Columbia County ups the ante on rules governing new liquor stores

Make it a double. 

Two votes by the Columbia County Board of Commissioners will now be required to approve the establishment of new liquor stores. 

Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the second reading of a pair of ordinances updated to help ensure stronger oversight over the statutory process that allows merchants to sell spirits for consumption off-premises. 

The rule changes were prompted by a series of events late last year in which three simultaneously pending requests to open liquor stores would have placed all three stores at the same busy intersection where Furys Ferry and Evans to Locks roads meet. 

The changes do not affect existing package stores. 

Under the altered ordinances, as of Wednesday, the property lines of future liquor stores in Columbia County must be at least one mile, as the crow flies, from existing liquor stores. Currently, all but one of the county’s 17 liquor stores are less than a mile from a spirit-selling competitor. 

Previously:New laws governing location for Columbia County liquor sales pass first reading

In case you missed it:Change in store: Plans advance for Columbia County's first Lidl supermarket

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New package stores also must be at least 1,000 feet from churches, schools, parks, playgrounds and alcohol treatment facilities. Previously the limit was 200 yards, except 100 yards for churches. For reference, the original ordinance required they be two football fields away from schools, the revised ordinance would require new stores be three and one-third football fields away.

Also, liquor stores will no longer qualify automatically for inclusion on property zoned general commercial, also called C-2. 

“Current zoning allows a liquor store to go in if it has the proper zoning,” Deputy County Manager Matt Schlachter told commissioners. “This will actually make it a conditional use, meaning any new liquor store would have to come before this board for approval regardless of the current zoning of the parcels.”  

Other businesses that must be granted conditional use for C-2 zones include massage or tattoo parlors, microbreweries and places of worship.