By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Feb. 10, 2012
Wednesday’s consideration of a liquor license application before the Elgin Liquor Control Commission evolved into a philosophical discussion about how the city controls the number of licenses it issues and whether the density of liquor license holders in city neighborhoods should be considered.
With one exception, Elgin’s ordinances set a limit on the number for the various classes of licenses. So when the commission, which comprises the Elgin City Council, issues a new liquor license, the ordinance must be revised at a subsequent meeting of the commissioners acting as the City Council.
Mayor David Kaptain, the commission’s chairman, asked about the practice of limiting the number of licenses during Wednesday’s meeting as the commission approved a Class F-1 liquor license. An ordinance creating the additional license will be considered by the council on Feb. 22.
“This has come up before … we add licenses by ordinance,” Kaptain said. “Is there a process … is there a formula we use, or is it just by request, or is there a way for us to track that?”
Kaptain said that while he believes the number of liquor licenses increase as a community grows, he expressed interest in a way to gauge whether too many licenses have been issued in a category, or perhaps in one specific area or neighborhood. He asked if there were some formula — perhaps tying the number to the population or density within a specific geographic area — that could be used in the commission’s deliberations.
Elgin Corporation Counsel Bill Cogley explained that the city mandates the number of liquor licenses it can issue by ordinance as a means of preserving control — giving the commission complete discretion over whether or not to issue a license.
“We limit by number just simply to give you the discretion to issue one under any circumstance or not,” Cogley explained. “If the number is limited, no license is available” unless the City Council agrees to increase the number of licenses.
The only exception is the full restaurant liquor licenses, but those establishments have benchmarks they must reach to earn their licenses. Cogley said they must seat at least 150 people, half the sales must be from food and half the floor space of the premises must be for dining.
Cogley said that without a cap in place on the number of licenses, the commission could not reject an application as long as the applicant met all the requirements of the ordinance, even if there were concerns about the location or some other detail. Denying a license under that scenario, he said, means the applicant could sue and force the city to issue one.
In terms of a formula, Cogley said he was unaware of any being used to limit the number of liquor licenses, although he said the commission could set such a limit on its own.
“We could report to you annually about how many we have” issued in the various classes of licenses, he said. That would allow the commission to track the growth in the number of liquor licenses.
Cogley said the city first capped the number of licenses in the 1990s.
“I think it would be a tool, not so much as a regulatory thing, but a tool for the Liquor Commission to look at it by neighborhoods, quadrants, something like that,” Kaptain said, adding that he raised the issue only as a point of discussion. But it might help the commission make better-informed decisions, for example, when considering a license application in an area of town that already may have quite a few liquor stores or taverns.
Kaptain’s idea appealed to Commissioner Richard Dunne, who noted that while such information might not apply to every class of liquor license, it might when it comes to package liquor stores. “That’s the only area that I’ve had people state concern,” Dunne said. “I’ve never had anyone contact me on a restaurant or a club getting a license — it’s always been package goods stores.”
