Council reviews draft ordinance setting where alcohol sales are allowed; attorney suggests zoning tie-in for residential buffers

Megan and staff presented a draft ordinance amending Chapter 22 (business regulations) to clarify where the sale of alcohol is permitted in Alpine and to codify procedures for city review and approval.

The draft largely follows an approach used in other Texas cities, with different rules for on-premise (bars and restaurants) and off-premise (grocery and liquor stores) sales, and it proposed that off-premise retail would be subject to automatic city licensing in commercial zones.

City attorney Cynthia advised that, because the draft attempted to prohibit alcohol sales in certain residential zones by text in Chapter 22, the city should instead use the zoning ordinance to place use restrictions by district. She told council, “You can regulate them. We just have to make sure that we get the right regulation in the right tool, in the right vehicle.”

Staff and council discussed a compromise: allow automatic approval of off-premise licenses in defined commercial zones but require a special-use permit (and the public-notice process that accompanies it) when a C-2 (downtown/commercial) property abuts a residential property. Planning staff said that would allow predictable approvals for most retail while ensuring public notice and review when a sale location is adjacent to housing.

Council did not take a final vote on the ordinance. Staff said they will revise the draft to move residential prohibitions or buffers into the zoning text, and will return with clean language in time for the ordinance reading schedule.