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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Alex Voigt, Deputy Chief of Staff
Deborah Lang, Assistant Corporation Counsel
DATE: January 31, 2020
SUBJECT:
An Ordinance amending Sec. 6-2 "Definitions" and 6-8 "Classifications" of the City of Aurora Code of Ordinances.
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this proposed amendment is to move forward the long-discussed changes to the city's Liquor Code. These specific amendments focus on the Definitions and Classifications, with the goal of assisting our current licensees as well as our future business community. These amendments follow a shift in the way licenses are managed by the City Clerk and Aurora Police Department, with the emphasis now placed on performance-based licensing.
BACKGROUND:
This process began in earnest back in July, with the City Council approving changes to the Applications, Renewals and Temporary Permits sections. Staff then proposed moving forward with substantial changes to the current system of how we classify our licenses. It was determined that the Classifications need to go hand in hand with the Definitions in order to maintain the integrity of some existing classifications already approved by the City Council, while still creating the desired flexibility to continue to attract new businesses to Aurora.
The idea of reducing the number of classifications has long been discussed, but without a plan as to how to proceed the process was difficult at best. The idea for reducing our current classes drastically happened organically, first by breaking down what each of our current classes is really looking to accomplish and second by looking around at other municipalities' ordinances. Staff did the standard review of our similarly-sized and neighboring municipalities' codes, which only revealed that many communities have been following a pattern similar to Aurora -- that a new business requires a new license type. Looking further outside of the box, staff began to pick up ideas, which were then presente...
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