F'ville liquor

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The Fayetteville City Council

is moving fast with plans for a liquor ordinance, with a lengthy discussion

at last weekend's annual retreat at Callaway Gardens, just 12 days after

the referendum was passed by the voters.

City Attorney David Winkle

reviewed the city's existing beer and wine ordinance along with some minimum

state standards for liquor sales and consumption so the council members

could move forward from there with regard to how strict they might want

the new guidelines to be.

The new ordinance will have

to encompass a wide range of establishments, specifying both on-premises

(restaurants) and off-premises (grocery stores, etc.) use.

The percentage of total sales

attributable to liquor will be of considerable importance, as council

members stated on several occasions that care must be taken to prevent

establishments from selling only alcohol. Restaurants under the current

beer and wine ordinance must derive at least 50 percent of their revenue

from the sale of food prepared on-site, and that percentage will likely

go up with distilled spirits, which will be sold in restaurants only during

the hours that the kitchen is in operation.

State law requires that an

establishment selling alcoholic beverages be at least 300 feet from a

church or a school, and the city is trying to decide if it wants to increase

that distance and how much. The possibility of separate guidelines for

an area such as the Main Street district, where churches dominate the

area and attracting local businesses is a high priority, was discussed

and remains a possibility.

With regard to prospective

license fees, a survey of other municipalities in the metro Atlanta area

has been made and council members are leaning toward placing Fayetteville's

fees on the high end of that spectrum, comparable to such cities as Roswell,

reflecting the attractiveness of locating such an establishment in Fayetteville.

Other points discussed included

outdoor drinking at permitted restaurants, "happy hour" promotions

not a popular idea with city officials and dealing with violators in the

wake of last year's sting operation that found half of the city's beer

and wine sellers caught selling to minors.

The city is required to have

an ordinance in place 60 days after the passing of the referendum, which

would mean no later than early January. The first applicants are likely

to be considered in February.