A coalition of convenience store owners will go before the Columbus City Council on Tuesday to seek a change to a recently-passed ordinance that limits store hours.
The ordinance mandates a 10 p.m. close on Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. for Friday and Saturday for some convenience stores in single-family residence neighborhoods. The same restriction applies to stores in neighborhood-commercial districts that are within 50 feet of a single-family residential property, and convenience stores in highway commercial districts within 60 feet of a single-family residential neighborhood and 175 feet of a multi-family zone property.
The ordinance, which the council unanimously approved on Sep. 1, goes into effect Tuesday.
Former councilman Kamal Karriem will represent the group of 15 store owners Tuesday. He said many of the owners are foreign nationals. They feel the new ordinance unfairly targets their businesses.
Karriem said the store owners hope for the council to at least extend hours to 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and midnight Friday-Saturday.
Karriem said he and the owners met with Mayor Robert Smith, Police Chief Tony Carleton and Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem on Sep. 7 to discuss the ordinance.
“They feel that to levy an ordinance against them because of the proximity of their stores to some of these calls — for example, the police chief said that some of these calls were around the store or a block away from the store — and because they sell beer or light wine, they’re attributed to the store,” Karriem said. “They feel that that’s not a fair practice.”
Convenience stores, as defined in the ordinance, are any businesses that are less than 4,500 square feet that primarily sell gasoline and basic food, household and/or pharmaceutical items and beer and/or light wine.
The group of store owners crafted a set of proposed modifications to the ordinance that Karriem will present to the council. The ordinance includes a request for a “specific list of violations that would lead to the shortening of business hours of operation,” rather than basing the restriction on store size and proximity to certain zones; a probationary period to allow business owners to address any violations; and annual discussions with councilmen and city officials on ways to reduces crime in the community.
The proposal also includes a pledge from store owners to stop selling alcohol to underage customers; eliminate gang activity on store premises; and report any instances of illegal drug use to CPD.
Karriem said it was hard to say how receptive city leaders were after the group’s initial meeting. He said Smith pointed out that mom and pop stores used to close earlier.
However, he said the proliferation of chain stores has made it more difficult for locally-owned stores to close early without losing revenue.
“They make their money in the late night hours when these (chain) stores close,” Karriem said. “Economically, the stores stand to lose, for the ones it would impact, an average of $600 a week. You’re talking about it impacting possibly $27,000 to $30,000 per store. They pay taxes to the city, so that’s less taxes to the tax base of the city.”
Karriem said the store owners aren’t opposed to the city imposing limits on stores where violations occur. However, he said they don’t want stores that aren’t causing issues to be punished.
“When you get into grouping, that’s a serious issue,” he said. “That’s not reflective of the process of justice in our country. You can’t just get into grouping people out of convenience.”
The Columbus City Council meets at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Municipal Complex.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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