Legislature passes bill that makes it easier to get liquor licenses in Columbus

Legislation that will alter the way liquor store licensees are granted in Muscogee County passed the Georgia General Assembly late Friday.

House Bill 510, a law that would make the mandated distance between liquor stores and schools and churches, passed the Senate on a 48-5 vote, with Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus, and Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, voting in favor of it.

It passed the Georgia House earlier in the month on a 142-13 vote with all five members of the Columbus delegation sponsoring the legislation and voting for its passage. The bill now goes to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature before it can become law.

The bill comes as the city is facing multiple lawsuits in Muscogee County Superior Court from local package store owner Pat Daniel, disputing how the city grants liquor licenses. The city asked for the legislative fix because the 2010 census had put Columbus in a 1970s-population triggered law that was written specifically for Chatham County, Columbus City Attorney Clifton Fay said.

Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, is the dean of the local delegation and was the primary sponsor of the legislation, which was requested by the Columbus Council as part of its legislative agenda.

“The way this has been explained to me is that Columbus will now be treated in state law the same way the other 150-odd counties are,” Smyre said. “The fact that there were lawsuits was brought to my attention after it passed the House.”

In late 2015, there was an application for a liquor store at 5520 Forrest Road, about a quarter mile from Daniel’s Forrest Road Package Store.

Daniel, represented by her husband, Columbus attorney Steve Hodges, filed suit challenging how the city measured the distance from the competitor’s proposed location to a nearby church day care on Woodruff Farm Road. The store has to be 600 feet from the church, according to state law and city ordinance. The city was measuring from front door to front door by the most direct ground route. The provision that was written for Chatham County that now applied to Muscogee County, stated that the measurement had to be property line to property line by a straight line.

The new law, if signed by the governor, would allow the city to measure front door by the most direct ground route.

“Columbus will continue to measure by the most direct route of travel on the ground,” Fay said.

The law will also require 600 feet between the front door of a liquor store and the nearest property line of a school.

McKoon said he supported the legislation because it erased what he termed “an arcane statute.”

“If you are a prospective business owner and are going to open a package store in Muscogee County, you do your due diligence and go by the state law, then you realize that the state law does not apply, that seems to me you are making it particularly difficult to do business in Muscogee County,” McKoon said.

Hodges declined to comment on the passage of the legislation or the pending litigation.

Daniel has a second Superior Court lawsuit that claims a newly opened Bradley Park liquor store violates state law because of its proximity to a child care center that Daniel claims should be classified as a school. Fay argues that the Growing Room at 610 Bradley Park Drive does not meet the standard to be called a school. The Bottle Shop is at 101 Southern Way and is less than 600 feet from the Growing Room.

“A for-profit day care is not a school under Columbus law and a for-profit day care is not a school under state law,” Fay said. “We will litigate that all the way to the Court of Appeals, if necessary.”

In a December interview, Hodges said because the Growing Room is involved in the Georgia state-funded, pre-K program, it is a school.

The Growing Room has a pre-K program that is a preferred provider, part of Bright from the Start (also known as the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning); has the same curriculum as Muscogee County public school pre-K; teachers have the same certification as Muscogee County pre-K programs; and the Growing Room takes overflow from Muscogee County pre-K programs, Hodges said.

Hodges declined to comment on the passage of the legislation or the pending litigation.

This story was originally published March 27, 2017 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Legislature passes bill that makes it easier to get liquor licenses in Columbus."