El Paso City Council: Common sense trumps letter of law in alcohol sales exemptions
The El Paso City Council green-lighted the sale of alcohol at a nightclub across the street from a daycare, saying common sense often trumps the letter of the law.
Francisco Lopez requested the exemption from the El Paso City Council for his nightclub located at 1160 Airway, south of the airport. State code stipulates the property of an alcohol-selling business cannot be within 300 feet of the property line of a daycare.
Lopez’s nightclub property is within 300 feet of the daycare property but the doors of each establishment are more than 600 feet apart. “There are 650 feet and a major arterial separating these two businesses and no opposition from the daycare. When you look at this as a common sense sort of thing, it’s not in any way going to harm the daycare. But if you look at it as a technicality, we can oppose someone trying to open a business,” said City Rep. Michiel Noe.
City Rep. Emma Acosta, who represents the area, said the daycare doesn’t have a problem with one more nightclub opening across Airway because the area was full of booze-selling businesses before it moved in. “They (bars and restaurants) were already there when they set up their daycare center and they don’t have any problem with it and have not had any problem with any of the businesses in the area,” said Acosta.
City Rep. Lily Limon was the only vote against the exemption, saying the Council made too many exemptions. “The law is really clear – 300 feet – but then someone says ‘what is it (the distance) door to door, what is it lot to lot.’ Well let’s just stay with what it is.”
She said exemptions made for badly mixed areas. “If the day care was there first, let’s honor that. If the club was there first, let’s honor that and not mix the two.”
City Rep. Carl Robinson abstained.
The City Council doesn’t always make exemptions. On Tuesday, it denied an exemption from another bar requestor located at 2900 Fort Boulevard. In that case the bar would have been right next to a daycare and the daycare did object.
