Board Discusses New Nonprofit Beer and Wine Festival Permit Application and Local Rules

Board Administrator Tammy Hillebrand discussed a draft nonprofit beer festival application the office adapted from a sample provided by the Maryland Comptroller's office. She told the board that counties have begun to receive authority to issue these permits and that the comptroller's sample application lacked local agency checkboxes and signoffs. "I doctored it up…to conform with most of our applications," Hillebrand said, summarizing changes to add planning and zoning, health and fire signoffs.

Hillebrand briefed the board on open questions: whether the county should treat the activity as a permit or a license (affecting license fees retained by incorporated towns such as Leonardtown), and whether the board should require nonprofits to appear before the board for each event or allow administrative approval through the licensing office. She said the statute she reviewed did not limit the number of nonprofit festival permits a county could issue.

Board members discussed keeping local rules and regulations general and relying on office procedures and a checklist to capture operational requirements (health permits, special events permits, parking and traffic plans). Hillebrand proposed developing a concise set of notarized statements and agency approvals to be included with applications and posting a short set of rules with each temporary permit. The board did not adopt formal rule changes at the meeting but asked staff to draft proposed language for a future agenda.