At Tuesday’s East Lansing City Council work session, councilmembers debated whether or not to suspend the city’s 50/50 reporting requirements for bars, which requires them to report their quarterly food and alcohol sales to stay in compliance of city order.
The rule, which was put in place to maintain quality control in restaurants and to address the issue of over-consumption of alcohol, requires bar owners to sell at least 50 percent food in addition to alcohol.
Restaurants that sell alcohol have to report these sales to the Department of Planning and Community Development quarterly, a process which Community and Economic Development Administrator Lori Mullins says is ineffective since some restaurants are more willing to report than others.
“In my opinion, if you don’t want to comply there are ways to manipulate your business so you don’t have to comply,” Councilmember Vic Loomis said. “I challenge anyone to try and prove otherwise.”
Council decided to put the possibility of suspending the requirements on the agenda for next week’s council meeting, to discuss further and possibly make a more concrete decision..
Earlier in the meeting, Planning and Zoning Administrator Darcy Schmitt also discussed moving forward with a form-based code in certain parts of the city with council, which could potentially include the Garten Haus development at the corner of Beech and Gunson Streets.
A form-based code would allow for more flexibility in the type of housing in the areas where it applies Schmitt said, and would allow for a brownstone-type development – a style that isn’t permitted for that area under current code.
“Our traditional code is a blunt instrument,” Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett said. “If done right, this (form-based code) could smooth things out.”
Council asked that Schmitt provide council with a report on her progress in a month, after meetings with stakeholders have taken place.
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