Earlier this year, residents living near Candlelight Kitchen & Bar had nothing but complaints about the nightclub sitting in the middle of their neighborhood.

But at Monday’s City Council meeting, the same residents who spoke out so strongly about the “incompatibility” of the late-night venue were telling the council how accommodating the owners of the property have been to resolve the issues.

As a result, residents and the operators of Candlelight urged the council to adopt a set of conditions they’d drafted together after months of meetings.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Hunt Braly, attorney for Candlelight. “We believe we have in good faith reached accommodation with the community on almost every issue.”

The council said it appreciated the effort put in by both sides. But even after it seemed that residents and Candlelight owners had come to an agreement on how to mitigate the noise, traffic and safety problems that have plagued the venue for years, the council, and especially the mayor, wasn’t convinced the former nightclub would hold up its end of the bargain.

“I don’t trust you guys,” Mayor Paul Miller said. “You guys have a past history of doing modifications up there and not getting city permits and coming to ask the city for forgiveness later.”

The mayor also voiced displeasure over the city having to bear the burden of enforcing the lengthy and problematic list of conditions, which includes required valet parking and a rule that no sound be heard past the property line.

In order to make sure the proposed conditions are actually enforceable, the council decided to put off its decision until Aug. 31. The extra two weeks will give the city attorney time to draft “legally defensible” language and planning staff the opportunity to analyze a parking lot design plan that was submitted late.

Located on the east side of town at 2525 Stow St., Candlelight is part of The Vineyards, an indoor-outdoor banquet facility that sits on the 4-acre hilltop formerly occupied by Dakota’s.

The issue was brought to the City Council after Braly, on behalf of Candlelight owner and operator Glen Gerson, appealed a June planning commission decision to deny the popular venue a conditional use permit for amplified music and dancing.

While Gerson is no longer seeking to construct a 1,750-square-foot kitchen addition to the existing building, the council still has to grant permits for elements of the site that have already been built and make a decision regarding parking lot improvements. Gerson doesn’t want to incur the cost of adding any spaces because the lot already meets code.

Prior to the planning commission meeting, Gerson decided to shut down the nightclub component of the business in an effort to reduce the impacts on nearby residents. On Monday, Gerson asked the council to support the conditions requested by neighbors.

“By approving the documentation that we’ve worked on with the neighbors, I think we will have a very good experience and we will mitigate the problems,” he said. “We want you to be blown away by how fiscally, emotionally and ethically responsible we have been as a family business.”

In addition to the no-walk-in policy and the sound restrictions, the agreed-to conditions include an off-site valet when parking on site is full, signs at the entrance to the Oak Tree homeowners association and Indian Oaks Apartments as well as on Barnard Street prohibiting Candlelight parking, and quarterly meetings between Candlelight and residents to ensure issues are addressed.

In addition, Candlelight would have to employ security on Friday and Saturday nights and any other time the number of guests exceeds 350 people.

“I think we’ve come up with a plan here that’s going to work with the community and with them to survive as a business,” Indian Oaks resident Ed Van O’Linda said. “I think it’s going to be something we can all live with as a community.”

Barnard Street resident Michael Moore agreed.

“The no-walk-in policy is really important because that way it takes the cars off our street,” Moore said.

But City Attorney Tracy Noonan said it would be nearly impossible to enforce the walk-in policy and even more difficult to enforce the occupancy-based security condition.

And even though the current parking lot meets the city’s minimum development standard, the council can ask for more parking spaces if it believes that is warranted.