The Madison Downtown Coordinating Committee voted 7 to 5 in favor of recommending the city's proposed Alcohol License Density Plan to the Alcohol License Review Committee Thursday night.
In support of the plan, Steve Brist of the Madison City Attorney's Office said the plan would offer a fair and equal basis for the granting and denial of alcohol licenses.
He endorsed the plan and said its criteria ""provides a much better legal basis"" for deciding whether a new establishment can be granted a liquor license.
However, some committee members did not agree with every element of the plan.
""This ordinance does not eliminate problem bars from our downtown. It does not eliminate the problem,"" said committee member Thomas Miller.
""To put this, what is actually a blockade, not a hurdle, in front of new, responsible business owners going to new establishments downtown, I feel, is not acceptable.""
The committee's approval of the plan came with some adjustment. Four amendments to the original draft of the plan were proposed as conditions for their recommendation.
One of the amendments concerns the language used in the original draft of the plan. Committee members worried that a ""bonafide restaurant,"" an establishment exempt from the plan and characterized as deriving at least 50 percent of its profits from food sales, may be able to gradually morph into a bar without the city's approval.
The committee proposed that, if needed, these restaurants would be required to account for their sales at the request of the city.
Other addendums to the plan call for the annual review of the plan's progress and effects and the reduction of the plan's proposed duration from 7 to 4 years. After these four years, the plan will need to submit to the approval process a second time.
Lastly, the committee lengthened the grace period given to new establishments looking to open in the downtown area.
Under the current conditions of the plan, a new bar may only open if it takes the place of another. These establishments are given a 60 day grace period for the filing of the new owner's request. The committee requested the lengthening of this period to 120 days.
