2/9/2012
The Industry city council is preparing to pass a measure that seeks to prohibit bars that serve only alcohol.
On Thursday, the City Council will consider a proposed ordinance that completely bans the opening of new bars in the city. According to the new measure, only restaurants with a kitchen will be permitted to serve booze.
Industry City Mayor Dave Perez said, “We’ll still have adult beverages. But you can’t open a new place unless you’ve got a menu.”
All existing bars in the town will be grandfathered in until major changes are made. According to Perez, they also would need new permits.
The mayor also said that historically, the city always had problems with beer bars and cocktail lounges. However, he did not offer any statistics or specific issues that touched off the proposed measure.
Perez said that establishments usually start out as sports bars, but would later on become night clubs. “The alcohol would start flowing and the drugs would come and we would have our sheriff’s deputies out there all the time,” the mayor revealed.
According to the Alcoholic Beverage Control of the state, only five bars possess an “alcohol-only” type license in the city of Industry.