Texas Tech students and Lubbock residents could see alcohol in stores by late August or early September after the City Council approved Monday revisions recommended by the planning and zoning commission concerning where and how retailers can sell alcohol.
After a vote to sell alcohol in the city passed May 9, owners of The Strip - Pinkie's and Majestic Liquors - filed a lawsuit against the city claiming unfair zoning ordinances. A 90-day restraining order was issued eventually, holding back retailers from receiving permits for alcohol sales until both sides reach an agreement.
Revisions were made in early June by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and after the council's approval Monday, a second reading is necessary to put it effectively into motion. The reading is scheduled for the next council meeting July 8.
Senior Planner Bill Boone said if the second read is passed, a charter requires the ordinance to be advertised in the local newspaper twice in two separate weeks. After the second week of advertising, which allows anyone the opportunity to sue the city for the new ordinance, 10 days must pass before it can become effective.
That would make the earliest date to begin processing business permits for alcohol sales Aug. 10, but Boone said Pinkie's and Majestic Liquors must drop the temporary restraining order for it to happen. If the restraining order is not dropped, Boone said the city will wait for it to expire on Aug. 18 before processing business permits for the sale of alcohol.
However, Boone said he expects the lawsuit to be dropped if the second reading is passed, which gives the city an extra week or so to deal alcohol permits to local businesses.
"We've already talked to them," he said. "We think they'll do it if everything goes through smoothly."
Boone said it could be sooner than late August for alcohol to be sold in the city; it depends on how prepared businesses are for the transition and how many business permits are sent in.
"We'll start doing the inspections probably the day we get the first ones," he said. "Those may actually be released within a day or two - how long it takes them to get their (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Comission licenses), the county, all that stuff, I don't know."
The revisions to the zoning ordinances involved the most common commercial zoning districts where the bulk of retail takes place, Boone said, and alcohol stores within those areas can be built as large as possible.
"Starting in the C3 zoning district on up, grocery stores could continue to have alcohol sales but also so can package stores without any kind of size limitation on them," Boone said.
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