Petitioners in Frisco Seek to Extend Alcohol Sales into Recently Annexed Areas

The Dallas Morning News (subscription required) reports today that Frisco business leaders and citizens are working to gather the 8,000 signatures necessary to add items to the city’s May ballot to extend alcohol sales to areas that have recently been annexed by the city.  The ballot measures seek to allow beer and wine sales in convenience stores located in the newly-annexed areas (including the U.S. Highway 380 corridor) and mixed beverage sales in restaurants located in the same areas.

Increased Cooperation Between the TABC and the Comptroller Means More Texas Mixed Beverage with Food and Beverage (RM Permit) Renewals Are Being Denied

Our Licensing and Permitting consultants have been noticing some trends that may directly affect Texas bar and restaurant owners’ alcohol permits:

First, we are seeing increased monitoring and exchange of information in general between the Texas State Comptroller and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). This means that there have been increased suspensions of permits for businesses that are delinquent on Mixed Beverage Tax, Sales/Use Tax, and other state taxes.

Alcohol Licensing Process May Become Easier for Some Dallas Businesses

Today, the Dallas Morning News (subscription required) reported that the Dallas City Council had amended the portion of the city code preventing the sale of alcohol by establishments that were within a certain proximity to churches, daycare/childcare facilities, public hospitals and schools schools. According to the new amendment, such businesses may now apply to the council for a variance that can be granted as long as three council members approve.

The amendment also lowers the the retail size requirement that a store must meet in order to be granted the variance from 30,000sf to 15,000sf.

According to our alcohol licensing and permitting consultants, this amendment could simplify the TABC licensing process for restaurants located within these formerly-off-limits areas — where businesses were forced to establish themselves as private clubs in order to sell alcohol. Now, provided they can secure the 3 necessary council votes for a variance, these businesses can simply proceed with regular TABC licensing.

The TABC and Competition

A post this week on how TABC regulations negatively impact small beer brewers via advertising restrictions demonstrates how outdated many of these rules continue to be. The writer points out (and we concur) that no matter its original intention, the regulation now clearly favors large beer companies, making it difficult (if not impossible) for smaller, out-of-state breweries to compete.

A good read, and certainly representative of a larger issue with the TABC that we consistently encounter when working with small businesses trying to navigate the time- and resource-consuming permit process for alcohol sales.