties (e.g., requiring businesses to disperse individuals within 25 feet of doors on public sidewalks) and introduces uncertainty around annual renewals and rulemaking standards, which could push demand into the unregulated market.

Discussion Items

Item 26-0921 – Entertainment Licensing Modernization: Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection staff (Molly Duplechian, Erica Rogers, Abbey Soisson) presented the ordinance. Key components include:

  • Reducing the current 14 license types (cabaret, amusement, dance hall, social room) to three: Limited Entertainment (live entertainment ending by midnight, with up to 12 late-night events per year), Nightlife Entertainment (live entertainment until 4 a.m. with enhanced safety requirements), and Adult Entertainment (adult entertainment until 4 a.m. with enhanced safety). Low-impact entertainment (trivia, background music, pool) would no longer require a license.
  • Simplifying fee structures from 30 line items across four code sections to a simplified schedule; the nightlife license fee is set at $1,500, consistent with current fees for comparable licenses.
  • Moving from mandatory to discretionary hearings for new licenses. Staff noted that in 2025, all 32 cabaret hearings were uncontested; in 2026, 19 hearings were held with only one opposed. The city provided nearly $200,000 in mini grants since 2023 to reimburse hearing-related legal costs.
  • Enhanced safety requirements for nightlife and adult entertainment businesses: reasonable efforts to prevent disorderly conduct within 25 feet of entrances, security plans (to be developed via rulemaking), weapons prohibition (with exemptions for licensed armed security and law enforcement), manager background checks, and a single point of contact for law enforcement.
  • Transition provisions: existing licensees may continue under their current license until expiration. Applications from existing licensees will be treated as renewals. Conditions from current licenses will transfer.
  • Outreach began in November 2025; three drafts published; multiple stakeholder sessions held. The effective date is April 1, 2027.
  • Council members discussed rulemaking transparency (Council President Sandoval), records access for adult entertainment (Councilwoman Romero Campbell), and the 25-foot dispersal requirement. Staff indicated that rulemaking will involve stakeholder work groups and public hearings, and they are open to amendments on records privacy. An amendment to require community support from neighborhood residents was noted.

Item 26-0926 – ARPA Fund Reallocation for Family Homelessness: Cole Chandler (HOST executive director) and Justin Sykes (Budget Management Office director) presented a request to transfer approximately $1 million from ARPA operating funds to the ARPA capital fund for capital improvements to family shelter. Background:

  • Denver received $308 million in ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. As of June 2026, $298 million has been spent. The remaining ~$11 million must be spent by December 31, 2026, or returned to the federal government.
  • The city set three goals in March 2026: no child sleeping outside, reduce family shelter waitlist from 350 to under 100 families, and reduce family homelessness by 20%.
  • So far, $3.4 million in increased supports have been identified, including $600,000 for 30 non-congregate shelter units with Denver Rescue Mission, plus the $1 million capital request today. An RFP for family shelter services ($1.8 million budget) has been opened.
  • The reallocation would free up capital improvement program (CIP) dollars that do not have the December 31, 2026 deadline, allowing site selection and community engagement this summer, with service contracts to follow in the fall. No existing ARPA projects are being defunded; the proposal repurposes anticipated underspend.
  • Additionally, the ordinance would allocate ARPA interest earnings to support ARPA-related personnel and federal grant software through 2027 to ensure audit readiness.
  • Council members asked about site location (not yet identified), ongoing operational funding (Homelessness Resolution Fund has $1.8 million set aside for services), and alignment with the 2027 budget process.

Key Outcomes

  • Item 26-0921: Motion by Council President Sandoval, seconded by Council Pro-Tem Romero Campbell, to approve Council Bill 26-0921 for filing to the full council. Passed 6-0 (Hinds absent). The ordinance will be considered by the full council on July 13, 2026, with a final draft expected by July 9. Staff committed to continued stakeholder engagement and to bring forward amendments addressing records privacy and other concerns raised in public comment.
  • Item 26-0926: Motion by Council Pro-Tem Romero Campbell, seconded by Councilman Watson, to approve Council Bill 26-0926 for filing. Passed 6-0 (Hinds absent). The reallocation will allow HOST to proceed with site identification and community engagement for a new family shelter, with a goal of opening during the 2026-2027 winter shelter season.
  • Consent Items: All five consent resolutions (26-0913, 26-0914, 26-0915, 26-0924, 26-0925) were approved by consent.

Meeting Transcript

That was just something that drove home the need to really develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent and mitigate some safety issues that we see in this spaces. And this license is just one of those, you know, pieces of the strategy, but it's one that we wanted to start with that we think is pretty important. So to address some of the safety issues, something else that we really looked at is how safety can contribute to creating that thriving nightlife scene and nightlife economy. And so, you know, we really came at this with the approach that safety measures are in the best interest of all that are involved, not just the patrons, but the businesses as well, the surrounding neighborhood and the community of those businesses. We know that a lot of these businesses are already using some of these best practices around safety. So what this ordinance does is it brings all of those entertainment businesses up to basically a minimum level of safety requirements in order for those businesses to be able to operate, and then it gives us just more of a preventative approach rather than the reactive stance that we have right now. So just to summarize before Abby gets into some of the more details of the proposal, just to summarize some of our objectives, we really have these complementary goals around increasing safety while also decreasing regulations, and that we really want to use those two objectives to continue to create a nightlife and entertainment scene that is all safe, vibrant, but still thriving as well. Alright, so I'm gonna go in over some of the basics of one of those objectives, which is how are we reducing over-regulation of entertainment in Denver. There's three key improvements that I want to highlight that are in the ordinance. The first and the biggest is that we'd like to streamline the license categories and types to make it much simpler for businesses to understand what license they actually need to offer the entertainment that they want to offer. Complementary to that, we'd like to simplify our license fees for these licenses. And then, you know, the third is that we'd like to shift to a discretionary hearing model that's really meant to balance the need for neighborhood input on these types of licenses with the need for government efficiency and fiscal responsibility. So this is what our current licensing framework is today. For those who aren't familiar, the Denver Revised Municipal Code lays out four different license categories with 14 different license types. We have the cabaret licenses, which are issued to businesses that also have a liquor license and want to offer some type of entertainment. We have seven types of cabaret licenses. We also have amusement licenses, dance halls, and social rooms. All of these have they allow for fairly similar activities in terms of entertainment and they have fairly similar requirements. And so we have all these different license types that aren't really distinguished from each other that significantly. And so that's part of what we are trying to change and what we're trying to simplify. So for some context, we have 445 cabaret licenses active currently. We have 55 permanent amusement licenses, just one social room license, and no dance hall licenses from the 1920s. So let's take a look at what we are proposing to replace this with. We instead of 14 different license types, we're proposing just three. As we worked through the types of entertainment that we currently license, we realized that we were really over-regulating fun generally and entertainment generally, and so we wanted to really narrow in on the places where the community impact is the greatest. And so we heard from neighbors that the existing license framework wasn't working to address their concerns about noise and about patron behavior in and around these establishments. We heard from our safety partners that this license isn't really working, these licenses aren't really working to prevent certain safety issues, and we heard from businesses themselves that the existing framework is confusing, it's uh it creates barriers for businesses that are just trying to offer some entertainment for patrons and bring in more business. So, as a result, we're proposing to shift our focus in the code from entertainment broadly to just live entertainment and adult entertainment. The definitions in the bill really cover the core activities that the new framework will cover. So, live entertainment includes live music, live performances, including performances by a DJ or a dance floor. Live entertainment does not include some specific things that are listed in the bill. It doesn't include adult entertainment, which has its own definition. Adult entertainment includes performances by adult entertainers. Live entertainment doesn't include ambient or background music, sports on TVs or radios, recreational activities, so things like lawn games, darts, billiards, and then MC'd audience games like trivia or bingo. So we have three types of licenses that we're proposing. First is the limited entertainment license. This is for a business that offers live entertainment and does so before or up until midnight, and then can offer entertainment up until 2 a.m. up to 12 times per year. So on an intermittent basis, they can go past midnight to 2 a.m. so long as they provide notice to the neighborhood and provide notice to us 72 hours in advance that they're planning to do that. And that's really meant to address special occasions, holiday weekends, things like that. But generally these businesses are offering entertainment before midnight. And those businesses can offer live entertainment up until 4 a.m. They don't have to offer entertainment until 4 a.m., but they do have that option with this license because it is subject to enhanced safety requirements as well. And then finally, the adult entertainment license is for any business offering adult entertainment. They can offer adult entertainment until 4 a.m. as well, and are subject to enhanced safety requirements. So what does that mean for all the businesses that are offering other types of entertainment aside from live entertainment? Under our proposed framework, we expect that many businesses that currently need an amusement or a cabaret license to offer certain types of low-impact entertainment will no longer need an entertainment license at all. So that they will still need their liquor license, their food license, whatever other activities they're doing, but they wouldn't need a specific license to offer entertainment.

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