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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Jennifer Stallings, City Clerk
DATE: February 23, 2022
SUBJECT:
An Ordinance amending Chapter 6 Sec. 6-13 and Chapter 8 Sec. 8-131 of the Code of Ordinances.
PURPOSE:
If approved, the proposed amendments to Chapter 6 Sec. 6-13 and Chapter 8 Sec. 8-131 will require applicants applying for a reduction in the distance requirements for liquor licenses and video gaming terminal licenses to pay the associated court reporter fees, in addition to the hearing officer fees, for their hearing. The additional modification to Chapter 6 Sec. 6-13(d) will clarify how to measure the distance between a liquor licensed business and a church.
BACKGROUND:
Applicants for a liquor license must be over 500 feet from a residential property and 100 feet from a church, grade school, middle school, alternative school or high school, hospital, or home for indigent persons. Applicants for a video gaming license must be over 2,640 feet from another video gaming licensed establishment. Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 both contain a provision that allows applicants to request a reduction in those distance requirements. The applicant is allowed a hearing before an administrative hearing officer with a court reporter. Both chapters require applicants to pay the hearing officer's fees, however, there is no provision for payment of the court reporter's fees.
DISCUSSION:
Hearings to reduce the distance requirement(s) allow businesses to present their argument as to why a reduction in the distance requirements would not detrimentally affect a residential area, a church, grade school, middle school, alternative school or high school, hospital or home for indigent persons or detrimentally impact the existing video gaming licensee or surrounding community within 2,640 feet. These hearings are an optional, voluntary choice available to applicants and, as such, applicants should be responsible for the costs associated with these hearings. There is no fee assoc...
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