City proposes alcohol rules

Fayetteville considers expansion of entertainment district

FAYETTEVILLE — The city wants to allow the outdoor consumption of alcohol in the woods of the planned arts corridor and a development south of downtown.

It also wants to make the entertainment district permanent.

The City Council is expected to take up the proposal Tuesday. It would expand the routes on which people can carry alcoholic drinks west to include the Razorback Greenway and Fay Jones woods, near Gregg Avenue. It also would include the trail and tunnel beneath Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard leading to Specialized Real Estate’s South Yard development.

The proposal includes lifting the district’s April 2024 expiration date.

The expansion wouldn’t go into effect until spring. By then, construction to turn the wooded portion of the arts corridor into a nature attraction should be complete.

Five apartment buildings at the South Yard development along South School Avenue also should have residents moved in by spring, and construction should be underway to repurpose structures facing Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard into food, beverage and retail spaces.

The hours the district is open, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., would stay the same. People would still use branded, compostable cups and wrist bands to participate.

The boundary of the entire entertainment district is about 300 acres, said Devin Howland, the city’s economic vitality director. The part where people can walk around with drinks is about 150 of those acres. The proposal would expand the entertainment district by about 40 acres, he said.

Businesses have been asking for the city to lift the expiration date on the entertainment district, known as the outdoor refreshment area, he said. More than 60 businesses participate in the program.

The district allows customers to walk around with alcoholic drinks and lets businesses have patios without barriers where people can drink, Howland said. State law usually requires a barrier, such as a fence or railing, around the outdoor area included in an establishment’s alcohol permit. Being within an entertainment district allows patrons to consume alcohol outside the permitted area, although serving of alcohol must happen inside the business.

The entertainment district also enables outdoor consumption of alcohol outside of a beer garden, Howland said. Expanding the boundary to reach the wooded portion of the arts corridor would serve as a catalyst for activity downtown, he said. The arts corridor will be known as the Ramble.

“I really want developers and businesses to embrace this program,” Howland said.

Chandler Benton, owner of the AM/PM bar near the Razorback Greenway and Fay Jones woods, said he can envision how expanding the outdoor refreshment area will liven up activity. Patrons would be able to get drinks at his place and walk to and from Prairie Street Live, a bar and music venue south along the trail, for instance.

Benton said his bar participates in the outdoor refreshment area, but customers can take cups only to the small seating area outside his door or up the alley toward Dickson Street. The district boundary runs right next to the bar, and people aren’t allowed to take cups onto the Razorback Greenway.

Public comment submitted to the city about the proposal included concerns from residents about people junking up the woods with cups. The trail and the woods also have fewer eyes around than the middle of downtown, so bad behavior could become an issue, residents said.

Howland said the city has seen about 50 of the district’s cups littered in the streets since the program launched last year. Staff members placed recycling receptacles strategically with signs to dissuade littering, he said.

The trail and the woods also will get new lighting, and overgrowth at the woods was removed to increase visibility, Howland said.

He said he hasn’t seen any evidence that people drinking with district cups facilitate any illegal public consumption.

Sarah King, spokeswoman for Specialized Real Estate Group, said the commercial spaces of South Yard will still be under construction next spring. However, restaurant tenants should be ready to open by fall, she said.

Creating a sense of place was at the heart of South Yard’s design, King said. Extending the outdoor refreshment area only further serves that goal, she said.