Published: October 28, 2009 09:18 am      

London City Council discusses alcoholic beverage ordinance

By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

In an informal meeting, lacking a quorum, London’s City Council discussed Tuesday night a potential revision of its alcoholic beverage ordinance.

Three of the council members were not able to meet, but Mayor Troy Rudder, Bill Dezarn, Danny Phelps and Jason Handy discussed possible updating of the ordinance.

Any action will be taken when a quorum is present.

Talk of changing the ordinance was prompted by a land owner who has a sale apparently pending to a large restaurant looking to host live music and entertainment.

The proposed restaurant is on Daniel Boone Parkway near Wildcat Harley-Davidson.

The existing ordinance, enacted in February 2005, bans dancing but does not specifically ban live entertainment in restaurants that sell liquor. Discussion at the meeting indicated that the ordinance has been “interpreted” to ban entertainment.

The ordinance simply states, “No person licensed to sell alcoholic beverages shall cause, allow or permit dancing or karaoke singing or pool tables on the premises which holds a city license.” Technically, there could be music without dancing.

Council members informally discussed whether they could allow certain types of entertainment — whether an ordinance could allow only acoustic music or particular styles.

During the discussion, alcohol administrator and police lieutenant Stewart Walker outlined other measures the city should consider in updating the ordinance.

In his proposed revision of the ordinance, Walker suggested the city re-write it to specifically ban live entertainment and any type of gaming, including dart boards or board games.

He also suggested servers be required to complete the Responsible Beverage Training Program within 60 days of employment rather than the current 189 days.

Walker also talked about changes to control the location and configuration of outdoor dining areas, and to ban outdoor events that would include entertainment, advertising, promotions or other purposes.

Indoor dining areas would be changed to ban separate rooms that are physically separated by doors. All areas in the restaurant would be designed and intended to serve as a “restaurant type atmosphere.”

Also, restaurants selling alcohol would be limited to a single entrance and exit for patrons.

The present council members heard Walker’s suggestions but made no public comments as to what direction they wished to take with the alcohol ordinance.