The city of Portland will look at placing a moratorium on new theater and live music developments at a committee meeting next month.
There’s been public scrutiny over a proposed 3,300 seat venue near Merrill Auditorium with concerns it would cause traffic congestion and harm other local venues.
The Press Herald reports the City Council voted Monday night to refer a possible moratorium on venues with more than 2,000 seats to the city’s Sustainability and Transportation Committee, which will meet May 14th.
A local developer and concert behemoth Live Nation are proposing to build the new venue, which would be called Portland Music Hall.
Two councilors, Councilor Wes Pelletier and Anna Bullet. had proposed a council vote Monday on the moratorium. The Press Herald report a third councilor, Benjamin Grant, asked for the moratorium to instead be sent to the Sustainability and Transportation Committee, which the council approved.
Pelletier had previously told the Press Herald the moratorium was not aimed at the single application for the Portland Music Hall.
The local developer, Scarborough-based Mile Marker Investments, and Live Nation say their venue would attract artists too big for the State Theatre and Merrill Auditorium, which seat roughly 1,900 people, or too small for the Cross Insurance Arena, which can hold up to 9,000 people.
Live Nation is the world’s largest concert promotion company. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and multiple states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster, claiming they have a monopoly in the live event industry.
