Wichita easing outdoor drinking rules in time for NCAA March Madness

Wichita is about to get a lot more friendly toward outdoor drinking.

The City Council is poised to allow bars and restaurants to apply for “common consumption area” permits that would let them expand their drinking space to private and public property outdoors for a year at a time.

“This would allow you to set up those zones in areas like Old Town,” said Mayor Jeff Longwell. “In some instances you’d be able to go from one establishment to another, or, you know, be able to walk out the door with a beer in your hand or those kind of things.”

The concept is a knockoff of the Power & Light District in Kansas City, Mo., where bars and restaurants are clustered around a shared open area and patrons can carry their drinks back and forth.

Wichita pushed the state for the authority to create common consumption areas and the new ordinance is almost guaranteed to pass.

The council also will look at opening up outdoor areas of numerous public facilities to drinking events, including five public libraries and the Exploration Place children’s museum.

Bar owners want the new drinking zones in place by March, when thousands of tourists will descend on Wichita for an NCAA basketball tournament weekend at the Intrust Bank Arena.

Downtown and Old Town business interests have been asking “What’s the delay, why aren’t we doing this?” council member Pete Meitzner said. “What are we going to look like if we don’t have it in time for the tournament?”

But don’t bring your own bottle.

“Only consumption of alcoholic liquor purchased from drinking establishment licensees or other licensed vendors participating in the common consumption area is permitted in the common consumption area,” said a report by the Arts and Cultural Services Department, which would handle the permit process.

About 10 applications for consumption areas are expected in the first year, according to the staff report.

The rewrite of city code spins off a bill backed by Wichita and Topeka in the Legislature last year, giving local government more authority over outdoor drinking.

“That’s the bill we lobbied for at the state level a year ago and finally got passed, to allow folks to have open consumption in some of these areas that we feel are appropriate for that,” Longwell said. “An example of that would be the outdoor (food) courts at Union Station. They’re going to have some establishments there where you can purchase a beer and other things and you could enjoy it outdoors.”

The Union Station project is a $54 million dining and office complex under construction on 9.5 acres around the former train station, south of Douglas just west of the BNSF railroad tracks.

Other possible consumption zones council members have mentioned include the Delano District, areas around the Intrust arena and the lawn of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

A companion ordinance change affects public buildings and would open up more city property to outdoor drinking.

State law generally prohibits drinking and open containers in public spaces unless the property is exempted by local government.

Tuesday’s proposal will specifically allow indoor-outdoor drinking at the Advanced Learning Library downtown and the Westlink, Evergreen, Ford Rockwell and Lionel Alford branches.

Also, Exploration Place, Ice Sports Center, Wichita Art Museum, Mid-America All-Indian Center, Botanica, Wichita Boathouse, La Familia Community Center, Lawrence-Dumont Stadium parking lot and the planned First Tee golf facility.

Longwell said he doesn’t think it will cause problems.

“We’ve done that on a temporary basis during Riverfest,” he said. “Much of Riverfest is on city-owned property and we allow beer gardens and that sort of thing. So this would really expand kind of the special permits we would allow for weekend use, for up to a year.”

While common consumption areas could go anywhere in the city, Meitzner and fellow council member Bryan Frye said they expect them to be primarily a downtown phenomenon.

There, the bars are closer together and could share consumption areas, street musicians are a big part of the entertainment scene and many patrons like to bounce from club to club on weekend nights.

Each individual drinking zone permit would have to be approved by the City Council.

“There are certain things they have to show (including) who’s going to be responsible for policing it,” Longwell said.

For each permit, the council will have to hold a public hearing and consider seven factors:

▪  Adequacy of security.

▪  Potential hardships for car and foot traffic.

▪  Zoning and compatibility with nearby land use.

▪  Conformance with health, housing and fire codes.

▪  Distance to other common consumption areas.

▪  Any protests by neighbors, other residents or businesses.

▪  The findings of a city staff review of the application.

If approved, drinking zones would have to be clearly marked, with barricades or signs.

Hours would be restricted to between 9 a.m. and midnight. The permit holder would be responsible for security and would have to carry a $1 million insurance policy for liability.

Applicants will be automatically denied if they’ve had a felony conviction in the past five years or ever had a liquor license revoked.

The council will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 455 N. Main, Wichita.

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Wichita easing outdoor drinking rules in time for NCAA March Madness."