This is the second part in an on-going series detailing downtown Foley’s past, present, and future.

FOLEY – During the Moving Foley Forward presentation held on Jan. 11, city attorney Chris Conte spoke to the crowd about the proposed Arts and Entertainment District that would be implemented in downtown Foley were it to be approved by the city council. Currently, the district proposal has been drafted by Conte and city planner and building official Miriam Boutwell, with plans to create a final draft to be presented during a city council soon. They are using final ordinances from several municipalities to create Foley’s ordinance, taking parts that they like and excluding the parts they do not like or that do not work for the city.
“What an Entertainment District allows you to do is you can designate a certain area,” Conte said, “and within that area, if you are an Entertainment District designee, you can serve alcohol and people can go outside with the alcohol, and walk from place to place without having to stay inside the bar. Basically as long as you are in the Entertainment District and you are using an approved container, the open container laws don’t apply within that district.”
Conte, who lives in Mobile, said the Entertainment District implemented in downtown Mobile has been crucial to revitalizing the downtown area.

SIZE REQUIREMENTS
The proposed district would encompass the majority of Foley’s downtown, including all businesses near the Highway 98 and Highway 59 intersection. To qualify for an Entertainment District there must be at least four businesses with alcohol licenses present in the area, prompting the city to design a district that held at least four licensed businesses but avoided as many churches and residential areas as possible. The city holds rights to change the size of the district in the future, if they don’t exceed the maximum size allowed under the statue, which is half a mile by half a mile, not to exceed 160 acres. There are options available to the city were one of the businesses that holds a liquor license to close or if their alcohol license expires.
PERMITS
An important thing for business owners in the area to know is that even if they currently have an alcohol license, they must get a special license to serve alcohol to be taken outside their business.
“You do have to get an Entertainment District permit before you can actually serve alcohol and have it go outside of your business,” said Conte. “So just because you serve alcohol and you’re within the district doesn’t necessarily mean you can do that until you go to the city and get a permit, the city retains the ability to approve who can do this and who can’t do this.”
The process to obtain an Entertainment District permit will be similar to applying for an alcohol license, only done completely through the city. When looking at any applicants, the city council will first check that the business has the correct ABC permits to serve alcohol in their establishment.
“This does nothing to change the ABC designations or the liquor licenses you have to have to serve alcohol within your business,” Conte said. “You still have to have that. To qualify for an Entertainment District permit, you must have a business license within the city, and you must be licensed to sell alcoholic beverages, you’ve got to have your ABC licenses that you’re supposed to have.”
The city will also check criminal history for the applicant as well as any pending legal charges. After the criminal history check as well as determining that proper ABC licenses are held, the city will vote on the applicant based on information gathered.
An Entertainment District does not change alcohol laws already in place, such as it will still be illegal to serve alcohol to a minor, and guests are prohibited from bringing in their own alcohol and walking through the district with it.
DISTRICT INFO
A requirement for an Entertainment District is approved containers that will be sold at each district designee location.
“What this does not allow you to do is to go into a bar and buy a beer in a bottle and then walk around with an open glass container,” said Conte. “It has to be in an approved container, which is generally in a plastic or paper cup that has been approved by the municipality.”
Currently the city is proposing pink cups, as they will be easily visible and easy for law enforcement to tell whether people have the right container or not. The containers would bear the logo of the City of Foley, and they would be purchased by approved district designees through the city. The city could also change the logo to promote upcoming events.
No final decision has been made on what type of cups will be used for the district. Conte stated that while ideally they won’t be items that people can take home and bring back to reuse, the city doesn’t want to cause a large amount of waste due to plastic cups.
“Also if you’re within the Entertainment District and you serve alcohol, that does not mean that you’re required to be a part of this program,” said Conte. “If you don’t want people leaving your establishment with alcohol, then you’re not required to buy the cups, you’re not required to provide those cups, you can serve alcohol in your establishment just like you’ve been doing it all this time. This only gives the option to do this, it does not require anyone to participate.”
Guests who purchase the approved cup are not allowed to go into stores that are not Entertainment District designees, such as retail shops found in the downtown area.
“They can only go into businesses that also have a license to do this,” said Conte. “In other words, you can’t go shopping and take your beer if they don’t have a liquor license, you can’t just go walking into some place that doesn’t have a license.”
If anyone were to wander into a shop that was not part of the program, then Conte stated that it would be the person in question who would be in violation of the law, not the business. He said the businesses would not be subjecting themselves to liability were someone to walk in with an open container of alcohol.
If approved, the district will be open five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, with differing hours. For Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, the hours will be 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. On Fridays, hours are 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturday will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Hours will be controlled by the city, who can choose to open the district up at other times for special events.
SECURITY
A major concern found in the audience was if there would be an increase in the police department to assist with monitoring the Entertainment District. Many felt that mixing alcohol and entertainment would be cause for infringements of the law.
“You certainly do have to increase police, I’m not going to deny that you can’t have this going on without police presences around it,” said Conte. “This won’t be done without consultation with the local police department to figure out whether they feel like they can handle this or not.”
The chief of police has the right to control the number of permits allowed for businesses to become designees of the district, as well as the right to shut the district down if the need arises.
“If the chief feels like the city has got too many people who are doing this program, they can cut it off and tell the city not to authorize anymore permits for a period of time or until they tell them otherwise,” said Conte. “… If they feel there are certain times that it doesn’t need to be open, if there’s been some incident and they feel like it needs to be closed for a period of time, the chief of police has the power to do that.”
Noise ordinances will continue to be enforced in the area, and any current ordinance pertaining to noise regulation will still be in effect if the Entertainment District passes.
When asked if any city had been known to reverse the Entertainment District designation, Conte stated he was not aware of any who had. However, he said Mobile had placed a sunset provision for one year in their ordinance, which Foley was looking at as well.
“That’s another option if we wanted to have a sunset provision here,” said Conte. “Then essentially you’re testing it out for a year to see if it works, and if it doesn’t seem to be working, well then it goes away in a year.”
Once a final draft has been created by Boutwell and Conte, it will be sent to the ABC Board for their legal team to look at to check for any revisions that need to be made pertaining to any violations in their regulations. Once the board has reviewed the proposed ordinance and approved it, it will come before the council for two votes: first for a reading of the ordinance, and secondly for the final vote.
“There’ll be at least two opportunities at city council meetings for people to speak about their thoughts on this once the final draft is approved and has been vetted by the ABC Board,” said Conte.
Check the City of Foley’s website at www.CityOfFoley.org for council agendas and updates on the Entertainment District.

Part 3 in the series, detailing Main Street, Alabama, will be coming soon.