Sterling council to consider broader liquor-license exemption near Northeastern Junior College
A proposed ordinance would remove a restaurant-only limit near NJC; the packet identifies no applicant and does not set dates for a public hearing or second reading.
Sterling City Council is scheduled to hold a first reading Aug. 11 on a proposed ordinance that would broaden the liquor licenses eligible for an exemption to the city’s 500-foot school-distance restriction near Northeastern Junior College. The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at City Council Chambers, 421 N. Fourth St., the city’s council packet says.
Ordinance No. 9, Series of 2026, would allow full hotel-and-restaurant, beer-and-wine, and fermented-malt-beverage-and-wine licenses within 500 feet of the NJC campus, if the applicable liquor licensing authority approves the license and other state and city requirements are met. The restaurant-purpose limitation for beer-and-wine licenses near other public, private and parochial high schools would remain.
The proposal follows a July 28 work session in which the council directed staff to remove language limiting the NJC exemption to licenses granted “only if granted for restaurant purposes,” according to a July 29 staff memorandum in the packet. The memo says the change could make licenses available to businesses such as “a small convenience store or market.” It identifies no specific business, applicant or pending application.
Staff recommends approval. The packet does not include opposition, public testimony or debate against the proposal. The change would expand eligibility but would not automatically issue a license; applicants would still have to meet licensing requirements and obtain approval from the relevant authority.
Colorado law generally restricts new liquor-license premises within 500 feet of a public or parochial school or the principal campus of a college, university or seminary. It allows a municipality other than a city and county to eliminate or reduce certain distance restrictions by ordinance.
The Aug. 11 item is a scheduled first reading, not final adoption. The ordinance says it would take effect 10 days after passage, but the fields for a public hearing and second reading are blank. The available records do not show that the first reading has occurred, that the council has voted or that the ordinance has passed.