Local officials meet with entertainment
establishment owners and the public to once again discuss zoning laws.
Teerarak Suthathiwong
Chonburi legislators solicited public opinion on planned changes to
zoning for karaoke bars and similar entrainment venues.
Banglamung District Chief Sakchai Taengho chaired the Aug. 23 meeting attended
by Sottapol Worapunyatrakul, head of the Chonburi Council, Jeerapong Wattanarat,
director of the province’s Legal Office, Pattaya City Councilman and mayoral
advisor Bandit Siritanyong, and Anant Jansri, a deejay from the council’s radio
station.
Administrators noted that Pattaya zoning laws make six distinctions among
entertainment venues, including dancing destinations, restaurants, massage
parlors, karaoke bars and similar venues, live music joints and “other.”
While politicians have, for nearly a decade, discussed
changes to zoning of entertainment venues in Pattaya, they currently are looking
at the just the karaoke category, Sottapol said.
The politicians and bureaucrats listened to feedback from business owners and
neighbors to their establishments who maintained that karaoke bars shouldn’t be
located near schools, temples and homes.
Questions for the public also covered closing times and labor issues.
Sottapol said the comments will be fed back to politicians as they mull future
changes to zoning laws. But he noted the process has been going since 2004 and
no change is expected imminently.