What is the name of your state? Utah
I’m writing to let you know about a pretty insane situation of the city of South Salt Lake, overstepping their boundaries, in trying to shut down The Avalon Theater (a.k.a. The Avalon Community Church…) The fire marshal of South Salt Lake received a call from Corey Adams, owner of the Avalon, around nine months ago, to ask him to walk through this building he intended to purchase. This building had been in operation for at least fifty years. He came in, walked through, and said yes you can open this venue, as a church, and you are all good. He then received threats from the police stating if he opened the doors to do a concert, he would be arrested. Then the city came through, building inspector, fire marshal, etc. and walked through and told him he was all good. Eight months later, Fire Marshal Bruce decided to come in and check the place out. Some fixed seating that had been in there at the time of purchase had been removed, and he decided to interpret the International Builder’s Code, under building codes, The Avalon is an A-1 Occupancy. Under the definition of what an A-1 Occupancy can be, is says concert halls are included in that, which they said he couldn’t be in the beginning, which is why the police threatened him about getting arrested. It also in that same portion of the code says “These businesses usually contain fixed seats…” Fire Marshal Bruce tells Corey that HE interprets that as must have fixed seats, and shut the church down until fixed seats are installed again. Corey re-installs some fixed seating to just get the place open rapidly, calls Bruce, who comes over, and finds five other things that he decides isn’t right, and that now he has to do all these other expensive modifications, that boil down to straight lunacy and harassment. The First Amendment clearly states Churches can’t be ****ed with by the government, The Supreme Court recently passed a law stating that no cities shall make any laws that affect any churches ability to operate through zoning, or anything. I am really appalled by the city’s decisions in this case.
The Avalon Church, is a safe place for parents to drop their kids off, and they do. There is no smoking or drinking in the venue. No advertisements of alcohol, and has the support of anti-smoking groups… If The Avalon closes, all of the all-age shows will go to In The Venue, which HAS a bar, alcohol signs everywhere, smoking is allowed, it’s not as safe, it’s in a bad neighborhood for kids to be alone, etc. So to look at this side-by-side, how can any city justify that In The Venue is a better environment for kids? Corey keeps the big guys out of mosh pits if they aren’t playing nice, he doesn’t allow gangs of kids with color coded bandanas to dominate the mosh pit. His goal is to promote a safe atmosphere, where ANYONE can go to a show, and not get beat up for not having certain affiliations… He is completely within his rights, and initially he contacted the A.C.L.U., who said they would support him if the city wouldn’t let him open originally. How can South Salt Lake decide what is appropriate for a church to be? Who can make those calls? In this case all of the documentation has come from the Fire Marshal. Who is he to interpret the law? Is that his job? I for one am extremely upset about this situation, I love going to shows at that place, and my right to do so has been taken away by a ****ing fire marshal… I don’t feel too good about that…
I’m writing to let you know about a pretty insane situation of the city of South Salt Lake, overstepping their boundaries, in trying to shut down The Avalon Theater (a.k.a. The Avalon Community Church…) The fire marshal of South Salt Lake received a call from Corey Adams, owner of the Avalon, around nine months ago, to ask him to walk through this building he intended to purchase. This building had been in operation for at least fifty years. He came in, walked through, and said yes you can open this venue, as a church, and you are all good. He then received threats from the police stating if he opened the doors to do a concert, he would be arrested. Then the city came through, building inspector, fire marshal, etc. and walked through and told him he was all good. Eight months later, Fire Marshal Bruce decided to come in and check the place out. Some fixed seating that had been in there at the time of purchase had been removed, and he decided to interpret the International Builder’s Code, under building codes, The Avalon is an A-1 Occupancy. Under the definition of what an A-1 Occupancy can be, is says concert halls are included in that, which they said he couldn’t be in the beginning, which is why the police threatened him about getting arrested. It also in that same portion of the code says “These businesses usually contain fixed seats…” Fire Marshal Bruce tells Corey that HE interprets that as must have fixed seats, and shut the church down until fixed seats are installed again. Corey re-installs some fixed seating to just get the place open rapidly, calls Bruce, who comes over, and finds five other things that he decides isn’t right, and that now he has to do all these other expensive modifications, that boil down to straight lunacy and harassment. The First Amendment clearly states Churches can’t be ****ed with by the government, The Supreme Court recently passed a law stating that no cities shall make any laws that affect any churches ability to operate through zoning, or anything. I am really appalled by the city’s decisions in this case.
The Avalon Church, is a safe place for parents to drop their kids off, and they do. There is no smoking or drinking in the venue. No advertisements of alcohol, and has the support of anti-smoking groups… If The Avalon closes, all of the all-age shows will go to In The Venue, which HAS a bar, alcohol signs everywhere, smoking is allowed, it’s not as safe, it’s in a bad neighborhood for kids to be alone, etc. So to look at this side-by-side, how can any city justify that In The Venue is a better environment for kids? Corey keeps the big guys out of mosh pits if they aren’t playing nice, he doesn’t allow gangs of kids with color coded bandanas to dominate the mosh pit. His goal is to promote a safe atmosphere, where ANYONE can go to a show, and not get beat up for not having certain affiliations… He is completely within his rights, and initially he contacted the A.C.L.U., who said they would support him if the city wouldn’t let him open originally. How can South Salt Lake decide what is appropriate for a church to be? Who can make those calls? In this case all of the documentation has come from the Fire Marshal. Who is he to interpret the law? Is that his job? I for one am extremely upset about this situation, I love going to shows at that place, and my right to do so has been taken away by a ****ing fire marshal… I don’t feel too good about that…