STARKVILLE — A proposed amendment to city ordinances around kitchen and security requirements for restaurants has narrowed its scope, garnering a mixed response from the business community.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the board of aldermen, Mayor Lynn Spruill said changes to the city’s alcohol ordinances initially proposed in October – ostensibly to allow a potential indoor pickleball court to sell beer – have been slimmed down significantly.
Rather than potentially requiring dozens of businesses to maintain security cameras, the proposed ordinance would only require cameras in businesses in the leisure and entertainment district open past 11 p.m. and those that apply for an exemption to sell beer and light wine without a full kitchen. Those who violate the camera requirement would also no longer face the possibility of up to six months in the county jail.
The October version of the ordinance would have also required businesses selling liquor to maintain on-site security personnel past 10 p.m. until an hour after closure. Tuesday’s version only requires restaurants that sell liquor to provide security from 11 p.m. to 30 minutes after closing on heightened security dates.
“We’re identifying a few heightened times like ballgame weekends and tournament weekends,” said Spruill. “We had discussions with restaurant owners who said these times are appropriate for them, that they don’t need security Thursday through Sunday because they don’t have those kinds of crowds.”
Heightened security dates would include home football games, Mississippi State University athletic tournament events and “special events” determined by the city, with at least five days’ warning for affected businesses. Spruill told The Dispatch “special events” might include Bulldog Bash and the Cotton District Arts Festival.
Spruill told The Dispatch the new language would affect about six businesses, though that would fluctuate as businesses change their hours.
Police Chief Mark Ballard said at an October board meeting his “straight guess” of how many businesses the prior language would have affected was about 50.
Current laws require businesses selling beer and light wine to have a commercial kitchen providing 25% of their total income. The proposed amendment would establish an exception process where aldermen could excuse businesses from that facility requirement.
Even with a narrowed scope, the proposal faced some opposition from the board. Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty opposed the measure on the same grounds he opposed the original language.
“The new language has not changed my position at all on this,” he said. “I’m not going to support the security camera or security guard measures, and I don’t support liberalizing the requirements on businesses to have a kitchen. If you add an exception, everybody will be granted that exception. New businesses certainly won’t put in a $100,000 commercial kitchen if they don’t have to.”
Business owners, however, may be more supportive with the new language. Robbie Coblentz, owner of the L’uva Wine Room, supports the measure despite being skeptical of the amendment’s first draft.
“I don’t think it’s very burdensome,” he said. “Our bar is in the Entertainment District, but this ordinance won’t directly apply to us because we close at 10 (p.m.). I do have a concern about the way we got to this ordinance, that we go in one direction then pivot to include a lot more businesses. But most of the businesses this will apply to already employ security after 11 p.m., and when we started L’uva we included cameras for our protection and our employees’ protection.”
Rick Welch, owner of Rick’s Cafe, already has the security and cameras that would be mandated by the measure, but still spoke against it at the board of aldermen meeting.
“This doesn’t even apply to me, but just generally I don’t like the idea that the board thinks they can run this business better than I can,” he said. “The food exception lets (new businesses) play by a different set of rules than us. Giving them a blanket exemption isn’t fair. Lots of other places in town figured something out with air fryers, a sandwich bar, a microwave. And because Rick’s Cafe had to have food, we now have a kitchen with good sales.”
Dr. Wesley Ferguson, a Starkville dentist and one of five businessmen trying to set up the indoor pickleball court that prompted the amendment, also spoke at the meeting. The business would serve granola and Powerade, but nothing close to food requiring a commercial kitchen.
“Our vision is to add more pickleball facilities, not to be bar or restaurant owners,” he said. “This ordinance would allow us to serve beer as well. All of us are local, nobody is an outside investor. We all want what’s best for Starkville.”
Spruill confirmed during the board of aldermen meeting that a third public hearing will be held to discuss the measure before a vote.
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