A downtown entertainment district in Mountain Home where the public consumption of alcohol will be allowed has been approved by the City Council.
Council members gave the OK for the establishment of the entertainment district by a 5-3 vote during a City Council meeting Thursday night. The decisive fifth vote was cast by Mayor Hillrey Adams.
The move follows the passage of a state law during the most recent legislative session, and comes as several other cities around the state are considering establishing similar districts.
Act 812 of 2019, sponsored by Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, allows municipalities to authorize creation of such entertainment districts within commercially zoned areas that highlight restaurant, entertainment and hospitality options on a permanent or temporary basis.
Mountain Home's district will open July 24 and will encompass approximately eight blocks, from Hickory Street east to South Church Street, and from Fifth Street south to Eighth Street. The district will include part of South Main Street.
Between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and midnight daily, patrons will be allowed to leave a restaurant or bar with a single commercially branded paper or plastic cup of beer, wine or a mixed drink to be consumed in the boundaries of the entertainment district.
Exempted from the district are Mountain Home's City Hall, Veterans Plaza, the Baxter County Courthouse and Hickory Park.
Adams said Friday that the City Council debated the ordinance over the course of two meetings.
"The council put a lot of thought into it," he said. "This was the second meeting on it. It came up on the first reading two weeks ago and there was a lot of discussion on it at that event."
Adams said the City Council had another long discussion Thursday night that featured a lot of public input, so council members decided to do the third and final reading of the ordinance. Passage came after concessions that made the district a block shorter than originally proposed.
"I think that helped get it over the hill," Adams said.
The mayor said a weekly event in the area known as the Friday Night Block Party, which runs from about mid-May to mid-September, also was exempted from the entertainment district designation. On those 15 nights, carry-out alcoholic containers will not be sold until after the conclusion of the block party.
Council member Eva Frame cast one of the three votes against the measure. Frame said the process was rushed and council members did not have adequate time to consider the ordinance.
"I just felt like due process was not done," she said Friday. "We had our first reading, then we had our second reading last night. We should have had our third reading at the next meeting."
Frame said she had heard from a number of constituents who were not in favor of the ordinance.
"I think the main concern was public safety," she said. "I think they are concerned about the public safety of people walking the streets with it."
Jennifer Baker, another council member who opposed the measure, said she believes the entertainment district designation is incompatible with the historic district designation that the downtown area received in 2010.
"When they came about this entertainment district in the historic district, I just had some problems with that," Baker said. "We want to preserve history, but I'm not sure I want public drinking of alcohol as a way to preserve our heritage."
Baker said she is in favor of promoting Mountain Home as a tourism destination and that she would like to see the area grow and prosper.
"I'm just not convinced that allowing open consumption of alcohol is the way to do it," she said. "I hope I'm wrong. I hope this turns out fine and that the downtown area grows. But what it came down to was there were three of us against it, and I just had to vote my conscience."
Council member Paige Evans, who was in favor of the ordinance, said she saw the issue in terms of economic growth.
She said that other than the Friday Night Block Party, Mountain Home's downtown area doesn't see a lot of action.
"I felt like this would be one of those things that would be a benefit and it wouldn't hurt to try it," Evans said.
Garner said Friday that the law he piloted through the Legislature is working as intended.
"It's about local control," Garner said. "If cities wanted to have this option for their entertainment purposes, they would have it and they would have the ability to exercise it.
"I imagine more cities will bring this up for a vote. Some will vote for it, some will vote against it, and that's the exactly the way this process should work."
Garner said he believes Mountain Home is the first city in Arkansas to pass such an ordinance.
"I haven't heard of any other towns, and I would assume that I would," he said.
Stephanie Jackson, a spokesman for Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, said the mayor is working with the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Little Rock Police Department on a proposal to establish an entertainment district in the city.
Garner said El Dorado is exploring the idea of creating such a district. Pam Griffin, president and chief operating officer of Murphy Arts District in El Dorado, also confirmed that she and others are working on a proposal to bring to the City Council that would establish a 17-city-block entertainment district within El Dorado.
"It'll take some time to get crosswalks painted and signs up and all that kind of stuff," Griffin said. "We'll probably get ours done in the next 30 to 60 days."
Griffin said she has been in contact with officials in Little Rock, Hot Springs and Texarkana, and recently presented with Fayetteville at the Municipal League conference last week in Little Rock. She said she also has received a call from Bentonville officials who are interested.
"It's something that a lot of cities across the state are looking at," Griffin said. "It's been a kind of 'figure it out as you go' because the rules are pretty vague at this point."
Griffin said the Municipal League is considering drafting a sample ordinance that cities can use as a template for their own ordinances.
"That's so cities won't just be out there making it up on their own," she said. "Their mission is to help with legal issues like that."
State Desk on 06/22/2019