NLV prepares new tavern regulations

Dan Kulin

Monday, April 12, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.

With one month left on a North Las Vegas moratorium on new taverns, proposed changes to city laws that would keep liquor-selling businesses farther away from churches, schools, parks and day care centers are scheduled to be considered by city officials beginning this week.

The proposed changes call for increasing the minimum distance to 1,500 feet between any liquor licensee and churches, schools, parks or day care centers with 12 or more children. The minimum distance requirement currently is 400 feet, and it applies only to schools and churches.

The possible changes could also include having the City Council instead of the city Planning Commission approve plans for new taverns or requiring that new tavern plans be approved by five of the seven commission members instead of a simple majority, as they are now. The council also might allow the commission or council to grant waivers to the 1,500-foot distance rule if a significant barrier, such as a highway or wide road, separates a tavern from a school, church, park or day care center.

A meeting about the proposed changes' possible impacts on businesses is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday at North Las Vegas City Hall.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the proposed changes.

The City Council is to take a final vote on the changes on May 19, which is the same day the six-month moratorium on tavern licenses is set to expire.

Councilwoman Shari Buck, who asked for the tavern license moratorium last fall, said Sunday she was happy with the proposed changes.

Buck had specifically asked that parks and day care centers be added to the list of uses the city doesn't want taverns next to because, like schools and churches, these are places where families and young children tend to be.

Buck said she was concerned about the safety of children so close to taverns, and also said that the two uses just don't fit from a planning perspective.

"They are not compatible uses," she said.

In addition to increasing the minimum distance between the two uses to 1,500 feet, Buck said another change worth noting is that the distance would be measured from property line to the front door of a tavern, and not from front door to front door.

Buck said she supports having an option to give a waiver, which she said could make sense in certain situations. But she said she hadn't decided whether the council or Planning Commission should have the first shot at approving a proposed tavern.