Sterling council to consider broader liquor-license exemption near Northeastern Junior College
A proposed ordinance would expand eligibility for three liquor-license categories near NJC while retaining the restaurant-only limit near public, private and parochial high schools; no first-reading outcome or future hearing date has been established.
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., according to the city’s meeting agenda.
The available premeeting records do not establish whether the council will introduce or advance Ordinance No. 9. The packet contains no Aug. 11 proceedings, motion or vote.
The ordinance would make full hotel-and-restaurant, beer-and-wine, and fermented-malt-beverage-and-wine licenses eligible within 500 feet of the NJC campus. The applicable liquor licensing authority would still have to approve a license, and applicants would have to meet other state and city requirements. The change would expand eligibility but would not automatically issue a license, the ordinance says.
The amendment would not remove the restaurant-purpose limitation for beer-and-wine licenses within 500 feet of public, private and parochial high schools. Other school-distance restrictions also would remain in effect.
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 included in the packet. The memo says the change could make a license available to “other types of businesses, such as a small convenience store or market.” It does not identify a specific business, applicant or pending application. City staff recommends approval.
The draft ordinance calls for publication after introduction and a later public hearing and second reading. The date fields for those proceedings are blank in the packet, so no hearing or second-reading date has been established. The ordinance says it would take effect 10 days after passage.
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. State law allows certain municipalities to eliminate or reduce distance restrictions by ordinance, but any license would still require approval by the relevant licensing authority and compliance with applicable requirements.