Hub thirsty for 15 liquor licenses
City councilors will be pushing the state for 15 new liquor licenses specifically for a Dorchester development, and see the request as a renewed call for the Legislature to give Boston more control over who gets to serve alcohol in the city.
“I think it’s time our Boston delegation stands with us and stops perpetuating the century-old discrimination that we are not big enough boys and girls to control our own licenses,” said District 9 Councilor Mark Ciommo at yesterday’s City Council meeting, as the full council signed on to the request.
The home rule petition, proposed by District 2 Councilor Bill Linehan and District 3 Councilor Frank Baker, would ask the state to free up 12 full liquor licenses and three wine and beer licenses specifically for the South Bay plaza project that will include 113,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, as well as a movie theater. It would also give three full licenses to the WS development on Northern Avenue in the Seaport.
Baker said the process would be similar to Somerville’s application to the state for specific licenses for its Assembly Square project. The city needs more liquor licenses to fuel large-scale development, he said.
“If people are coming to do business in Boston, we should be able to offer assurances and that’s something we can’t offer,” he said.
After an effort led by AtLarge Councilor Ayanna Pressley, the Legislature gave Boston 75 more liquor licenses in 2014. Those have all been issued. Pressley initially proposed lifting the cap on the city’s full liquor licenses, which now stands at 725 and was created in the 1930s.
“The way the process is now is we have to be piecemeal,” Baker said. “It shouldn’t have to be, ‘Oh, there’s a development, go ask (the Legislature), we should be able to determine the need in our neighborhoods.”