A local developer, Bassam Issa, said it's easier to court desirable restaurants to a project if they're able to sell liquor on premise — something prohibited in unincorporated parts of Hamilton County.
People often take a drink with their meal, Issa said, and many customers who live in the county will make a long drive downtown to visit a restaurant with that option.
"That prohibits tenants from leasing from us in the county," Issa, the developer of the Enclave shopping center at East Brainerd and Ooltewah Ringgold roads, said in a phone call. "It will concentrate everything to be downtown or within city limits. ... Why would you want to force people to go to a certain place, drive 40 minutes away, to get to their favorite restaurant?"
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On Wednesday, county commissioners opted to put a referendum on the November general election ballot letting Hamilton County voters decide if they want on-premise liquor sales in unincorporated areas. Restaurants in those parts of Hamilton County can sell beer but not cocktails with liquor, officials said. Commissioners Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd, and Steve Highlander, R-Ooltewah, passed, meaning their votes will count as no.
Commissioner Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, introduced the item during a meeting last week, noting residents should have the ability to vote on the matter. As is, projects can seek a permit through the state to sell liquor on premises, he said, but that can be a time-consuming and cumbersome process. Issa said developments also have to meet certain criteria to qualify, such as being on a major highway.
"As the county develops the unincorporated areas and we have more commercial development, the state government is basically moving too slow at getting those permits," Helton said in a phone call. "I thought it was a good time for us to step in."
Helton hopes that will create a more level playing field for businesses and enable county government to capture more tax revenue for schools and infrastructure.
"It won't be significant at first, but I think it will grow over time," Helton said.
Helton said he's talked to restaurant owners and members of the local legislative delegation who are also supportive of the change.
"This isn't opening the door to liquor stores or anything like that," Helton said. "It's just for on-premises in a restaurant."
At the Enclave, where a Publix opened in November, Issa intends to have an upscale Mexican restaurant out of Atlanta and a Beef 'O' Brady's. He's also negotiating with a steakhouse. Those eateries have indicated they can't open if they can't serve their full menu, including liquor.
"It's not really that we're after liquor," Issa said. "We're after restaurants, and those restaurants cannot survive without this. This is American culture. They want to have a drink with their meal, so economically, the restaurants cannot live without it."
Hamilton County residents considered a similar ballot measure June 11, 1957, with more than 54% of the 45,017 voters registering support for alcohol sales.
(READ MORE: Local referendums expand liquor sales in small Tennessee towns, counties)
The proposition centered on whether "to forbid by majority vote the manufacture, receipt, sale, storage, transportation, distribution and/or possession of alcoholic or intoxicating beverages within the territorial limits" of the county, according to minutes from a County Council meeting at the time.
County Attorney Rheubin Taylor said the 1957 referendum did not reference the ability to consume alcohol.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / A cocktail is made at Old Man Rivers on Sept. 20.