East Dundee upholds liquor license for banquet hall

Club Royal B&V will be allowed to keep its liquor license after East Dundee officials on Monday dismissed three noise violations filed against the banquet hall last year.

The facility at 940 Dundee Ave. has received dozens of noise complaints, several of which have resulted in formal citations, since it opened in March 2015. The village's liquor control commission has been considering whether to revoke, suspend or uphold Club Royal's liquor license over its three most recent noise violations, which occurred last July, September and October.

Since then, owner Jaime Benitez has spent more than $18,000 on soundproofing improvements to the building, Village Attorney Jim Binninger said, and the number of calls for police service to the banquet hall have declined.

During a hearing Monday, commissioners agreed to drop the outstanding citations, saying rescinding the banquet hall's liquor license would do little to solve the ongoing noise issues.

"Obviously the company has spent a lot of time and effort and money to try and mitigate the problems as best they can," said Village President Lael Miller, who is also the liquor commissioner. "What I think we should do moving forward is start the clock fresh."

The commission's decision came at the request of Mark Schuster, the attorney representing Club Royal, who argued the village's ordinances are subjective and do not properly explain what constitutes a disturbance to neighbors.

Schuster also said some of the residents who signed citations against the banquet hall are just outside East Dundee's jurisdiction, though Miller said it's still the village's job to protect them regardless of their residency.

"If they bring an issue to us, and it happens to be because of something that's affecting them in East Dundee, we're going to (do) what we have to do to try and solve that," Miller said.

Miller promised East Dundee would update and clarify the noise ordinance to more specifically address breach of peace issues, including the ultralow bass frequencies that are often the subject of residents' complaints about Club Royal.

Binninger, who recommended the commission give the banquet hall a fresh start, said any new noise citations will go through the village's administrative adjudication process.

Police Chief Terry Mee said the banquet hall has received some noise complaints since soundproofing updates were completed April 6, though none resulted in violations. The last complaint was made April 29.