Round Rock Chamber Seeks To Change Local Liquor Laws

ROUND ROCK, TX — The Round Rock Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday disclosed plans to challenge existing laws in an effort to balance alcohol sales rules for all areas of the city, officials said Wednesday.

The aim is to gather signatures on a petition to force a referendum on the issue for a November vote, officials said. The petition calls for a vote for the legal sale of all alcoholic beverages including mixed beverages. The goal is to collect 6,500 signatures by July in order to put the proposed rule change on a November ballot, chamber CEO Mike Odom explained in an advisory emailed to members.

Specifically, the initiative seeks to dissolve existing laws that force at least two restaurants the ability to create "club memberships" for customers wishing to buy liquor-suffused drinks, Odom explained.

“This is an economic and business climate fairness issue,” Odom said in the emailed advisory. “Over time, these patchwork set of laws are hurting our current businesses and keeping us from realizing our full potential.”

The area most strictly located in the city extends west to Interstate 35, north to U.S. 79 and east past Texas 130, according to a chamber map provided by Odom. Some of the city's major arteries — A.W. Grimes Boulevard, Gattis School Road and Red Bud Lane — are within that more strictly regulated zone.

Odom noted that current laws are particularly detrimental to some of the city's best-known establishments, including Buffalo Wings & Rings at the intersection of A.W. Grimes Boulevard and Gattis School Road.

The idiosyncrasies of existing rules governing the serving of liquor within city limits has its roots in the Prohibition era, Odom suggested. Since Prohibition, Texas has allowed elections to be staged with either counties, justice of the peace precincts, or municipal city limits, his emailed missive explained. As a result, there are now ten different versions of legal alcohol sales. These categories are commonly referred to as having “wet-dry” status.

After Prohibition, there have been more than 22 local option efforts including three that affected the City of Round Rock and surrounding areas, Odom wrote. In 1983, Round Rock voters approved all alcohol sales that covered what was inside the city limits at that time. In 1987, the same version was approved in the justice of the peace precinct that took in areas north and west. The last election in 2002 within the city limits approved alcohol sales in restaurants.

But the city has annexed more land since these elections, yet the “wet-dry” status that was in effect prior to annexation remains in force, the chamber chairman noted. In order to have the rules apply to all of Round Rock, state law requires the election to be held in the current boundaries of the city, he said.

"Approximately 80 percent of the city allows for maximum flexibility when it comes to the sale of alcoholic beverages, while the remaining areas have arbitrary limitations," Odom observed. "We need to support all of our City of Round Rock businesses with one set of rules for everyone."

He expounded on the plight of Buffalo Wings & Rings given current laws: "The inequity of these laws significantly hurts our neighbors like Pete Pearson, the owner of Buffalo Wings and Rings near the corner of A.W. Grimes Boulevard and Gattis School Road. Pete’s restaurant is one of the businesses at a competitive disadvantage due to the conflicting laws. He is on the wrong side of the road according to current alcohol laws. In order to serve mixed drinks to his customers, state law requires him to be a private club."

And he noted the oddities yielded given the private club requirement to serve liquor: "Another peculiarity of this issue is the example of two restaurants, who have the same concept (i.e., type of food served) and are directly across the street from one another, but one can serve mixed drinks without being a private club while the other cannot," Odom wrote.

He urged residents to sign the petition in order to force a voter referendum. Petition officials donning yellow shirts will be canvassing neighborhoods in the coming days and weeks, going door to door in collecting signatures, he said. He added that petition forms are available at the chamber office as well. He advised business owners they can help gather signatures by inviting petition officials to their workplaces for mass signings by employees.

"The chamber vigorously supports a free-market system," Odom said in closing his message. "The inequities of uneven laws fly in the face of that belief. Please help us make the alcohol laws equal for everyone."

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