Would adding more watering holes to the no-man's-land between Northern Liberties and Old City create a nuisance for residents in both neighborhoods? First District City Councilman Frank DiCicco and some local civic organizations think it will, and they hope to do something about it before the year is out.

Prompted by concerns about "quality-of-life issues" raised by the Old City Civic Association and the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, DiCicco's office plans to introduce legislation this month to make it more difficult to open a bar or nightclub between Spring Garden, Callowhill, North Sixth and North Front streets.

The legislation, which is being drafted with the aid of the City Planning Commission, would squelch new bars and nightclubs by changing local zoning codes.

"Any time you have a high concentration of bars or cabarets, it affects the surrounding areas," said Brian Abernathy, DiCicco's legislative aide. "With clubs come drugs and violence and noise, public urination, public drunkenness, rowdy behavior and graffiti."

The new legislation would come in the midst of a year in which liquor-license holders across the city are confronting new and proposed rules that could hamper their businesses. That includes the ongoing threat of a smoking ban, which some bar and restaurant owners believe will keep smokers away and trim sales. License holders are also concerned about a state law that went into effect in February that increases points levied on licenses for violations. Bar owners claim that system may decrease the value of their businesses if they try to sell them with a license that has points on it.

"It's like being in New Orleans," said Tom Berry, chairman of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage Association. "What else is going to happen before [the end of hurricane season]? We've got three more months left [in 2005]."

The Callowhill Industrial District is currently dominated by low- and midrise office buildings, empty warehouses and parking lots. The buildings are zoned G-2 for "heavy industrial" use, which allows for businesses as diverse as poultry slaughterhouses and aircraft manufacturers. It also allows for bars and nightclubs that don't feature live entertainment.

Six bars are open there now — Deco, Delilah's Den, Emerald City, McFadden's, Suite 450 and Tiki Bob's — and one club operator said it would be a good spot for more because few people live in the area.

"It would draw more people," said Joe Dougherty, president of Emerald City, a private club on North Second Street. "I would have people coming in here off the street" in addition to people who make specific plans to come.

Still, local neighborhood groups said they want to prevent an entertainment district from developing because its crowds would spill over into their neighborhoods. They also want to protect a district they believe is targeted for future residential projects.

"We are already seeing a movement of residential development in that northward direction," said Rich Horrow, president of the Old City Civic Association. "There are not many available Old City sites left for development and this area sits directly between two popular neighborhoods."

Currently, there is one 200-unit apartment building being built in an old warehouse on North Fourth Street that may add 200 more units, said Richard Thom, chairman of the association's developments committee. He also noted he is receiving calls more frequently from residential developers interested in the area.

The options being considered by DiCicco's office are extending one of two "special control districts" that apply to parts of Old City as well as Northern Liberties and Kensington. Those districts modify existing zoning codes, in this case specifically prohibiting bars and restaurants from opening.

"Not having controls would merely allow the bars and restaurants to totally overwhelm the residential population," Horrow said. "We see that up on the south side of Market Street to Chestnut Street, where there are almost 100 liquor licenses in a very condensed area of Old City."

Similar zoning-code changes have been effective in controlling the number of nightclubs on Delaware Avenue, Abernathy said. Bars such as the Maui Entertainment Complex and Gotham, which had problems with violations of the liquor code and violence, did not have clubs replace them once they closed earlier this decade, he said.

If the zoning code is changed, any new bar or nightclub seeking to open would need a variance from the city's Zoning Board of Appeals. That would not be likely to stop all new openings, said Matt Ruben, president of the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association.

However, the neighborhood groups — both have a stake in watching the buffer area between them — could put more stringent demands on new businesses in return for a favorable recommendation to the Zoning Board. The Zoning Board agrees with their recommendations the overwhelming majority of the time.

"The important thing is it provides us with some control, which we have none of right now," Ruben said. "If we had more input five years ago, some clubs wouldn't be [in the Callowhill district] and some others would be operating, but with some restrictions on them."

Ruben said his group might ask for concessions like requiring clubs and bars to provide additional parking for patrons or to close for a month if a shooting incident occurs on their premises.

One industry veteran observed that there is already adequate legislation to achieve some goals the neighborhood groups seek. Under state liquor laws, the city can already shutter bars considered nuisances.

"They already have a lot of controls," said Gregg DiPipi, vice president of the Licensed Beverage Association of Philadelphia's entertainment division and Glam's general manager. "Instead of making new laws, they should just enforce what they have."

Abernathy, however, said nuisance laws are notoriously difficult to enforce because of a shortage of enforcement agents.