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Sandy staff propose expanding brewpubs outside downtown, streamline licensing; public hearing set
Summary
City planners proposed land‑use and licensing changes to allow on-site brewpubs beyond the Cairns downtown area, align local code with Utah law and let a brewery and restaurant use a single combined application. Planning Commission recommended changes; council will consider ordinances in two weeks.
City planning and licensing staff presented proposed amendments to Sandy’s land-development and business-licensing codes that would allow brewpubs in a wider set of commercial zones, streamline state licensing logistics and align local definitions with Utah law.
Planning manager Melissa Anderson and business-licensing manager Leslie Casarell told the council on Sept. 16 that the goal is to allow a “brewpub” — defined as a restaurant that manufactures beer on-site for primarily on-site consumption — in any zone where restaurants that serve alcohol are already allowed, subject to state distancing rules. Anderson said the staff recommendation is that brewpubs be a permitted use where restaurants with alcohol licenses are permitted and a conditional use where restaurant/alcohol uses are already conditional.
Utah law prohibits issuing an alcoholic beverage license where the proposed premises would fall inside a state-defined distance buffer around “community locations” such as schools, churches, libraries, public playgrounds and public parks. Anderson showed a map that overlays those state buffers across Sandy and stressed that the state distancing requirements remain a gating factor for any prospective location.
Casarell outlined parallel changes to Title 15 (business licensing). She said the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is now the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services and that state terminology has shifted (for example, the state no longer uses “club” as a license type). To lower local administrative barriers she proposed permitting combined license processing when a brewery and restaurant occupy the same premises so applicants need not file separate packages. She also proposed removing a local bonding requirement for temporary permits that is already covered elsewhere in the code and by state bonds.
Council members asked clarifying questions. Several council members noted the state distancing overlay produces pockets where alcohol licenses cannot be issued; staff said site-level measurements would be used for any application and that a grandfathering question — if a brewery existed and a school later opened nearby — would be decided under state guidance.
Anderson said the Planning Commission held a public hearing, received no adverse recommendation and forwarded a positive recommendation for the Title 21 land-use amendments. Staff said both Title 21 and Title 15 amendments will return to the council as action items in two weeks for formal ordinance adoption.
Why this matters: The changes would create a clearer and more streamlined path for restaurant-based breweries to open outside Sandy’s downtown core while keeping state distancing protections for community locations. Licensing changes reduce paperwork and redundant bonding for applicants who operate both brewery and restaurant activity on a single site.
Next steps: Staff will return with the ordinances for votes in two weeks and will work with applicants and state regulators on site-specific compliance with state distancing rules.
