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How big is too big for a bar?

If a pub with 100 seats or 250 seats is OK, what about a nightclub with room for 600?

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Or a drinking hall with room for 1,400?

The City of Edmonton planning office is weighing the fate of two controversial development permits for Edmonton’s historic Warehouse District.

The first application is to open a “neighbourhood pub” with room for 596 people, on the ground floor of the new Fox 2 condo tower currently going up on 104 Street. It certainly wouldn’t be the first bar on the hipster promenade, already home to the Mercer Tavern, Kelly’s Pub, the Cavern Wine Bar and several licensed restaurants. But it would be by far the biggest bar on the cosy street — and hardly a “pub” in any traditional sense.

Yet that proposal pales in comparison to the “major amusement establishment” planned for the old Mother’s Music site on 109 Street and 102 Avenue with capacity for 1,400 — right across the street from Railtown’s condos and seniors homes.