Wednesday, December 20, 2000
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Wednesday, December 20, 2000 |
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Restaurant liquor by the drink in F'ville not likely until February
By DAVE HAMRICK
It will probably be February before Fayetteville restaurants can start serving liquor. City Council had planned to approve amendments to its beer and wine laws to include sales of liquor by the drink at Monday night's meeting, but decided during last night's workshop meeting to re-post the item for first reading at its first meeting in January. That means action probably won't come until the second meeting in January, possibly later. Staff needs more time to make sure that new provisions in the ordinance don't unfairly burden stores that currently sell beer and wine. "I don't want to make the people who already have licenses to sell beer and wine to be in violation of the ordinance," said Councilman Larry Dell during last week's workshop. Requirements that stores selling alcohol be a minimum distance away from residences might do that, council members said. The rules would apply to liquor by the drink as well as packaged beer and wine sales, and some local convenience and grocery stores may be close enough to homes to violate the provision, council members fear. Council has agreed to charge $5,000 for liquor pouring licenses, in addition to separate $1,000 fees for beer and wine. Restaurants serving all three types of alcohol would pay $7,000 a year. City Manager Joe Morton said Monday night that work is progressing on answering council's concerns about distance requirements, but not finished yet. Staff does have a handle on answers to questions about how large a convenience store should be in order to apply for a beer and wine license, and how much of a large super store should be devoted to groceries in order to qualify for a beer and wine license. Convenience stores should be at least 1,000 square feet, and super stores like Wal-Mart should devote at least 20 percent of their floor space to groceries if they want to sell beer and wine, Morton said.
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