Liquor regs challenge area cities

WASILLA — The Mat-Su Borough has three new liquor licenses it can grant and growing Valley communities are lining up.

Senate Bill 128, which was passed by the Legislature this past session, allows the Borough to increase its active liquor licenses by three over the next 10 years and allows existing licenses to be transferred across municipal boundaries. With more licenses available and the potential for licenses to move into or outside of city limits, Wasilla, Palmer and Houston are reviewing their own liquor licensing policies.

Wasilla City Council will hold a work session at 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall to discuss the process for applications to transfer Borough liquor licenses into the city.

“It’s just a work in progress,” said Marty Metiva, a Wasilla council member, about the current effort and a previous proposed city liquor license ordinance that failed in September.

Metiva said his goal for Wednesday’s work session is to work toward creating an improved and balanced city ordinance that recognizes the concerns of longtime businesses over new establishments.

Having the potential for more liquor licenses in the city “is a great economic tool,” Metiva said. “But, we have to make sure we use it right.

Before SB 128, liquor licenses could only be transferred or sold within a city’s limits. With the possibility of new licenses coming into Wasilla, Palmer or Houston, efforts are underway to gauge the effects of either gaining or losing the number of establishments that can serve liquor.

Wasilla Municipal Code says applications for liquor licenses are reviewed by the city finance department, the police department and the planning office. One option under consideration is that, in addition to the three departmental reviews, applications must also pass a new evaluation process. A committee of three officials, one each from the finance department, purchasing office and economic development office, would evaluate the application.

“We’re going to have a limited amount of transfers so we want to make sure the ones we approve have some community value to them,” said Casey Reynolds, Wasilla economic developer.

The value of a liquor license to the community would be determined by a five-category point system Reynolds created after researching other economic incentive programs, he said. The evaluation categories include originality of dining concept, financial and managerial capabilities, project quality, project readiness and economic impact. With new liquor licenses available, Reynolds said there will be many possibilities for growth. Several restaurants want to locate or expand in Wasilla, but without a liquor license it would be hard to establish the business.

Annette Andres, co-owner of the Windbreak Cafe, said she welcomes the competition new liquor licenses would create, but she hasn’t been impressed by the city’s proposed point system.

“I don’t think the process that the city presented was a very fair one,” she said.

Andres isn’t sure how the Windbreak would be impacted by the new law or new businesses, but she is concerned about other local, established businesses that may want to obtain a license. Fairness suggests a business that has already spent a number of years as part of the business community generating tax revenues should have considerable merit in requesting a new license.

“I hope that the work session will provide all citizens with the opportunity to weigh in on a process that would be fair for all,” Andres said.

Efforts to reach other Valley municipalities for comment were not successful.

Emerson Krueger, a Mat-Su Borough planner, said transferring licenses is a tricky issue, but work is being done to address the transfers.

“We have a process drafted that is being circulated for internal review,” Krueger said, adding that it will require a lot of discussion to find the appropriate process in allowing transfers and guard against one area or municipality having an inordinate number of liquor licenses while the rest of the Borough is dry.