Coquitlam residents could soon be able to hoist a locally made beer or spirit after council approved new regulations for liquor manufacturing Monday night.
Following the unanimous vote, it is now possible for booze makers such as craft brewers and distillers to operate in most industrial and commercial zones while offering accessory retail sales, tasting rooms and outdoor seating areas.
The decision ends a process that has dragged on for close to a year through a public input process and two public hearings.
But council has yet to finalize its new regulations around liquor stores, particularly the store-within-a-store model that would permit sales inside grocery stores.
Council voted in favour of an amendment to increase the separation distances between liquor stores and schools from 150 m to 300 m and increase the separation distances between stores to 1 km. After the amendments were approved, the bylaw was referred to staff for refining and is expected to come back to council in two weeks.
But not all council members supported increasing the separation distances.
Mayor Richard Stewart said that reducing the number of liquor stores means more people have to drive to pick up their booze, a prospect that is more troubling if they have already had a few drinks.
He also noted that those who spoke against the separation distances during last week’s public hearing were mostly people with a vested interest in the liquor retail industry.
“We didn’t actually hear from people speaking as residents so much as we were hearing from people who were speaking as owners of liquor stores,” he said. “The residents I have heard from didn’t express any concerns about it.”
Coun. Chris Wilson supported increasing the separation distances, noting that the provincial government’s retooling of the liquor rules has created uncertainty for local small businesses. He said many of the stores currently operating in the city have worked their way through a rigorous process that has now being reduced in scale because larger grocery stores want to move into the industry.
“It is about making sure that our small businesses are treated fairly,” he said. “The way this government has treated liquor laws… and whittled away regulations is not fair.”
The bylaw will be back before council for a final vote on May 16.
@gmckennaTC
