A vote on establishing a public drinking area was postponed again at this week’s meeting of the Covington Board of Commissioners.
The ordinance that would have established the area, similar to the DORA at The Banks in Cincinnati, was due for a second reading on Tuesday. However, Commissioner Tim Acri, who first proposed the idea in April, made a motion to remove it from the agenda.
Acri’s comments suggest that businesses within the community felt the ordinance in its current form was undesirable.
“We’re planning to have another public meeting in an effort to get some answers to residents that have questions, as well as consider recommendations that we received from the community,” said Acri.
The vote to strike the item from the agenda was unanimous. Timelines for the public meeting were not discussed.
Officially called common consumption areas, or CCAs, these areas would designate a section of the city where open container laws are exempt under certain conditions. Usually, containers in such areas have to be made of special materials and can’t exceed certain size limits. Beverages also can’t be taken out of the area.
The ordinance would have established the area where alcohol could be consumed, along defined boundaries along Madison Avenue and between 4th Street and 9th Street. View the map below for a reference.
Business owners would not need special event permits to serve alcohol within the area; however, the city manager may suspend the area’s operations “for reasons of public safety, construction, weather emergency, or other compelling need” with a twenty-four-hour notice.
Conversations from the commissioners earlier this year suggest the board hopes to establish several CCAs throughout the city.
The meeting heard another statement from James Schaefer, co-owner of Hierophany and Hedge, a specialty shop on Pike Street, who spoke out against the ordinance two weeks ago. Schaefer reiterated many of his concerns about security and expressed what he described as a lack of communication from the city.
“I have tried to talk to as many other residents and businesses as I can, and there has been a mixed response from folks,” Schaefer said. “But I think one of the most concerning things is how few of these businesses and residents knew this was happening.”
Schaefer recommended shrinking the proposed area to include the area from the intersection of East 8th Street and Pike Street to East Eighth Street and Madison Avenue.
“That would be a much easier area to police, and it would also be an area where those stakeholders would be able to take care of sort of littering and vandalism on their own,” Schaefer said.
The board did not engage in additional discussion beyond Acri’s comments.
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