“There is a demand for places to go and dance,” City Clerk Joe Smith said, adding later that, “I think there are people out there who would like to enter that market but can’t.”
At issue is the 50-50 food-to-drink ratio, which requires venues that sell liquor to get at least half their annual revenue from food sales. The requirement does not apply to establishments selling only beer and wine.
ACC member Julia Dent was one of several who supported City Commissioner Milton Slack’s suggestion to lower the ratio applied to liquor-pouring.
“Let them have fun,” she said about potential dance club patrons. “You can get drunk on beer and wine as easily as liquor, so why is there a difference (in the law)?”
Plans are to mull the options and gather input from the community before resuming the discussion at a meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Aug. 30. A recommendation from the ACC would go to the Rome City Commission for action.
“This could be a big change for the city. It requires careful study,” said City Commissioner Jamie Doss, who chairs the ACC.
Other ACC members are City Commissioner Evie McNiece and citizen-representatives George Kastanias and Jane Slickman.
McNiece was the first to come out against designating a separate entertainment district with different regulations. She said it could be unfair to residents near the selected area and to business owners competing for space.
Members also showed little favor for creating a “nightclub” zoning category with a special use permit. A new category would take food out of the equation, Doss said, but there would be “a lot of hoops to jump through.”
“Reducing the food-drink ratio has been our history. That would probably be the course of least resistance,” he said.
Smith said the city required 70- percent food sales when liquor-by-the-drink was introduced in 1973. The requirement was gradually
reduced to 60 percent and then to 50 percent, where it’s been for more than 20 years.
The city code also retains a legal definition of “restaurant” as the only establishments where alcohol can be served. That creates a problem for entertainment venues that focus their offerings on live bands, dancing and socializing.
Smith said all of the establishments with alcohol-pouring licenses are meeting the food-to-drink ratio, but several that were struggling have since gone out of business.
ACC members said other issues led to the closing of The Peach Palace, Opi’s, McCrobie’s and the Holiday Inn, but agreed that the requirement likely increased the burdens.
Click here to see Rome's Code of Ordinances.
I remember years ago the RPD was stopping people that even had designated drivers. Then they would tell a obviously drunk passenger to "Get out of the car" and as soon as their foot hit the street, public drunk. Then it was stated that passengers did not have to obey that order. Now they make everybody get out, don't they or do they?
"Statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and some workplaces: On July 1, 2005, the Smokefree Air Act went into effect, banning smoking statewide in all enclosed workplaces in Georgia, including most restaurants, except as otherwise designated.[59] The Act exempts designated smoking areas in non-work areas of businesses that are separately ventilated, bars and restaurants where persons under 18 years of age are not employed or permitted to enter, separately enclosed smoking rooms in any bar or restaurant, private residences not used as healthcare or child daycare facilities, hotel/motel rooms designated as smoking rooms, retail tobacco stores, nursing homes, outdoor areas, designated areas in international airports, workplaces of a tobacco manufacturer or other tobacco business, privately-owned meeting and assembly rooms during private functions where persons under 18 are not allowed, and areas of private places of employment (other than medical facilities) that are open to the general public by appointment only.[60] Local governments may regulate smoking more strictly than the state.[61]"
Hmmm...an entertainment district... Wow!... What a concept! Like, in other towns and cities? It only took 20 years of doom and gloom, and with nowhere to go, to finally think of it.
How much money do these idiots make in a year? Whatever it is, it's too much. They are too slow of thinkers, and a lot slower as action takers. But that's just politicians for you in general... stupid/crooked/and corrupt.
I just lament I won't live to see the day there is legal casino gambling and prostitution in Rome, GA.