It's That Time Again! The Alcohol License Review Committee Meeting!

It's already mid-March! Can you believe it?! I know I can't! With the middle of the month comes... the Alcohol License Review Committee (ALRC)! The meeting, tomorrow night (Wednesday March 16th) will be at its usual place, the City County Building rm 201. At Wednesday's meeting, the ALRC will likely be VOTING on the proposed changes to the Alcohol License Density Ordinance.


For those of you that are new to this issue... here's a little background info.


ALDO was adopted in 2007 in an attempt to address the increasing rates of violence and crime in downtown Madison. Studies have been done worldwide, and have come to the same conclusion that if you reduce the number of alcohol outlets in an alcohol-outlet dense area, like downtown Madison, violence and crime in that area will reduce. I could bore you with a bunch of facts and figures related to those studies and the exact findings they had, but I won't do that here. If you're interested in learning more about these studies start by clicking here. So ALDO was adopted to limit and slowly reduce the number of bars and taverns downtown to help manage crime and help downtown thrive again. Since the adoption of ALDO, crime downtown has indeed declined. At this time research is being conducted in order to be able to officially draw the conclusion that ALDO played a significant role in this decline.


So have I lost you yet? Hopefully you're still following me... this is where it gets interesting. ALDO was originally set to sunset October 5th 2010 but that extension was extended, and then extended again and now sits at July 5, 2011. Before that time, the ALRC must vote whether or not to continue ALDO and if they decide to continue ALDO, which it seems is very likely, they must decide whether or not to approve some changes proposed by the ALRC sub-committee. The ALRC vote then goes to the Common Council for approval. These changes could significantly weaken this ordinance, so pay attention. Here are the changes on the table:

Entertainment Venue Exception -proposed change would add new exception for establishments that provide entertainment, discussion continues over allowed percentage of alcohol revenue for this type of establishment. As the draft language is written now, this entertainment could be as little as having a shuffleboard in the establishment or a volleyball court... So.. does this make it an entertainment venue? or bar with entertainment? Some are arguing this is all it takes to consider a bar an entertainment venue and allow it to open. 

    DCCRAA's Position: The Coalition does not support the entertainment venue exemption as drafted and the Dane County Coalition to Reduce Alcohol Abuse (DCCRAA) believes any entity with more than 50% of its revenue coming from alcohol sales will, in fact, make a significant contribution to the alcohol problems in the ALDO area.

 

Exceptional circumstances -proposed change would increase allowed percentage of alcohol revenue from 25 percent to 50 percent of total revenue for businesses in this category. This category includes places like Fromagination and Savior Faire.

    DCCRAA's Position: If an outlet gets more than 50 percent of it's revenue from alcohol, it should be viewed as a bar not a restaurant or entertainment venue. More than half of a business’ revenue does not need to come from alcohol in order for it to be successful, look at Fromagination and Savior Faire as great thriving examples. Therefore, the Coalition feels the exceptional circumstance clause should remain as it is in the existing ordinance with no more than a 25 percent liquor sales allowed for non-bar establishments. The downtown Madison community will thrive when we address the very real issue of alcohol abuse in Madison by keeping ALDO strong.

365 day clause -proposed change would increase window from 365 days to 730 in which time a bar can open in a vacant site where a bar or tavern used to exist.

    DCCRAA's Position: Doubling the window of time for allowing a new tavern to open does not limit and slowly reduce through attrition the number of alcohol outlets. Therefore, it does not do what ALDO was set out to accomplish. If an establishment closes and new tenants are not found within 365 days, our leaders should seize that opportunity to reduce liquor outlets in our neighborhood.

If you care about the health and safety of our downtown, please stand up for ALDO with the Dane County Coalition to Reduce Alcohol Abuse. If you are able to attend the ALRC meeting Wednesday, March 16th at 5:30, please join them as they support ALDO. If you can't make it, consider submitting a written testimony, or taking a few minutes to register in support of ALDO, in-person, before the meeting.

For more information on the drafted changes to ALDO click here.

Join the Dane County Coalition's Facebook page to stay informed on what efforts are underway to prevent alcohol abuse in your community by clicking here.

If you haven't already... join Health First Wisconsin's Facebook page too! We're almost to 100 fans in just under two weeks!