City slows rush for package liquor licenses
Moratorium on permits targets businesses selling alcohol meant for off-site drinking
Brown bag liquor sales are about to become a little less common in Las Vegas.
City leaders on Wednesday froze new planning applications for those looking to sell packaged beer and liquor within city limits, enacting a 90-day moratorium on land-use permits awarded to businesses hawking alcohol “in sealed or corked containers” meant for off-site consumption.
Officials say the city has seen a spike in packaged liquor applicants in recent months, some 44 percent of whom sought approval to open up shop downtown.
They say the moratorium will not affect bars, liquor stores or any other business where alcohol makes up a majority of sales, or any stores that are already permitted to sell packaged liquor.
Business Licensing Manager Karen Duddlesten said the resolution is aimed at a rash of applicants seeking to sell booze as a second line of business, sometimes out of neighborhood-adjacent souvenir shops, “household good” stores and even wedding chapels.
It will also apply to retail and liquor stores seeking land-use approval to sell packaged liquor in stores less than 5,000 square feet.
She said the city has become a safe haven for businesses that have been run out of unincorporated Clark County and North Las Vegas, where stricter rules govern packaged liquor sales.
In Clark County, packaged liquor
stores can’t be located within 1,500 feet of one another. In North Las Vegas, those businesses can’t be located within 1,500 feet of any other business selling unopened beer, wine or liquor.
Duddlesten said the move will buy city staff time to craft similar ordinances before moving ahead with any additional packaged liquor applications.
“I’ve been before you for years discussing the trends we’ve been seeing,” she told City Council members Wednesday. “We’re continuing to see that our most popular liquor license is primarily for off-sale, not on-site, consumption.
“We’re currently looking at research on the types of crimes and calls we’re seeing, what the health impacts are, and what the effect is on communities, especially tourist communities.”
Las Vegas is home to 569 establishments authorized to sell packaged or hard alcohol, beer and wine — on average about four such liquor licensees per square mile of city land.
Wednesday’s moratorium comes via a formal resolution that questions the impact of this “oversaturation” on the city’s neighborhoods and hints at the possibility of erecting city-mandated zoning buffers between liquor sale sites.
The resolution paves the way for an ordinance down the road.
This is far from the only time Las Vegas has sought to put a little space between drinkers and the rest of the city.
The move comes a little more than a year after city leaders enacted a similar packaged liquor crackdown under the canopy at the Fremont Street Experience. That ordinance also barred the advertisement or sale of malt liquor and beer in containers larger than 32 ounces and prohibited the sale of hard liquor in 1.7 ounce “mini” containers.
Less than a month later, City Council members banned all open glass and aluminum containers over the same fiveblock area.
The city’s latest moratorium went into effect immediately. Four packaged liquor applications already in the licensing pipeline will be processed as usual. Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven.