2023-79 Ordinance Amending City Code Chapter 52 Alcoholic Liquor

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November 15, 2023 TO: Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe& Members of the Decatur City Council FROM: Scot Wrighton, City Manager RE: Proposed Revisions to Chapter 52 of the City Code In January of this year,the City Council enacted a 6-month moratorium on the issuance of new video gaming licenses in the city while it studied and evaluated whether and how it could amend Chapter 52 to slow or end the growth in the number of video gaming machines available in the city,and cap or reduce the number of business establishments over time that offered video gaming to their customers. In July,the City Council extended the moratorium through December 31 of this year. During the moratoriums,the city conducted an online survey on the topic of video gaming;an internal committee made recommendations for amending existing ordinances to advance the council's policy objectives;the council conducted two public meetings on various aspects of video gaming rules as they pertain to licensed liquor establishments; and the city publicly posted different proposals and versions of draft Chapter 52 amendments to encourage substantive feedback from citizens and local business owners.The result is the proposed ordinance submitted with this memo. Like the community at-large,the members of the City Council are not of one mind on this topic. For this reason,I discussed different policy options with you individually, in an effort to find out how at least a majority of the City Council wanted to proceed on the several proposed Chapter 52 amendments.The proposed ordinance makes both substantive and non-substantive revisions.The substantive revisions in this latest version of Chapter 52 (attached) are: 1. In order to prevent entities or individuals from forming"clubs"for the express purpose of offering video gaming, language has been added to Class"C" requirements to further limit what constitutes a "club" (Section 4). 2. In order to prevent entities from requesting restaurant licenses(Class"G" and Class"I") just so they can add video gaming at convenience stores and other businesses that do not fit the traditional definition of a restaurant, even though they sell some food products,the definition of a restaurant has been strengthened (section 4). 3. The proposed ordinance now prohibits video gaming in theaters(Class"K").The draft ordinance prohibits video gaming in ALL liquor license categories EXCEPT classes A, C, G, I,0 and P (Section 4).