The General Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 6 on a bill that would authorize the designation of common areas where alcohol could be consumed.<\/p>\n
LB1130, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash, would authorize the creation of entertainment districts and a licensing process for those districts.<\/p>\n
An entertainment district would be designated and regulated by a local governing body via city ordinance and could be revoked if found to be a nuisance or a threat to public health, safety or welfare. Entertainment district designations would be filed with the state Liquor Control Commission (LCC).<\/p>\n
Under the bill, a local governing body could designate a commons area within the district that:
\n\u2022 is shared by entertainment district authorized licensees;
\n\u2022 abuts the licensed premises of the licensees;
\n\u2022 is closed to vehicular traffic when used as a common area; and
\n\u2022 has limited pedestrian accessibility by use of a physical barrier on a permanent or temporary basis.<\/p>\n
To operate in the commons areas, a business would be required to:
\n\u2022 file an application with the LCC and pay a $300 fee;
\n\u2022 be located adjacent to a commons area within an entertainment district; and
\n\u2022 have a retail liquor license, craft brewery license or microdistillery license.<\/p>\n
Each entertainment district licensee would be required to serve alcoholic liquor in a container that displays the business\u2019 logo or trade name, which Coash said would hold each one accountable for liquor sales in their individual establishments.<\/p>\n
Coash said local governing bodies also could place additional regulations and restrictions on entertainment district licensees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis license starts like any other license,\u201d Coash said. \u201cIt starts at the local level.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said entertainment districts could help retain young professionals in Nebraska and encourage out-of-town visitors.<\/p>\n
Dave Landis, deputy director of urban development for the city of Lincoln, testified in support of the bill. The ability to create an entertainment district would help the city promote the new Pinnacle Bank Arena development in the West Haymarket area, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want people to come to Lincoln to enjoy something special,\u201d he said. \u201cTo create that, we need to have unique and vibrant experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brett West of WRK also supported the bill. As a private partner with the city involved in arena-related development, West said an entertainment district would encourage visitors to spend more time and money in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project really is focused around the arena \u2026 and extending that event atmosphere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hobert Rupe, executive director of the Liquor Control Commission, testified in support of the bill. The state\u2019s liquor control act was written in 1935, he said, and adding entertainment district would reflect more modern business models.<\/p>\n
Rupe said a similar district in Kansas City has resulted in no additional enforcement problems.<\/p>\n
No opposition testimony was given and the committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The General Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 6 on a bill that would authorize the designation of common areas where<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-6219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-affairs","tag-sen-colby-coash"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6219"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13627,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219\/revisions\/13627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}