After much hard work on the parts of a local alcohol distributor and retailers, the Vancouver City Council will soon consider adopting formal boundaries for a west-side alcohol impact area.
The 17-member AIA Task Force, with city staff and a consultant, has reined in the original proposed boundaries to Lower River Road on the west, 45th Street and State Route 500 to the north, Grand Boulevard on the east and the Columbia River to the south.
But even if the council OKs the boundaries, there isn’t going to be much change because all of the 26 retailers that carried banned products within the area are already in compliance.
Council is scheduled to hear a first reading of the proposed ordinance on Jan. 28 with public testimony after a second reading on Feb. 4.
In an effort to rid certain areas of public drunkenness and the problems associated with it, the Washington State Liquor Control Board created rules in 1999 allowing cities to create AIAs to restrict retailers from selling certain types of alcohol offered in large quantities for off-premises drinking.
Local distributors, namely Vancouver-based Stein Distributing, worked one-on-one with retailers for months to get large single-serving containers of 50 products – some with multiple flavors – of high-alcohol booze with sassy names like Big Bear, Torgue, Liquid Core and Wild Irish Rose off the shelves.
By the first of the year, all retailers were on board.
Vancouver aims to be the first city in Washington to have a fully voluntary impact area.
State liquor rules require the city to seek voluntary compliance for six months before asking the state to institute a formal ban, but no city has been able to maintain voluntary compliance for that long, said Jan Bader, Vancouver’s program and policy development manager.
Vancouver could do it because of the early work of local distributors, businesses and retailers, she said.
Not an easy process
It wasn’t an easy process, said Denny Sauers, Stein’s vice president and general manager, and the company will likely take a $1.3 million annual hit due to loss of revenue from the sales.
But it’s worth it, he said.
“We’re part of this community, and we look at what’s going to be best for everybody,” Sauers said. “If we all work through it together, the result is going to be phenomenal. We know long-term this will not hurt our business.”
Sauers and Dennis McAuliff, Stein’s other vice president and general manager, serve on the AIA Task Force.
Although more difficult, Bader said the city is invested in monitoring the compliance itself.
“It’s harder to do it this way because we’ll be in the position to make sure retailers are abiding,” she said. “But it means more flexibility and stability for them.”
If ever a formal AIA were approved with the Liquor Control Board monitoring compliance, the board could foreseeably tighten restrictions and add more products to the banned list.
The distributors, including Portland-based Maletis Beverage and Columbia Distributing, reshuffled retailers’ product lines and redesigned their display cases. They were on the front lines with the stores that showed resistance.
“We’ve known the licensees for umpteen years, and we didn’t want the city or the Liquor Control Board trying to jam these rules down their throats,” Sauers said. “They didn’t understand (the AIA) and some didn’t want to comply, so we became the ones saying here’s why this is important and this is how it will help.”
Increase in business reported
Retailers were concerned about a hit in revenues. Sauers said sales of the banned products made up 76 percent of alcohol sales for one store in the downtown corridor, which he declined to name.
At larger stores in the AIA, such as Safeway and Fred Meyer, sales of the banned products made up about 7 percent of alcohol sales.
But the city’s AIA consultant – Seattle-based Donald Lachman, who has worked with other cities in setting up their AIAs – said many stores report an increase in business because customers aren’t intimidated by public inebriants outside.
Lachman also said the efforts by distributors, retailers and downtown businesses people, such as Hilton Vancouver General Manager Gerry Link, made Vancouver’s effort go much smoother than other cities.
“Everybody had ownership of the process, which was really helpful,” he said.
And, he stressed, the AIA is only one element to the solution. The liquor board also expects cities to improve or create other programs to solve the problem of chronic public inebriants.
One idea on the table is a sobering center downtown that is not an emergency room or a jail cell.
“The AIA is certainly not a Band-Aid,” Lachman said.
Having distributors on board – and on the task force – made the process undeniably easier, Bader said. Distributors have inside information about what products are selling and have relationships with retailers.
It was mutually beneficial.
When the AIA was first proposed, the list of banned products included entire brands, not specific items. Twelve-packs of Steel Reserve High Gravity 211 weren’t the problem – those buyers take the malt liquor home to drink, Sauers said.
The problem was large, single servings of the 8.1-percent alcohol, he argued.
Sauers also contested the original proposed boundaries, that he and others considered too wide-sweeping. City staff agreed to reduce the boundaries and the product restrictions, but Bader said they will keep a close eye on the issues – which they may have to revisit in the future.
Sauers estimated the reduced restrictions cut Stein’s losses by half.
“It hurt us at first, but at Stein, we think if it’s best for everybody, it’s best for us,” he said.
Megan Patrick can be reached at mpatrick@vbjusa.com.
