Alcohol impact area dropped

West Central store owners who feared they’d no longer be able to sell high-octane beer have gotten a reprieve.

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 4-3 to eliminate the Alcohol Impact Area it created less than a year ago at the request of the West Central Neighborhood Council.

The close vote means Mayor David Condon has the power to veto.

The impact area is a zone in which stores have been asked to voluntarily stop selling many kinds of beers with an alcohol content of 5.7 percent or higher. The area was formalized more than six months ago, long enough that the City Council could have requested the Washington State Liquor Control Board to make the ban mandatory if it had evidence that problems from public drunkenness had remained steady or worsened.

Spokane police Officer Max Hewitt told the City Council that statistics indicate that problems related to alcohol in the West Central Neighborhood in 2012 are well above the level for all of 2011.

But the neighborhood council last month reversed its stance and requested the voluntary ban be abandoned.

They say the law is unfair to small businesses that must compete with nearby grocery stores. A new state law enabled large groceries this summer to begin selling liquor.

“Customers, they don’t buy beer in one store and chips in another,” said Daniel Ghebreab, co-owner of the Super C store in West Central.

And store owners, including Ghebreab, said they have made a renewed effort to stop the sale of alcohol to those who are chronically inebriated.

Earlier this year the Liquor Control Board agreed with the City Council’s request to create a mandatory ban on high-octane beer sales in the East Central neighborhood. The city also has a downtown ban on such sales.

Some who testified in favor of the West Central impact area noted the neighborhood’s reputation for crime and its infamous nickname, “Felony Flats.” They said the Alcohol Impact Area was a step in the right direction for improving the quality of life.

Sarah Brody, who lives with her family in West Central, said neighborhood stores devote too much of their shelf space to alcohol.

“What that says to me as a community member is that the kind of customers who are buying high-alcohol content (beer), that those consumers are more important to these businesses than the families of West Central,” she said.

Councilman Steve Salvatori said the decision on impact areas should be left entirely to neighborhood councils.

“I just think it’s clear that this is a neighborhood issue and we need to listen to the neighborhood,” he said.

Three council members argued there was no harm keeping the impact area intact since the ban remains voluntary and the city has never pushed for a mandatory ban unless the neighborhood pushed for stricter rules. Removing the impact area removes pressure to act responsibly when selling alcohol, they said.

Councilman Jon Snyder said impact areas aren’t targeting small businesses. They target giant international corporations that make billions in profits, thanks in part to marketing to low-income neighborhoods, he said.

“What we’re trying to say is enough is enough for these companies that come into our communities and try to sell these types of products,” he said.