Madison council rejects ordinance to widen geographic restrictions on new alcohol licenses

Madison’s Common Council debated and rejected a proposed change to the city’s alcohol licensing ordinance after a public-health presentation and more than two hours of council discussion.

The ordinance, sponsored by Council President Vittiver, would have expanded the city’s current 300-foot geographic restriction on new class A and class B licenses (already applied to public and parochial schools, hospitals, churches and public libraries under state and local law) to also cover places of worship (renaming “church” to “place of worship”), entities with a primary purpose of providing services to unhoused individuals, mental-health treatment facilities and other class A or B licenses. The proposed change also would have required that any waiver of the restriction be made “purposely and expressly” by majority vote of the full council.

The Council heard a public-health briefing describing local alcohol-related harms and patterns before formal debate. Ariel (public health staff) told the council, “Excessive alcohol…