Laserfiche WebLink
Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday, September 17, 2012 <br /> Page 19 <br /> d. Continue Discussion on Whether to Amend City Code, Chapter 302, Regard- <br /> ing the Number of Allowable Off-Sale Liquor Licenses <br /> Mayor Roe introduced this topic, based on past City Council discussions over the <br /> years; and invited Finance Director Chris Miller to make a presentation. <br /> Mr. Miller summarized the discussion by the City Council to-date, as detailed in the <br /> RCA dated September 17, 2012. Mr. Miller noted that this had come up again most <br /> recently at the request of representatives of Cost Plus/World Market. Mr. Miller <br /> suggested that the conversations essentially provided three different options as out- <br /> lined in the staff report; and suggested that Councilmembers openly debate those <br /> various options. <br /> Mayor Roe noted the addition of three (3) bench handouts related to off-sale liquor <br /> licenses: one from June 14, 1984 to the Roseville City Council from Howard <br /> Dahlgren of Consulting Planners; a Work Session Agenda from June 18, 1984 on a <br /> proposed ordinance regarding off-sale liquor licenses; and a RCA dated July 9, <br /> 1984 for an ordinance regulating the number of licenses. <br /> At the request of Councilmember Pust regarding a lack of staff recommendation, <br /> Mr. Miller responded that, as stated in the past, he could find no compelling reason <br /> to limit the off-sale licenses to ten (10) or whether that was a good or bad decision, <br /> seeming to be a self-imposed amount. Mr. Miller opined that his level of indiffer- <br /> ence may stem from his personally at this point, further opining that from a societal <br /> or public safety impact, rationale just wasn't there for that number. <br /> Councilmember Willmus noted that the discussion initiated from trying to deter- <br /> mine where the notion of ten (10) licenses originated; but noted that this remained <br /> unknown since meeting minutes from the 1984 work session were not kept; but the <br /> staff memo clearly stated that they were not recommending restricting the number. <br /> However, from that meeting, it was apparent that this fairly hard restriction was put <br /> in place; and since the Roseville population was similar to that of today, he ques- <br /> tioned if there was any compelling reason to change it. Councilmember Willmus <br /> advised that his position remained as such; and questioned if the thought was to <br /> move toward eleven (11) licenses or beyond that even. <br /> Councilmember McGehee concurred with Councilmember Willmus in not seeing <br /> any compelling reason to change the number. When reviewing the map of off-sale <br /> locations, Councilmember McGehee opined that there appeared to be a fair distribu- <br /> tion; and when considering precedents and fairness in the decision-making, opined <br /> that the policy had in place for some time and people had built based on that policy, <br /> with the policy continuing to work well. Regarding the Cost Plus request, Coun- <br /> cilmember McGehee suggested that if they are interested in a liquor license, they <br /> can wait for one to become available; or suggested that they shouldn't have chosen <br /> to give theirs up in the first place. Regarding conversations about a potential Trader <br />