Council begins rewrite of alcohol-licensing and RSTR rules; attorney to return redlines

Councilors spent a substantial portion of the June 2 meeting discussing proposed ordinance revisions for alcohol local-consent rules and short-term rental (RSTR) regulations.

Members criticized the draft alcohol/beverage ordinance as overly long and complex and asked the town attorney to pare it down to the “bare minimum” needed in local ordinance text while keeping clear, plain-language criteria for any local-consent determination — for example, requiring commercial zoning and a town business license but otherwise relying on state law for technical health and safety standards. Josh and Lacey agreed to work together to draft a plain-language summary of the criteria for the attorney to convert into a redline version.

On RSTRs, the attorney will prepare redlines and a memo and expects the packet to go to the Planning Commission in July and back to the council in August. Council and planning commissioners raised a specific procedural question about converting a waiting-list process to a lottery; the attorney will clarify the trigger and mechanism in the redline.

Council members asked staff to align affidavit and application language across related chapters to avoid duplicative or conflicting phrasing. The council emphasized keeping ordinance text as simple and administrable as possible and to rely on state requirements for technical checks such as health and fire code compliance.

The council also discussed the Tree City/tree-ordinance committee structure and asked staff and volunteers to develop simpler volunteer-committee options that avoid unnecessary open-meeting administrative burdens.

Requested next steps: Josh and Lacey will draft plain-language criteria for local consent; attorney will provide redlines and a memo; planning commission review is scheduled for July with council action targeted in August.