St. Charles City Council won’t limit liquor licenses

St. Charles City Council members have rejected an idea to restrict the number of liquor licenses granted by the city.

During its Jan. 22 winter workshop, the council considered limiting the number of liquor licenses by location and by type of license.

Fourth Ward Alderpersons David Pietryla and Bryan Wirball spearheaded a proposal to enact a temporary moratorium on Class C liquor licenses in the downtown district. Class C liquor licenses are for bars or taverns that do not serve food.

“I think the goal, and at least the vision for the Fourth Ward, is to really just foster some more business diversity,” Wirball said.

Police Chief James Keegan told the council members that the city currently has 130 active liquor licenses, 30 late-night permits and seven Class C licenses. He said the establishments with Class C licenses are smaller in size and tend to attract an older, smaller crowd.

“It’s a concept that has been working,” Keegan said. “From a police perspective, we don’t have a lot of issues with these licenses.”

Alderperson Ryan Bongard said he favored letting the market determine the number of licenses granted by the city instead of proactively setting limitations.

“It doesn’t sound like there’s a problem that we’re really addressing, and I think it’s casting too wide a net,” Bongard said. “I think we’d always want business diversity. But I don’t think that we’re doing ourselves any good by limiting the market. I’m not interested in going this direction.”

Alderperson Jayme Muenz said she was not in favor of the cap. She said the city already has the right to deny liquor license applications when they come in, so there isn’t a need for a cap.

“It might be wiser of us to incentivize businesses rather than punish property owners by not allowing them to have a specific business come in that’s interested,” Muenz said. “If we don’t like something, and we don’t want it there, we have the ability to say no. So I don’t know that an additional policy would be necessary.”

Pietryla said the council would set themselves up to face less scrutiny if a temporary ordinance was put in place, rather than having to deny applicants.

Mayor Lora Vitek asked for a show of hands vote on who was interested in bringing the item forward for policy discussion at the committee level. The majority voted not to move the item forward.