By Daniel L. Bamberg
Daniel@Centrevilepress.com
Following citizens of Brent, voting in support of the legal sale of consumable alcohol, the City Council held a lengthy work session to create an ordinance on Monday, June 7th.
Mayor Dennis Stripling explained recently, "We're not going to have a perfect ordinance right away. We are going to have to look at each situation as it arises, address it accordingly, and change the ordinance when it is necessary."
A few weeks before the June 7th meeting, council members were given alcohol ordinances from several other cities, including: Athens, Carbon Hill, Hamilton, Jackson, Jemison, Thomasville, and Tuscaloosa. The members were given these ordinances in order to study how other municipalities had handled the sale of alcohol within their city limits.
During the June 7th work session the council took the items within these ordnances into consideration, along with rules and suggestions given to them by the ABC (Alabama Beverage Control) Board. This resulted in a rough draft of an alcohol ordinance, which has now been submitted to the City Attorney.
"The goal is to get comments back from our attorney, and to make any changes he may suggest," explained Stripling.
Following any changes made, the city of Brent will then announce a public comment hearing. This hearing will be held an hour prior to a council meeting and will give citizens of Brent an opportunity to read the ordinance and address the council with any concerns. Following this, the council will then vote to adopt the ordinance. Once it is voted on, if passed this will open the opportunity for businesses in Brent to apply for licenses to sell alcoholic beverages. Also, if passed, any restrictions and regulations within the ordinance automatically become law.
Mayor Stripling recently detailed a few items within the nearly 40 page rough draft of Brent's alcohol ordinance. The city has presently decided to set the distance limit that a business selling alcohol can be from a church or school at 100 feet. According to the ABC Board it is up to individual cities adopting an alcohol ordinance to set their own limits. ABC does however stress that the law must be considered fair and manageable for businesses, churches, and schools. "Most cities set their limits between 100' and 300' feet," explained Stripling.
Any established business capable of selling alcohol, which is currently within the 100’ limit, must be allowed to sell alcohol. New businesses however must adhere to the distance limit. According to Stripling, the only established business capable of selling alcohol, which is less than 100’ from a church, is Piggly Wiggly. Stripling suggests, however, the owner of Piggly Wiggly has made the statement that his store will not sell alcoholic beverages.
"A church can move within 100' of such any business, which sells alcohol if they want to, but the business will be allowed to continue selling their products the same. In other words, a church cannot move next to a business in order to keep that business from selling alcohol," explained Stripling.
The new ordinance will also prevent people from consuming alcohol on public property. This includes: sidewalks, public parks, public roads or streets and government property. Stripling explained however that in the case of special events which might be held on park grounds, the organizers are allowed to apply for a special events license which will give citizens the right to consume alcohol on the property that event is held on.
One of the biggest concerns from citizens, according to Stripling has been the worry of bars, lounges and clubs developing all over the city. Brent Council members and the mayor looked hard at the ordinances of other cities as well as the laws and suggestions from the ABC Board in order to come up with a strict policy for club, business, or lounge owners.
"We can't keep clubs, bars and lounges away from Brent according to the law. We can't be discriminative as a city. If someone is going to establish one of these places, however, they have to be serious about their business and responsible to our citizens. This is why we came up with very specific guidelines," explained Stripling.
While there are two classifications for bars, clubs, and lounges the Mayor detailed the city’s proposed regulations for the most common classification.
A bar, club or lounge license will cost the owner $20,000 annually. Cities are allowed to set their own license fees for bars, clubs and lounges. They must however be within reason and indiscriminating according to law. Brent chose its fee within the margins of other municipalities. Other regulations for bar, club, or lounge owners included that one of these facilities must be at least 1000 square indoor feet, maintain a well lit parking area, have 250 paved and striped 18 x 9 parking spots.
“This is to prevent someone from turning a house in a neighborhood into a lounge. Again, if people are going to start a business like a bar or lounge we want them to be serious and responsible,” Stripling stressed.
According to the ordinance, a restaurant can sell alcohol as long as at least 60% of its sales are in food. “Not finger food either, this is very specific. It has to be (entrée or main course) food you can eat with a fork,” explained Stripling. Also the ordinance details, restaurants, which serve alcohol, must serve food up to an hour before closing. “This is in there to keep restaurants from turning into lounges or to keep lounges from posing as restaurants,” Stripling concluded.
Also on in the business of the council on Monday was the adoption of a resolution allowing West Alabama Regional to be the administrator of the new Storm Shelter/Senior Center project in Brent. The council hopes to bid this particular project off by August or September, at the latest. The next Brent City Council meeting will be held Thursday, July 8th at 5:00 p.m.
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