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Law proposed to limit number of liquor stores
Beverage dealers push for cap
Friday, Oct. 9, 2009
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The St. Mary's County Licensed Beverage Association is seeking, for a second year in a row, to limit the amount of liquor store licenses per population.
The legislation proposed to the Maryland General Assembly for its next session in January asks to allow one liquor store license for every 1,350 people in an election district in the county. The Alcohol Beverage Board of St. Mary's County supports the proposal.
"As our county's population grows, I think it is important to protect the good character of our community," wrote David Dent, treasurer of the licensed beverage association, based in Tall Timbers. It is important "that no one area becomes congested with multiple ‘off sale' licensed locations."
Class A licenses allow selling alcoholic beverages to be consumed off premises only, and the proposed legislation would apply to those licenses, not for B (restaurants) or D (taverns and/or liquor store combinations) licenses.
There were 154 off-sale licenses in St. Mary's County as of July, the same number as in 2007. That is one license per every 652 people, based on the population of 100,378 that year. Of those 154 licenses, 42 are for off-premises sales only.
Countywide, the association estimates the legislation would still allow up to 33 new liquor store licenses in St. Mary's, for a total of 75. Nine new licenses would be permitted in the Hollywood area, eight in the Lexington Park/California area and seven in the Chaptico area. Charles County also limits one liquor store license per 1,350 people in an election district. The law would use population data from the St. Mary's County Planning Commission and not Census data.
The proposal didn't make it through the General Assembly last year as it was put off for further study. "As far as I know there was no summer study," Assistant County Attorney David Weiskopf told the county commissioners Tuesday.
Reacting to the proposal, Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D) said, "So much for free market enterprise."
According to records, St. Mary's County had 83 liquor licenses in 1908, one for every 205 people. By 1954, the ratio increased to 221 licenses, one for every 135 people.
