Oct. 22--Laws regarding where liquor can be displayed in Naperville stores will soon change, but will come with some caveats.
The Naperville City Council voted Tuesday to have staff draft an ordinance that would allow liquor to be displayed in areas of a store not exclusively delineated for booze.
The ordinance change will dictate that the amount of retail square footage devoted to liquor display shall not exceed 20 percent of the total footage.
Such displays will have to be at least 10 feet away from checkout, and all tastings will have to be done in a designated liquor area.
Current city code does not allow display or stocking of liquor outside of designated areas, according to a staff briefing contained in Tuesday's meeting packet.
This confinement has been lifted for four holidays a year since 2012, according to the briefing, and police have not reported an increase in liquor theft.
Package liquor license holders told city officials this summer that only Naperville, Waukegan and West Chicago have such confinement laws regarding where liquor can be displayed in a business, according to the briefing.
Area retail representatives told the council Tuesday that lifting the liquor confinement would allow them to place wine and craft beer suggestions next to meat and seafood counters, for example.
Katy LeClair of the group 360 Youth Services, a local non-profit that counsels troubled youth, told the board that easy retail access to alcohol can contribute to underage consumption, and that current regulations on where a store can display liquor helps keep kids away.
"The current confinement restrictions provide protection for our youth," she said.
Councilman Kevin Gallaher said he would ultimately be in favor of such a law change.
Naperville's economic redevelopment is "entertainment based," he said.
"It includes what I call casual drinking, beer and wine," Gallaher said before later adding that entertainment did not entail "sitting around and getting bombed."
Teaching kids to be responsible with alcohol falls to the parents, Gallaher said.
He also credited his adult son's responsible liquor consumption to his parenting.
Councilwoman Rebecca Boyd-Obarski took issue with the ordinance, saying its application might not be limited to tasteful, foodie-focused cross marketing.
Such decisions on where to place alcohol in a store would be left to a sales manager, she said.
"I'm certainly not comfortable with that," Boyd-Obarski said. "There are plenty of places for people to find alcohol in Naperville."
Councilwoman Patty Gustin said she was worried about kids being exposed to alcohol if it is allowed to be placed anywhere in a shop, and that booze should be kept away from the kids.
"We are a kid-friendly community," she said. "That's our accolades."
Gustin also mentioned the drowning of two area men in Quarry Lake last year after a drunken driving crash.
"We lost two kids in a pond," she said.
The council also voted Tuesday to allow Sunday liquor sales to begin at 7 a.m., like the rest of the week.
But on Sundays, on-premises licensees will only be able to serve alcohol in conjunction with a meal prior to noon.
Councilman Paul Hinterlong said that "Sundays are different than other days" when it comes to what should be allowed, and later expressed concern that such concessions could lead to 24-hour alcohol sales.
"Most of us shake our head at having alcohol at 7 o'clock in the morning," Boyd-Obarski noted.
But Councilwoman Becky Anderson said such a law change would better reflect Naperville's evolution and shift in sensibilities.
"Sunday is not what it was," she said. "Our city is a different place."
geoffz@tribpub.com
