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Community
Time to limit liquor store licenses
Friday, Aug. 7, 2009
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I would like to expand on St. Mary's County Licensed Beverage Association's proposal to cap the number of available liquor licenses. There are approximately 150 license holders in St. Mary's with "off sale" privileges. Of these 150, around 40 licensees have liquor store Class A licenses.
Our proposal would limit the number of liquor store licenses to one license for every 1,350 residents, per election district. The estimated population for our county for the year 2010 is 108,000. The calculations for the available number of liquor store licenses would be done per election district, but overall this leaves approximately 30 new liquor store licensees available.
This is the first step in achieving our goal of preventing neighborhoods from becoming congested with liquor stores. If our proposal is passed, it would still allow for growth in the beverage industry. The next step would be to have the community engaged in the application process. When a new application is received by the St. Mary's County Alcohol Beverage Board, a legal notice is posted in the local papers. If the new store is needed in the neighborhood, the community can support the application, and conversely if the neighborhood is already well served, the community could oppose it.
We would appreciate any community support for our proposal. You could fax a letter of support to the St. Mary's County Alcohol Beverage Board at 301-475-3364 or there is an e-mail link on the board's Web page.
David Dent, Tall Timbers
The writer is a member of the St. Mary's County Licensed Beverage Association.
