

image by: Rochelle Valverde

The entrance of John Brown’s Underground, 7 E. Seventh St., is pictured on Aug. 4, 2022.

A company that has struggled to adhere to the City of Lawrence’s boundaries on downtown liquor product sales is proposing the town make changes to its code to primarily make it possible for additional bars downtown below certain situations.
A town ordinance that dates back to 1994 calls for new downtown drinking establishment licensees to make no additional than 45% of their income from alcoholic beverages. The companies with bar use that already existed in 1994 became “grandfathered,” and 23 companies are authorized to preserve a bar use even if possession variations fingers. The intention of the ordinance was to enable maintain the retail character of downtown and stop it from starting to be a bar district.
In the beginning the allowance for an “accessory bar” applied only to eating places and lodges, requiring the 55% non-alcoholic beverages income to appear from foodstuff, but final calendar year the Metropolis Fee expanded the alternative to retail and other utilizes. That suggests corporations can now use foodstuff, retail, services or any other non-alcoholic beverages product sales to fulfill the 55% non-alcohol threshold.
John Brown’s Underground, a speakeasy-design bar at 7 E. Seventh St. that opened in 2014, has unsuccessful to adhere to the alcohol sales necessity on a couple occasions more than the a long time. Late last month, right after an additional these celebration, John Brown’s succeeded in getting the fee to approve a 6-thirty day period extension of its consuming establishment license so it could pursue the code change. Mayor Courtney Shipley was the only commissioner to vote in opposition to the extension, noting that John Brown’s had unsuccessful to comply with the town ordinance in the previous, and that as long as the requirement was in position it should really be adopted.
Scott Elliott and Dante Colombo, the owner and supervisor of John Brown’s, are requesting that the metropolis increase the permitted share of liquor revenue from 45% to 55%, and make it possible for the metropolis to grant organizations an exception to derive as a great deal as 90% of product sales from liquor below specified disorders, in accordance to an application for a proposed textual content amendment.
Specifically, if a company exceeds 55% of gross sales from alcoholic beverages, the proposed modification would give the metropolis the “discretion” to challenge a non-transferable particular use permit that would allow for up to 90% of revenue to arrive from alcoholic beverages. The cafe/accent bar would have to meet up with the adhering to problems:
• Have been in operation for extra than 5 several years
• Have a valid liquor license issued by the Kansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Division
• Have no historical past of neighborhood grievances, have no violations of any condition or municipal liquor guidelines for a single yr prior to the software, and not be deemed a nuisance
• Have a floor spot of less than 3,000 sq. ft
• File an software for the exception prior to the expiration of the metropolis liquor license
Pertaining to why John Brown’s was not capable to fulfill the metropolis alcohol income requirement, the applicants state in component that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the requirement extra tough, noting the closure in April 2020 of Wake the Lifeless cafe, which was on the flooring over John Brown’s. The candidates state that they have tried other ways to make far more non-alcoholic beverages profits, these types of as promoting goods and offering cocktail-building courses, but that they ended up even now unsuccessful.
As significantly as justification for the proposed modification, the applicants point out in aspect that John Brown’s enhances other downtown firms and contributes to the uniqueness of downtown, and the amendment would let other “small, legislation-abiding” firms to do the exact same. They also point out the amendment’s constraints would secure versus nuisance and security challenges and be fairer than the present ordinance, which they argue favors the grandfathered bars.
“The proposed amendment also seeks to stage the participating in field for Downtown companies not afforded the grandfathered position solely available to the privileged genuine estate proprietors and companies at the time the Ordinance was enacted,” the candidates condition. “… The inherent inequity is easily evident when contrasted against Applicant’s business, which struggles to meet up with the Ordinance specifications due to its space constraints and thoughtfully deemed choices.”
The proposal to amend town code was just lately submitted to the metropolis, and is in the first phase of a multi-phase process that would be demanded to make these types of a change.
Setting up and Development Director Jeff Crick explained given that a personal celebration asked for the proposed textual content amendment, town code necessitates that the Metropolis Fee 1st review and take into consideration initiating the requested modification. If the commission agrees to initiate the modification, it would then go to the Setting up Commission for its evaluate and advice. That advice would then return to the Metropolis Fee for top consideration.
Crick reported the metropolis is at this time working to schedule the prospective initiation of the amendment on an future Town Commission agenda.





