Commission recommends communities decide on increase in alcohol permits

<p>By James Polston TheStatehouseFile.com INDIANAPOLIS — A commission reviewing the state’s alcohol laws recommended Friday that legislatures give communities a voice on how many alcohol permits would be allowed in some areas. The Alcohol Code Revision Commission voted on the final recommendations for lawmakers to consider in the 2019 legislative session after a two-year process […]</p><p>The post <a href="//thestatehousefile.com/commission-recommends-local-vote-alcohol-permits/36726/&quot;" rel="&quot;nofollow&quot;">Commission recommends local vote on alcohol permits</a> appeared first on <a href="//thestatehousefile.com&quot;" rel="&quot;nofollow&quot;">TheStatehouseFile.com</a>.</p><p>TheStatehouseFile.com</p><p>INDIANAPOLIS</p><p>A commission reviewing the state’s alcohol laws has recommended that legislatures give communities a voice on how many alcohol permits would be allowed in some areas.</p><p>Greenwood has reached its cap on the number of alcohol permits in use, and the city has had to turn away several new businesses. Mayor Mark Myers said the city has not been able to attract at least six restaurants or bars in recent years because only 34 permits are allowed at a time within city limits, and they have all been taken.</p><p>The number of permits allowed under state law is based on population.</p><p>The Alcohol Code Revision Commission voted on the final recommendations for lawmakers to consider in the 2019 legislative session after a two-year process of reviewing the state’s current alcohol laws. The commission’s mandate expires Nov. 1.</p><p>Commission members recommended allowing local communities to put a question on the ballot about whether the number of alcohol permits should be increased in a designated entertainment district.</p><p>“If that’s the best they’re going to do, then yes,” Myers said when asked if he supports the commission’s recommendation.</p><p>Greenwood may have found another solution to its problem of not having alcohol permits available for interested restaurants or bars.</p><p>Earlier this year, the city, Bargersville and two other Indiana communities didn’t get a public hearing from the state to ask for additional alcohol permits.</p><p>So Myers now wants to establish a riverfront district along Pleasant Creek, which would allow an unlimited number of restaurants and bars to get permits to sell beer, wine and liquor in the downtown area. The city recently spent $40,000 to hire a law firm to do the legal work required to establish a riverfront district.</p><p>Myers said they will present those plans to the city council, which has to approve the designation, in the next month or so.</p><p>”In our community, people do support the idea of more restaurants. But there’s always that barrier and contention that any time there is an alcohol permit involved, there are more incidents of drunk driving. Sadly, that’s a misconception,” Myers said.</p><p>Pleasant Creek runs through downtown Greenwood past the site of the former Greenwood Middle School, which the city purchased to redevelop as a space for townhouses, shops and restaurants. But attracting more restaurants to that space would be hard without the riverfront district designation or a change in state law.</p><p>The other option would be the local vote, if state legislators enact that option. State Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, said the Alcohol Code Revision Commission gives lawmakers in the 2019 legislative session a sense of issues and a direction to follow.“We really need to have a path, a direction, on which way to go with these issues,” Smaltz said.</p><p>The commission also voted to recommend a change to the current escrow system where individuals and businesses are allowed to acquire an alcohol permit and then place it in escrow, or reserve, until it has been activated.</p><p>Permits to sell alcohol are allocated according to population. If too many are held in escrow, that limits the number of places permitted to sell alcohol in a community.</p><p>The commission suggested that legislators revise the current escrow law to 36 months — if a company or individual does not put the permit to use after 24 months, the fee for the third year could increase by up to 50 percent.</p><p>Smaltz noted permits can be held in escrow for up to seven years without an increase in fee or penalty, although the current code states that it is suppose to be up to five years.</p><p>“My concern is that the current escrow system is fraught with flexibility,” Smaltz said. “That is, in my opinion, being taken advantage of.”</p><p>Lawmakers have acted on recommendations from the commission in past legislative sessions. Last year, members recommended the state approve Sunday alcohol sales, which ended up becoming law in the 2018 session.</p><p>But there was one issue the final report did not mention — cold beer sales. The issue became controversial in 2016 when a convenience store owner found a loophole in the law that allowed him to sell cold beer under a restaurant permit.</p><p>Only licensed package liquor stores are permitted to sell cold beer, which makes Indiana the only state in the nation to ban such sales in convenience stores.</p><p>The commission also recommended various changes to permit laws, population brackets, funding and violations.</p><p>Daily Journal Reporter James Vaughn contributed to this report.</p>