Hanover — If other obligations kept you from attending the pop band Madaila’s performance at the Skinny Pancake last Friday night, you didn’t miss the show, after all.

Upon learning that the new restaurant was charging patrons admission to the show to raise money for the programs of the Vital Communities nonprofit, Hanover officials advised the proprietors that they needed a special exception from the town’s zoning ordinance to impose cover charges.

After canceling the show, a petition put up by “The Skinny Pancake Team” on change.org asking fans of live music to support the Skinny Pancake’s bid to change the ordinance to allow restaurants to charge covers.

“We fully respect the town for enforcing their ordinance as it currently stands,” the introduction to the online petition reads. “However, based on community feedback, we truly believe there is a desire and a need for fundraisers and event programming that can only be made possible with cover charges. … Cover charges go to pay for the band, cover auxiliary costs associated with the event, like security and sound, and/or to support the orgianization for which we’re raising money. Cover charges do not change the way we operate.”

In an exchange of emails this week, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin wrote that the Skinny Pancake could have solved its short-term problem with staging the concert, and could do so for future events of this nature, by seeking a special exception from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

“The implementation of a cover charge is not the issue,” Griffin said. “Under the ordinance, it is not clear that a nightspot that may operate principally as such rather than as a restaurant with incidental live music is allowed and, in the case of Hanover’s zoning ordinance, unless a use is specifically allowed under zoning, it cannot occur. We have been telling the Skinny Pancake for months that they need to seek approval from the ZBA to operate as a musical entertainment venue.”

If the restaurant would rather not seek hearings for special exceptions each time it hosts such an event, Griffin added, its proprietors are welcome to ask the Planning Board to consider amending the zoning ordinance and asking voters at Town Meeting to approve the amendment in May 2017.

In its introduction to the change.org petition, the restaurant says that “we intend to use the town of Hanover’s appeals process to formally suggest the ordinance specifically permit our efforts to charge covers.” As of noon Wednesday, the change.org site listed 71 supporters of the petition.