STARKVILLE — Confusion and uncertainty over the effects of a proposed ordinance change to remove the food sales requirement from brewpubs citywide has aldermen again rethinking the scope of what they should allow.
Now it seems likely the board may apply the rule change to brewpubs and small craft breweries only within the city’s Leisure and Entertainment District, which includes downtown, Russell Street and the Cotton District.
Aldermen in January held a first hearing on a rule change that would allow only brewpubs in the Leisure and Entertainment District an exemption to a city ordinance that required food to account for 25 percent of sales for businesses serving on-premises alcoholic beverages. They reset the hearing process on a new draft of that ordinance Tuesday, holding the first of two hearings on an amendment that would apply that rule change citywide.
A brewpub allows the manufacture and sale of beer (up to 8 percent alcohol by weight), light wine (up to 5 percent alcohol by weight) and light spirits (up to 4 percent alcohol by weight), on-site, with a manufacturing limit of 75,000 gallons per year.
But City Attorney Chris Latimer told the board Tuesday the new draft, as written, could apply to additional businesses with a permit to make and sell those beverages, including small craft breweries that legally can produce considerably more (60,000 barrels a year, which is equal to about 1.8 million gallons). It also could open the door for other types of businesses to end-around food sales requirements, he indicated.
The rule change would still require businesses that serve hard liquor to also serve food, per state law.
“If the board were to go forward with the draft that is proposed, … arguably entities that are only selling, for on premises consumption, beer and light wine would be exempted (from the food requirement),” Latimer told the board.
“This changes everything,” Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk responded.
Mayor Lynn Spruill followed with, “That’s not how I understood it either. But we’re at the point where we can make it what we want to be. That’s what we’re doing here.”
Though being a permitted retailer of beer, light wine and light spirits “connotes” some type of brewing and manufacturing capabilities in state law, Latimer said, some aldermen were concerned about whether it would allow brewpubs and craft breweries to make the product at one site and sell at another. They also discussed, at length, whether the city would have the enforcement capabilities to monitor a citywide rule change and whether they would be inviting restaurants and bars to change their business model to sell beer and light wine, but not food.
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty said he isn’t concerned about the latter issue.
“Liquor drives sales (at restaurants and bars),” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to have issues with establishments dropping liquor so they can get rid of the food element.”
During the discussion, Latimer said the complexity of state alcohol beverage laws proves challenging any time a local entity tries to adapt its ordinances.
“Guys, this is hard,” he told the board. “Communities have wrestled with this statewide. Much of our ordinance dates back to 1977, so we’re due for an amendment. I think the key is to do it in a way that is orderly, measured, disciplined and reasoned, so we don’t have unintended consequences from any creep measures.”
Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver, who has voiced support for limiting the change to only the Leisure and Entertainment District, told fellow board members he will not vote to apply it citywide.
Sistrunk, speaking to The Dispatch after the meeting, said she is leaning that way as well.
“If we do this, how can we do it without unintended consequences?” she said. “I don’t know exactly where I’ll land on this, but I am more comfortable with it being limited to the Leisure and Entertainment District.”
Spruill told The Dispatch she still believes the ordinance change, as written, would only practically apply to brewpubs and small craft breweries, but acknowledged the “nuances can be more problematic.”
“The goal was to make this as simple and transparent as possible,” Spruill said. “… This was a good discussion. Hopefully, this issue will become clearer over the next two weeks (before the final hearing).”
Effects
Even if the rule change is dialed back to the Leisure and Entertainment District, it would still allow Spring Street Cigars to operate a cigar lounge and brewpub in the former Mugshots restaurant building on Main Street.
Mayhew Junction, a small craft brewery on Eckford Drive outside the district, would be a different story.
Co-owner Jean Mohammahi-Aragh told The Dispatch the brewery manufactures craft beer that Clark Beverage distributes, and currently the business — which does not serve food — is allowed to offer 10 percent of its product for sample tasting during scheduled public tours of its facility. If the ordinance changed and applied citywide, she said, the brewery would consider selling pints on-premises.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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