Frustrated Beer Board looking for answers on zoning from the city

The Chattanooga Beer and Wrecker Board was delayed for about an hour Thursday as frustrated board members for the third straight meeting tried to get updates and answers from the city’s zoning office.

An application for a beer permit from the city requires several things including passing fire, building and zoning inspections, and the absence of any one of them typically requires the applicant wait until the next board meeting. The board meets on the first and third Thursday of the month.

“This is the third time. These people want to work with the city and pay taxes,” board member Vince Butler said. “We have people here with events and businesses opening this weekend, and we don’t know what to do.”

He also said the board is made up of volunteers, while the city employees are paid to do the job, and the delays waste everyone’s time.

City attorney Kathryn McDonald walked to the zoning offices in an attempt to track down representatives during the first recess as board members tried to reach out to city officials. McDonald, unsuccessful, said she was told the department was understaffed.

Chairwoman Monica Kinsey said during the break that she had been reaching out to city officials since Wednesday looking for answers in preparation for Thursday’s meeting and did not receive a response.

“It’s very frustrating,” she said. About an hour after the 9 a.m. meeting started, Dallas Rucker, building official for the city, arrived and applications for an LLC name change for the owners of The Mayor’s Mansion Inn and an application to sell beer at Osaka Sushi & Steakhouse were granted permits within minutes.

An application by Darrell Jones to sell beer in the newly created Melva Dean Theatre on Clio Avenue was delayed because of questions about whether the location was too close to a church.

The code requires a 500-foot minimum, but it was not clear how the 500 feet were to be measured. Jones told the board he has his first event scheduled in the 1,300-square-foot event space on Friday.

Rucker told the board he could have it checked before lunch Thursday, and the board voted to approve the application contingent on the code requirements being met.

“The mayor’s office today became aware that there are several technical issues with staff notifications that we are already working to resolve,” Ellis Smith, director of special projects in Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly’s office, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in a text. “The administration is grateful to our hardworking volunteer board members for their patience and diligence. We do not anticipate this being a recurring issue.”

In other business, City Beer Officer Jason Wood updated the board on his talks with Blue Light nightclub owner Brian Joyce as it pertains to a resolution the city reached with Joyce regarding safety and security measures at the club.

The Blue Light was found to be in violation of six Beer Board codes in late 2021 and it appealed in Chancery Court. The resolution was agreed upon in October and required that the two sides agree upon a new security plan, and Wood said the talks of late “have been productive.”

Wood also told the board he still had several questions regarding the interpretation and implementation of the new so-called Dallas’ Law, which requires anybody working security or checking IDs at an establishment or event serving alcohol to have a newly created certification.

Butler asked McDonald if the city had any more clarification on things such as who is responsible for telling restaurant and bar owners or event planners that the law has been in effect since Jan. 1 or what it does.

She, like Wood, said there are still a lot of questions about the law to be answered.