Onyx Lounge near Legion Field will keep its licenses
The Birmingham City Council will allow the often-controversial Onyx Lounge near Legion Field to keep its business license, liquor license and dance permit, at least for now.
After a public “show cause” hearing -- held at the council’s regular meeting for Tuesday, Feb. 27 -- the council members took no action to revoke the licenses.
The club -- which has now been renamed Blu Nightlife Lounge -- was the site of a fatal shooting on October 15.
Most of the council members who spoke to the issue during the hearing today -- including Steven Hoyt, Lashunda Scales, John Hilliard and Hunter Williams, who serves as chair of the Public Safety Committee -- expressed a general feeling that club owner Keith Davis had taken serious steps to to fulfill the action plan.
“You’ve done everything we asked you to do,” Councilor Steven Hoyt said today.
Hoyt and City Council President did urge Davis to continue to make every effort to reduce the noise from the club.
Davis said that he has installed a sound barrier around the rear patio to help address that concern.
Det. Ralph Patterson of the Birmingham Police Department also said that, over the last 16 weeks, “there have been no reported incidents or arrests” at the club’s address, 615 Eighth Ave. W.
About a dozen citizens spoke during the hearing and were roughly split between people in support of Davis and his desire to remain in business and neighborhood residents who still believe the club is a nuisance that creates noise and draws a potentially violent crowd.