Liquor licenses
October 29th, 2007 by 
Alica
Do you think South Dakota cities should be able to issue as many liquor licenses as they want, or do you think there should be a cap on the number of licenses a city can have?
State Sen. Ed Olson, R-Mitchell, says he is considering introducing legislation to remove the cap on liquor licenses that can be issued.
Right now, state law says a city can have three on-sale and three off-sale licenses for the first 1,000 population plus one more of each license for each 1,500 additional population or any part thereof. There are no limits for the number of malt beverage licenses a city can issue.
Right now, Brandon can, and does, issue seven on-sale (liquor for sale by the glass) licenses, plus one special license for a convention center, which the law allows. The city can offer up to seven off-sale (liquor for sale by the bottle) licenses but currently issues only three. So, theoretically, four more liquor stores could open up in town.
The eligibilities are updated each decade when the national census is taken. Since Brandon is a growing city, it will be able to offer more licenses after the 2010 census. City Administrator Dennis Olson estimates the 2010 population of Brandon will be about 8,230, which will allow one more on-sale and one more off-sale license. However, if the population of Brandon in 2010 is 8,501 or more, the city will get two of each license.
What do you think are the advantages of putting a cap on the number of licenses a city can issue? What are the disadvantages?
If the city gets more applications for licenses than it can offer, the City Council gets to choose who gets the licenses and who has to go without or settle for a malt beverage license.
Posted in Uncategorized | 
October 29th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Difficult call. The current set up allows people with a license to sell it when they want to sell their bar. I’ve heard the going rate is $70,000 for the license. The current license holders have a definite reason to be against more licenses. Can the City could sell the new licenses? I’m not sure I like the idea of letting the council decide who gets the licenses - maybe a drawing would be fairer.
For the consumer, I think it would mean more choices and maybe less expensive drinks since there would be more competition. It might not make that much of a difference in Brandon - not enough areas zoned for Bars (depending on how the conditional variance things turn out).
I favor staying with the current numbers, unless there is a new entertainment district in the works. Get the zoning first, and then add to the number of licenses.