Hearing set to amend alcohol sale ordinance

A hearing will be held on March 11 to obtain public comment on a proposed amendment to the city’s Code of Ordinances concerning the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages near churches.
The amendment was introduced during a brief special meeting of the city council Thursday night. Introduction passed unanimously with three members — Brad Core, Vernon Martin and Byron Wilridge Sr. — absent
The issue was raised when the city council agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor for the seventh season of Greetings From Levy Park, a four-part, free concert series held in Crowley’s Historic District.
Levy Park is located across the street from one local church and catty-corner from another. Beer and wine has been sold and consumed at the event since its inception.
Alderman Core asked if, by co-sponsoring the event and allowing for the sale of alcohol, the city was violating its own ordinance. At the time, City Attorney Tom Regan opined that there was no violation.
However, since that council meeting, an Attorney General’s Opinion dated October 22, 2019, was brought to the city’s attention. The opinion referenced “structures” in measuring the distance from a church and the site selling alcohol and, since the sale at the Greetings events is staged under a temporary tent, questions arose.
The current city ordinance states:
No permit or license for consumption on the premises shall be issued where the permittee or licensee proposes to conduct said business within 300 feet of a synagogue, library, playground, or school except for a school for business education conducted as a business college or school. The measurement of said distance shall be made as a person walks using the sidewalk from the nearest point of the property line of the church, synagogue, library, playground or school.
The proposed amendment would allow for the sale of alcoholic beverages “in any public place, building, street, sidewalk, park, playground, parking lot or any other public rights of way or property, inside or outside the public building / premises / facility, so long as the event is sponsored or co-sponsored by the City of Crowley and / or a non-profit organization and provided the non-profit organization shall have applied for and obtained a special event permit ...”
The March 11 public hearing will be too late for Greetings’ first concert, to be held Friday, March 6. However, organizers of the event have stated that arrangements have been made, the concert will be held and beer and wine will be sold.
A public notice announcing the public hearing will appear in the Wednesday edition of The Crowley Post-Signal. State law mandates that the notice must be published no fewer that 10 days prior to the hearing and cannot be published on a Sunday or a holiday, according to Regan