Hearing is set on whether to allow full-strength beer, wine in city parks

People with dreams of popping a full-strength beer or quaffing wine in Denver’s public parks saw that possibility take a step closer to reality Tuesday, with several City Council members giving proposed changes to city rules a thumbs up during a committee hearing.

“I appreciate you guys modernizing this,” council president Albus Brooks told top staff of the city’s parks and recreation department at a gathering of the Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

The rules, which would allow people to bring fullstrength beer and wine into parks but no hard alcohol, won’t get a final hearing until July, when the department’s executive director Happy Haynes is expected to issue a final decision.

The rules would go into effect on Jan. 1 and last until Dec. 31, 2019, with any adjustments made next fall before the rules become permanent in 2020.

Currently, city code limits beer consumption in parks to suds with 3.2 percent alcohol to comply with what had been state law on the issue. But Gov. John Hickenlooper two years ago signed into law legislation that did away with that category of beer by allowing more grocery stores in Colorado to sell full-strength brews.

Hard liquor would be allowed at permitted events in the city’s parks but glass bottles will not be allowed in any park under the new directives.

“If you bring in wine, it has to be in a box or something else,” Haynes told the committee, assuring them with a smile that boxed wine has increased in quality in recent years.

Denver’s new rules also aim to bring consistency to how alcohol may be consumed at permitted events by making rules uniform across the city’s parks.

“We would like to sort of get out of the liquor license business,” said Fred Weiss, director of finance and administration for Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department.