Council approves downtown entertainment district plan

ROGERS — The City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance allowing people to carry alcoholic beverages in a section of the downtown area that will be known as the Railyard Entertainment District.

The district covers several blocks from Chestnut Street south to Cherry Street and from Third Street east to Arkansas Street.

John McCurdy, the city’s director of development, told the council’s Community Services Committee that the city received input from downtown merchants and the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, along with the city’s legal and police departments, on the ordinance.

“It’s not an effort to open up a party space in Rogers,” McCurdy told the committee, which met right before Tuesday’s council meeting.

McCurdy said the ordinance is based on lessons learned from other cities. He said people within the district can grab a drink and food, and go sit and eat in one of the public spaces.

“They have to purchase the alcohol from a participating business in the district,” he said.

Business participation in the district is optional, so people cannot walk into a business with a cup of alcohol if the owner does not allow it, he said.

Participating businesses must have specific cups for people and must give wristbands to anyone leaving the businesses with alcohol. The city will design the cups and wristbands, and participating businesses mustpurchase them, McCurdy said.

The ordinance doesn’t nullify laws such as public intoxication or disorderly conduct.

The council approved the ordinance, 7-1, and the emergency clause by the same vote.