Reynoldsburg council holds work session on proposed downtown ‘DORA’ to allow open-container areas for events and businesses

At the March 2025 Reynoldsburg City Council meeting, city staff and the law director opened a work session to review a draft designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA, covering parts of Old Reynoldsburg along Main Street and adjacent park space.

The city attorney described a DORA as a limited area where patrons of qualifying establishments could carry and consume alcohoI in approved containers during set hours and said the city is preparing a formal application under Ohio Revised Code section 4301.8. “We do have 7 qualified permit holders at this time in the area,” the attorney said, adding that the proposed DORA map is well under the statutory 320 contiguous-acre limit and that the application will include a health, safety and sanitation plan.

Council members pressed staff on public-safety and operating details. Council Member Baker asked whether different hours could apply to park areas and whether the presence of youth sports would be affected; the city attorney replied, “the answer to that question is yes,” and said the council could set different hours for parks than for the commercial street segment. The city also told council that routine police patrols could be reallocated rather than requiring additional sworn officers and that the Township had indicated it did not expect to need additional staffing.

Staff showed a draft boundary that runs along Main Street east of City Hall, down to Wagner Road and to Graham Road on the south side and includes portions of JFK Park and Hubert Park so the DORA could coordinate with city events such as the Tomato Festival and Blues and Brews. The proposal included example signage and draft hours: 4 p.m.–10 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon–10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Staff emphasized those hours were negotiable and that the mayor would submit a formal application on April 14 that would include a final map and survey, a list of establishments and a sanitation plan; a council hearing would be scheduled within 45 days, with a proposed hearing on May 12, 2025, at 6:30 p.m.

Council members raised several operational concerns: whether open containers would be permitted during youth sporting events at park fields, how park-closing rules would interact with late DORA hours, and pedestrian safety where bars sit on opposite sides of Main Street. Staff said the DORA would not change internal rules for city-run events that hold class F permits (for example, the Tomato Festival) and that people could not bring outside drinks into a fenced festival area. Staff also noted the council could exclude ball fields or other portions of parks from the DORA map if it wished.

Sanitation and recycling were recurring questions. Council Member Hill—unable to attend in person but noted by staff to have emailed—urged use of compostable or reusable cups for city events; staff said draft plans include additional trash and recycling receptacles and that the city would consider reusable metal cups as part of the sanitation program. The attorney said permit holders would likely be given obligations to keep the adjacent right-of-way clean, a practice some other Ohio cities use.

Other practical points discussed included signage, a requirement that alcoholic beverages be in bottles or approved non-glass containers while in the DORA, and the statutory limit that a city may have no more than three DORAs. Staff said the council would be required to review any DORA every five years as part of state law and that the council could dissolve or amend the DORA sooner if problems arose.

The work session closed with staff asking for council feedback before the April 14 application deadline so that issues could be addressed before the formal application was filed.