The advisory neighborhood commission for Adams Morgan recommended easing the longtime cap on new liquor licenses for taverns this week, meaning 18th Street NW and surrounding areas could get more new bars.

The hyper-locally-elected representatives unanimously voted Wednesday evening to increase the cap on tavern licenses from 10 to 25, with no more than four new licenses approved a year. (Tavern licenses have fewer restrictions, like they don’t have to sell food and could have a sizable dancefloor.)

The vote marks a noticeable shift: Since 2000, Adams Morgan has limited the number of new businesses that want to serve booze at the behest of neighbors who raised concerns about unruly nightlife disrupting their quality of life. (In addition to the cap on tavern licenses, the Adams Morgan liquor license moratorium zone, as it’s called, also includes a ban on new liquor licenses for nightclubs — which the ANC did not vote to change this week.)

The neighborhood’s ANC, ANC1C, had not recommended a modification to the moratorium zone in eight years, when then members voted to lift the moratorium on liquor licenses for restaurants but kept restrictions for taverns or nightclubs. The Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board, which has final say on the matter, ultimately accepted the recommendation of the ANC, allowing more restaurants to apply for liquor licenses in 2014.

The ABC Board could do the same this time, with a vote expected soon; the existing regulations that govern the moratorium zone expire June 6. The ANC resolution is on the ABC Board’s agenda next week, according to an Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration spokesperson.

The ANC was amenable to easing restrictions on the types of businesses that can join the neighborhood in part because of the number of vacant storefronts in Adams Morgan, ANC1C Chair Peter Wood tells DCist/WAMU.  “The existence of a moratorium zone has had unintentional, detrimental effects on the Adams Morgan community, including but not limited to burdens negatively impacting small business development and retention,” reads the resolution approved Wednesday night.

Wood says that he and the ANC started working on the resolution in December 2022. He feels it passed, in part, because of all the new members who just joined the ANC this year.

“It seems that there’s more people who are more willing to be open to the neighborhood adapting to circumstances,” Wood says. “There’s a cultural shift, but I think that there’s also changing circumstances partially because of the pandemic, but probably predating it in terms of what needs to be done so that the neighborhood can thrive.”

One of the newly-elected commissioners, Daniel Michelson-Horowitz, said Wednesday night during the vote that he supported easing the tavern cap because he thought bars and restaurants were in a better financial position to afford the high rent and fill vacant properties. He also said he’ll prioritize smaller businesses outside the bustling commercial corridors when the ANC reviews liquor license applications, in an effort to be mindful of concerns from some neighbors over noise and rats.

“We can fill some of these empty storefronts by giving the opportunity to have new licensees. Those filled stored fronts will contribute to the vibrancy of the neighborhood,” said Michelson-Horowitz.

While a few commissioners said they would do away with the moratorium altogether, they still voted in favor of this incremental step. Commissioner Jake Faleschini effectively described the resolution as a compromise between supporters and critics of the moratorium zone — of which the Adams Morgan Business Improvement District is a big part of the former, and Kalorama Citizens Association, the latter.

“It felt like that was an incremental change we can make over a four-year period,” Faleschini said at the meeting. “To open things up a little bit, assess impact, and/or any change, and then try to go from there.”

The Adams Morgan Business Improvement District, the nonprofit representing the interests of the neighborhood businesses, wants to lift the entire moratorium zone, except for the restriction on nightclub licenses, according to a resolution passed by its board of directors in November 2022. The nonprofit’s executive director Kristen Barden says they sent the resolution to the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration last year.

Meanwhile, the volunteer-group, Kalorama Citizens Association, opposed any ease to the cap on tavern liquor licenses, instead favoring the status quo. Kalorama Citizens Association president Denis James tells DCist/WAMU their executive committee, which skews older, worries about increased crime, noise, and trash, among other things.

He cited the track record of a few tavern-licensed businesses, including Heaven and Hell, which has repeatedly been fined for violating city regulations. He also says many of the neighborhood restaurants already act like bars, satisfying the need for nightlife.

“It’s bizarre to think that when we already have 70 licensed places to go, drink and eat, that we need nine more of the most problematic kind of licenses that we currently have,” says James.