In a letter dated April 5 and addressed to club owner Steve Rauf, Seattle Police Chief John Diaz declares The Citadel—an all-ages nightclub in Rainier Valley—a chronic public nuisance, citing 15 documented incidents of public violence, robbery, drunkenness, and ecstasy drug busts that have taken place at the property in the last 60 days (.pdf).

Now, Rauf has seven days to respond to SPD with a plan of action to correct the problem behaviors or risk having his property seized by the city.

For example, the letter states that on February 27 at the club, a patron "violently wrapped both arms around a security person's head and neck. The patron was also arrested and transported to Harborview Medical Center for the treatment of the overdose of some drug."

And on March 26, SPD officers were called to investigate "a male victim [who] was stabbed and kicked and a female victim who was punched in her face by suspected gang members." This report also notes, "the male victim was arrested for [drugs] in the previous week from the Rave event at the Citadel."

Rauf wasn't immediately available for comment. However, Diaz's letter is only the beginning of his problems. Recently, the Department of Planning Development revoked Rauf's ability to hold more than one rave (or other musical event) in the space per quarter, citing structural issues with the building that Rauf has failed to address.

"The space isn't permitted for events," explains DPD spokesman Brian Stevens, who stresses that this is a completely separate issue from SPD's nuisance complaint. "We don’t enforce public nuisance noise complaints," Stevens says. "We don’t address behavior of use in a space."

According to the DPD, Rauf submitted permit materials to the city that would allow him to convert the space to a public market by day and event space by night. While reviewing the materials, the DPD has been issuing temporary event permits for the space. "If [a building owner] is working on a permit to hold more events, then we allow more per quarter," Stevens explains.

Last month, the DPD sent Rauf a list of upgrades he'd need to do to the building—seismic upgrades, bracing the building's roof to its walls, installing more emergency exits, for instance—in order to acquire the proper permits. Since then, Steven says, progress on the building has stalled. "With that in mind, we’ve decided to go back to one per quarter."

Since 2007, thousands of underage kids from as far as Tacoma trek to the bowling-alley-turned-nightclub for raves and other musical events. The DPD, says that Rauf's building permit is still under review and if he's willing to make the necessary upgrades, "we're still willing to work with him."