alcoholic product control without being granted regulatory authority and cannot
conflict with the state statutes.
Provo City, Lehi, Saratoga Springs, Spanish Fork and Springville
all have beer sales on Sundays, forcing Orem residents to drive out
of town to purchase beer, as well as taking
sales tax revenue from Orem City to adjoining towns, while Orem City
may be in violation of Utah State Code by trying to control and regulate
alcoholic products.
Alcoholic
Beverage Control Act
|
|
Alcoholic
Beverage Control General Provisions
|
|
Section 204
|
Powers
of local authority.
|
32B-1-204. Powers
of local authority.
(1) If this title expressly addresses an issue related to alcoholic product
control in this state
a
local authority may not regulate in relation to that issue except when a local
authority is expressly granted regulatory authority to regulate the issue by
this title.
2)
If this title does not expressly address an issue related to alcoholic product
control,
a
local authority may regulate that issue if the regulation:
(a)
is
of the sale, offer for sale, furnishing, or consumption of an alcoholic
product; and
(b)
does
not conflict with this title.
Enacted by Chapter 276,
2010 General Session
Alcoholic
Beverage Control Act
|
|
Alcoholic
Beverage Control General Provisions
|
|
Section 103
|
Policy
|
32B-1-103. Policy.
The policies of the state are as follows:
(1) This title shall be administered in a manner that is nonpartisan and free
of partisan political influence.
.
. . .
4)
The commission shall conduct, license, and regulate the sale of alcoholic
products in a manner and at prices that:
Provo lifts restrictions on Sunday beer sales
By
Jared Page
PROVO
— Making a Sunday afternoon beer run no longer means having to drive to Lehi or
Springville.
Calling
it an issue of fairness and not an economic decision, the Provo City Council
voted 5-1 Tuesday night to allow beer to be sold on Sundays at grocery and
convenience stores.
Provo
businesses with beer and liquor licenses already have been allowed to sell beer
on Sundays.
"I
think we as a city need to make sure we are fair to everyone, no matter what
their beliefs are," Councilman Rick Healey said. "It's very important
that we understand that there are many people who live here who don't believe
the same way the majority religion does."
“Provo is different, and that's a good thing.”
–Jenny Lawton
According
to the Association of Religion Data Archives, roughly 80 percent of Provo
residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which
discourages its members from drinking alcohol.
Most
of the dozen or so residents who spoke during Tuesday night's meeting did so
against allowing Sunday beer sales, saying it goes against values of the
community.
"Provo
is different, and that's a good thing," said Jenny Lawton, an El Salvador
native who has made Provo her home. "I want Provo to still be the Provo I
love, the Provo I moved here for."
Others,
including perennial City Council candidate Howard Stone, called prohibiting
Sunday beer sales a "spiritual law" that shouldn't be broken for
additional sales tax revenue.
"We
are not in Rome where we do as the Romans do," Stone said. "We are in
Provo, Utah, which was founded on great values."
Cynthia
Dayton was the lone member of the council to vote against amending the
ordinance, saying she believes the majority of Provo residents don't want beer
to be sold on Sundays.
Her
colleagues on the council, however, said comments from their constituents
through phone calls and email have overwhelmingly supported the change.
“We're making a lot of moral judgments that I'm not
sure are ours to make.”
–BJ Cluff
Councilwoman
Midge Johnson estimated that those she talked to about the proposed change
favored allowing Sunday beer sales 10 to 1.
"They
want (Provo) to be more welcoming and open to the diverse community coming
in," Johnson said.
BJ
Cluff, one of a handful of residents who spoke in favor of the change, said
prohibiting beers sales on Sunday is "exclusionary" to those who
believe differently from their Mormon neighbors.
"This
is a community that includes lots of different types of people," Cluff
said. "If we want to be exclusionary, I'm not sure this is a place I want
to be. ... We're making a lot of moral judgments that I'm not sure are ours to
make."
Beer sales
A
handful of Utah County cities — including American Fork, Mapleton and Orem —
continue to prohibit the sale of beer on Sundays. Others, such as Eagle
Mountain, Lehi, Saratoga Springs and Spanish Fork, don't have time or day
restrictions on beer sales at grocery and convenience stores.
Beer
sales still will be restricted between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. in Provo, putting
Utah's third-largest city's beer laws in line with Salt Lake City, West Valley
City and several other cities. In Utah County, Pleasant Grove also has the 1
a.m. to 7 a.m. restriction on beer sales; Springville's restrictions run from
midnight to 6 a.m.
City
leaders have been talking about lifting the Sunday beer sales restriction for a
little more than a month, sparked by an email from Lois Kelson, a business
owner concerned about losing sales to neighboring cities that sell beer on
Sundays.
Kelson
owns a chain of convenience stores throughout Utah County, including two in
Provo.
"This
is about serving the people who live here," she said during Tuesday
night's meeting. "Some people want to buy beer on Sundays. Not everybody
believes the same way."
Councilman
Sterling Beck noted that not all Provo residents consider Sunday to be
"the sabbath day."
"I
have many friends of the Jewish faith, and they would never make a law that
would prevent me from purchasing ham on Saturday," Beck said.
The
state Alcoholic Beverage Control Act does not place time limits on beer sales
for businesses where beer is sold but consumed elsewhere.
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