There will be no beer or wine served at the Boiler Room on a regular basis after the Kalispell City Council unanimously denied the request Monday.

Vince and Charlette Padilla requested a change to their planned unit development so the Boiler Room could serve beer and wine through the Purple Parrot, a business that previously served alcohol at the now-defunct Tacos Caliente.

The council was not comfortable with allowing alcohol in the historic east-side neighborhood.

Duane Larson made a motion to deny the request, which was seconded by Wayne Saverud. The vote was 8-0 with Jim Atkinson absent.

“The Padillas have pushed the envelope a little bit on being neighborly,” Larson said. He said allowing beer and wine would increase the noise level from music at the Boiler Room. A number of noise complaints were lodged against the business last year.

“There has to be some sanctity for kids where they don’t have to put up with beer and alcohol,” Larson added. The Boiler Room is located across the street from Hedges School’s playground.

“If we grant it, we’re starting at the top of a slippery slope,” Larson said.

City Attorney Charlie Harball said the city would have a hard time revoking alcohol-serving privileges for a future owner if problems cropped up.

“When you come in with a PUD plan, you’re making a promise to the community in what the project will look like,” Mayor Tammi Fisher said of the business that opened in late 2009. “The neighborhood has done quite a bit to accommodate the Padillas,” she added, noting the Boiler Room added a drive-through window and bakery below the coffeehouse.

In public comment prior to the council vote, Vince Padilla said he wanted the business at 558 8th St. E. to be like a specific Seattle coffeehouse located in a residential area with multimillion-dollar homes and a school one block away.

Fisher responded: “Seattle is an urban area. It is not comparable to Kalispell. I’ve given up an urban lifestyle to live in Kalispell.”

Charlette Padilla said Hedges School officials were notified and didn’t object to the request. However, City Planner Tom Jentz said the school is “in a difficult situation to take a political stand one way or another.”

Padilla also noted local examples of coffeehouses that sell alcohol, including Luna’s Wine and Coffee Cellar in Bigfork and Buns by the Lake in Lakeside.

Council member Kari Gabriel said she has been in some places where a coffeehouse serving beer worked well, “but not in a neighborhood.”

Gabriel said the business still could occasionally serve alcohol through a special event permit. Council member Randy Kenyon noted that the Boiler Room has already done this. City Attorney Charlie Harball said that can be done by a caterer after a permit has been obtained.

Saverud said he could easily see himself writing a letter in support of the request as a private individual, but as a member of the council he couldn’t support it. “It’s much too close to a school,” he said.

Public comment during a public hearing earlier this month was fairly evenly split, not counting those affiliated with the business. However on Monday night, 12 speakers opposed the beer-and-wine request. The Padillas were the only ones to speak in favor.

Former City Council member Dale Haarr said he used to live on Third Avenue East.

“I’d hate to think of the kind of precedent this would set,” he said. “Beer attracts the wrong kind of customers. I think the clientele would be more orderly if you’re serving martinis and Scotches.”

Floyd Bechtold, who lives on Seventh Avenue East, said he has observed children running out of the gate of the school’s playground chasing balls into his yard and the Boiler Room’s parking lot.

Rebecca Groose-Jones, who lives on Fifth Avenue East, complimented the Padillas on “cleaning up the area. Before it was quite a fright.”

But she said Charlette Padilla’s examples of area coffeehouses that serve alcohol “are not in a residential area and don’t play live music until 10 p.m.”

Greg Ennis, who lives on Seventh Avenue East, opposed the request because of safety. “I have never really been a ‘fuddy-duddy,’ but I guess I’m being one now. I guess that’s what happens when you get older and grow up a little bit,” he said, noting he has two small children.

Jentz said the license that would have been used at the Boiler Room actually is a beer-only license.

“This is a very unique license,” he said. “It’s old. It’s an anomaly for the Department of Revenue to deal with. It would be easy to expand it to beer and wine.”

Reporter Caleb Soptelean may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at csoptelean@dailyinterlake.com.