Where there’s a will, there’s not necessarily a way. That’s the upshot of last night’s meeting of the Alki Community Council, which hosted five officers (two from liquor enforcement, three from the Department of Planning and Development) who they hoped might be able to answer this question: How do we take our neighborhood back from unruly revelers?

“We do not know the future of our neighborhood,” cried council trustee Gary Ogden, “and we feel threatened!”

They should. What Ogden and the rest of the council like about the neighborhood — the scenic views of the Sound and Seattle, the long flat beach, the leisurely pace — is exactly what makes it ideal for the nightclubs that have gathered in increasing numbers along Alki Avenue SW.

It’s happened all over Seattle: Quiet restaurant with liquor license is purchased by a nightclub operator, who takes over that license and does what nightclubs do: party. And club patrons do what they do: get wasted, make lots of noise, and eject various fluids from various orifices in the vicinity surrounding the club.

Maybe there is some byzantine city code that would give residents the legal right to jettison the more raucous clubs on their shore and/or exclude those who would come in the future? Surely, the loud music is illegal? Or there must at least be a limit as to how many bars can occupy a strip of real estate?

“No,” came the chorus from the liquor enforcement officers and DPD. Diane Sugimura, director of DPD, could offer little more than the suggestion that the residents negotiate with the club owners, but Ogden says they’ve already tried that tack with the most flagrant offender — Celtic Swell, at 2722 Alki Ave SW — to little effect. “They dug in. They were mean,” says Ogden.

The best route might be to talk instead to other residential neighborhoods that have felt suddenly besieged by nightclub development, like Fremont and Ballard, where NIMBYism gave way to pragmatism.

Alki Beach, however, wants to go down fighting. They’re going to hector more local officials about revising codes and draft a neighborhood plan that includes more service-oriented commerce — grocery stores, laundromats, and the like — in the spaces that might otherwise be filled by nightclubs.