A few more thoughts on the proposed ordinances presented at last night's Liquor Advisory Board meeting.
The current ordinance needs changing. One figure I heard bandied about last night was 6000 signatures on petitions asking for the change. That's about 25% of Carbondale's population and, while I doubt that all those who signed live in the 'dale, they do shop here rather than Marion or Murphysboro.
Simply expanding the ordinance to the entire city, as both the comprehensive and grocery store ordinances propose, needs to be looked at carefully. As Don Monty pointed out in his email, different areas of Carbondale are zoned "wet" and "dry". If you remember when Short Liquors wanted to open Blue Fish Liquor and Cigars off Reed Station Road last year, the council had to change that area from "dry" to "wet" before a liquor establishment could open there. How will an ordinance allowing citywide sales of liquor interact with the liquor zoning regulations currently in place?
The ordinance needs to phase in over time, three to six months after passage, rather than immediately. This will give the current license holders time to adjust to the changed environment. Any of the new license holders will focus on beer and wine sales as those are the fastest moving items and account for most liquor sales in Carbondale. One of the current liquor license holders commented last night that over 50% of their sales come from beer. If the "grocery store" ordinance is adopted, those new license holders would only sell beer and wine putting even more pressure on the currently existing license holders.
Having a distance restriction between the sale of liquor and the sale of gas doesn't make much sense. If the objective is to prevent people from buying liquor and then driving, why do both Westroads Liquor and ABC Liquor have drive up windows? You can't get alcohol and gas much closer than than, unless you have a drive through liquor store, such as I've seen in Ohio.
The LAB specifically said that,as the interpreted it, the grocery store ordinance would only allow grocery stores (which they seemed to have a problem defining) to sell liquor, not convenience stores. If you are going to change the ordinance, change it so that it applies to everyone. A partial change leaves the city iin the same state it is now, only with grocery stores added to the mix of those who can have licenses. Work out the details now, rather than coming back in a year to hash it out again.
LAB chair Robinson appeared really worried that expanding the licenses to more businesses would encourage everyone and her brother to apply for a license, raising the specter of florists and bike shops with liquor licenses along side balloons and bike racks. Won't happen. Just look at Murphysboro and Marion. If liquor is a fit for the business, expect to see an application. If it's not part of the business' core competency, the business won't apply.
There's a drive-thru liquor store in Colp.
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