{"id":24397,"date":"2015-04-07T12:14:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T17:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=24397"},"modified":"2015-04-07T12:15:37","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T17:15:37","slug":"big-games-big-crowds-a-note-on-occupancy-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2015\/04\/big-games-big-crowds-a-note-on-occupancy-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Games, Big Crowds: A Note on Occupancy Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night, Wisconsin Badger fans and foes alike filled bars and restaurants to watch the final NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Championship game. ESPN Milwaukee reported that nearly five and a half hours prior to tip-off, one Madison bar was already turning people away because the bar was at maximum capacity. But what does that matter? Does \u201cmaximum occupancy\u201d serve a purpose? As someone completely unfamiliar with owning or managing property, I went looking for information about occupancy.<\/p>\n<p>A quick Google search led me to an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ehow.com\/how_7286932_do-building-occupancy-fire-code_.html\">article on eHow.com.<\/a> The eHow article author noted that local fire marshals are the ultimate authority when it comes to occupancy permits. The fire marshal tip helped me find the <a href=\"http:\/\/city.milwaukee.gov\/Occupancy\">Milwaukee\u2019s Department of Neighborhood Service\u2019s page about occupancy permits<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The DNS\u2019s page outlines what is required and when: a Certificate of Occupancy is required before a new business, church, agency, school or organization opens in a new or existing building. I assumed that occupancy only relates to the number of people that may occupy a space. I assumed wrong. Based on the information DNS\u2019s Occupancy Inspection handout, occupancy is also related to whether people can occupy a space\u2014whether the space is safe to occupy. Specific information about certificates of occupancy can be found at the DNS\u2019s page, linked above.<\/p>\n<p>Back to the original question: what purpose does \u201cmaximum occupancy\u201d serve? The purpose is sound: to ensure the safety of patrons when there is an emergency requiring all to exit in a short period of time. <a href=\"http:\/\/city.milwaukee.gov\/ImageLibrary\/User\/dnscms\/pdf\/forms\/Tavern_Capacity_flyer2.pdf\">This DNS flier from 2005<\/a> explains how maximum occupancy numbers may be determined.<\/p>\n<p>No news sources have recently reported on occupancy law enforcement or fines. However, bar and tavern owners should still avoid packing an establishment past maximum occupancy. Around the time that the DNS flier about maximum occupancy was published, Milwaukee police fined at least three Milwaukee bars between $10,000 and $40,000\u2014likely large financial hardships, especially for mom-and-pop taverns\u2014for exceeding maximum occupancy. These fines were part of a push by Milwaukee police to avoid tragedies like those that had occurred at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfpa.org\/safety-information\/for-consumers\/occupancies\/nightclubs-assembly-occupancies\/the-station-nightclub-fire\">night clubs in Chicago and Rhode Island in 2003<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the 2005 crackdown on over-occupancy is the reason why, luckily, there have not been reports of fines or tragedies. Today, we can all smile a little (or a lot, depending on whether you\u2019re a fan of Badgers) after Wisconsin\u2019s loss last night, knowing that even if <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/wisconsin\/story\/wisconsin-badgers-fans-flock-to-bars-for-title-game-040615\">taverns and bars were filled for the game<\/a>, no tragedies occurred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night, Wisconsin Badger fans and foes alike filled bars and restaurants to watch the final NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Championship game. ESPN Milwaukee reported that nearly five and a half hours prior to tip-off, one Madison bar was already turning people away because the bar was at maximum capacity. But what does that matter? Does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-regulation","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}