CCP 06062022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment B June 2, 2022 Roseville City Council Att: Pat Trudgeon, City Manager Dear Pat: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us this week regarding the City of Roseville’s requirements for business and liquor licensing. As you may be aware, we are seeking to open a small business in Roseville and have been working with Laura Boyd from Alcohol Compliance Services to review licensing options for our project, including current state and municipal regulations and liquor code ordinances and amendment trends in the Twin Cities area. While many city liquor codes have been in place for decades, in recent years there a few trends that have moved city councils to consider updating their codes for economic considerations and to account for changes in the way that people socialize and consume food and beverages over the years, including: 1)Customer dining, drinking, and socializing trends have shifted, particularly with the arrival of cocktail and taprooms in Minnesota. 2)The socially responsible model (based on price elasticity of demand) leads to higher-priced alcohol and lower-priced food. 3)The current economics of higher-priced alcohol products quickly skews percentage food sales ratio, even when guests eat a meal and have two alcoholic beverages. 4)When considering establishments such as our proposed venue, a lot of the revenue and real estate of the venue is derived from, and devoted to, equipment and entertainment, so requiring significantly higher percentages of food sales would be prohibitive to a small business; only large chains or venues with a huge footprint could operate under that business model. Worthy of note is the unlevel playing field/public safety issue created with regard to lack of a food requirement, maximum hours/time of alcohol consumption or other safeguards for taprooms and cocktail rooms as measured against restaurant/food requirements for on-sale liquor licensees. Further, the 2022 Omnibus Liquor Bill makes all Minnesota distillers eligible for a cocktail room, irrespective of production levels. We conducted a brief, baseline review of ten neighboring and potentially comparable city liquor codes in the metro area, in particular those cities: with a large retail presence and regional shopping malls and centers, considering proximity to Roseville, and similarly-sized cities to Roseville, including Arden Hills, Shoreview, Maplewood, Stillwater, St. Louis Park, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Edina, Bloomington, and St. Paul. Note that this list is not meant to be all- encompassing, include code nuances or possible code amendment language or options, or land- use/zoning-related matters, but rather to give a snapshot of regulatory standings and recent trends in liquor code amendments.