A city requirement that limits alcohol sales at East Lansing restaurants is under review and could be suspended by the East Lansing City Council within the next week.
The requirement, known as the 50/50 rule, has been known to discourage restaurant owners from opening shop in East Lansing and gives business owners and the city excessive duties that seem ineffective.
The 50/50 rule requires restaurants and bars that serve alcohol to earn at least 50 percent of their revenue from food sales.
It also mandates businesses to report their quarterly food and alcohol sales to East Lansing’s Department of Planning and Community Development to meet the requirements set in place by the order.
The policy that exists today was put into place in 1989 to maintain quality control in restaurants and attempt to limit overconsumption of alcohol by patrons and put an end to binge drinking.
At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, council members discussed whether to maintain the ordinance or suspend it until a new ordinance can be developed in late 2013.
Although it might sound good in theory, in practice, it has proved ineffective for both the city and local businesses. Many businesses are more willing to provide the city with quarterly reports than others, and processing these reports provides the city with excessive, time-consuming work.
Enforcing the ordinance has proved difficult for the city as well. The East Lansing Police Department is responsible for enforcing alcohol-related laws, but the city is responsible for overseeing and reporting issues to authorities. However, authorities have faced difficulties because businesses are failing to report or sending reports that seem invalid.
The city can audit restaurants and bars — which, according to a city report, has not been done to-date — but doing so is time-consuming and costly.
It seems unnecessary to maintain an ordinance that not only is unenforced, but is providing establishments and city officials with superfluous work.
Furthermore, older establishments, such as Harrison Roadhouse, Rick’s American Cafe and P.T. O’Malley’s, are grandfathered in and not required to follow the ordinance, creating unfair competition between these establishments and newer restaurants and bars that must abide by the rule.
The ordinance also is hindering restaurants from opening in East Lansing, especially live-music venues and wine bars that would make most of their profits from alcohol sales. East Lansing should be welcoming to these establishments and businesses and should not give them reason to avoid this city.
The city council should strongly consider suspending this ordinance and developing new rules for drinking and overserving at East Lansing establishments.
The ordinance, as is, is proving ineffective and is keeping businesses away from East Lansing.
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