Applications raise conerns
Two applications for public convenience beer and wine licenses in Haines have touched off a discussion about whether the municipality would have too many businesses serving alcohol and whether new licenses would create undue competition for existing operations.
Sarah Jaymot, owner of Sarah J’s Espresso Shoppe on Second Avenue, and Cambria Goodwin, owner of the Pilot Light Restaurant on Tower Road, have applied for public convenience licenses from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. The licenses would allow the businesses to sell beer and wine.
Several residents are lobbying the board and Haines Borough Assembly about the applications, particularly Sarah J’s. (Mosey’s, the restaurant that formerly occupied the Pilot Light space, held a public convenience license for several years).
“Licenses to serve alcohol in a community are limited for the public good,” wrote Bamboo Room and Pioneer Bar owners Christy Tengs Fowler and Bob Fowler. “Haines has already reached the quota for Restaurant and Eating Place Licenses allowed by the ABC Board.”
Liquor license quotas are based on population, said Cynthia Franklin, director of the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office. Based on 2,530 residents, Haines is authorized to have one non-restaurant/eatery license and two restaurant/eatery place licenses; in actuality, it has eight non-restaurant/eating licenses and two restaurant/eatery licenses.
In addition to the above licenses, Haines also has three beverage dispensary tourism licenses (which must be connected to a hotel), one public convenience license, one distillery license and one brewery license.
“It doesn’t mean those places are going to be shut down; obviously they exist. They were grandfathered in,” Franklin said. “Over the years when people want to open a business and they can’t, they find a way. It’s an example of how population controls are a good idea, but (Haines’ numbers) give you an idea of how they work in the real world, which is not that well.”
Franklin said the legislature implemented the population-based limits after examining data that showed restricting the number of places that sell alcohol curbs alcohol-related public health problems.
But commerce pushed back against those rules, which led to the creation of special licenses like “public convenience” licenses and “beverage dispensary tourism” licenses.
These are largely used in areas with a large tourism economy, because while the local population might not qualify the town for more licenses, the influx of extra people during certain months might justify them.
“A lot of the time when public health goes up against commerce, commerce wins,” Franklin said.
The Pilot Light Restaurant’s application doesn’t seem to be generating the same amount of controversy as Sarah J’s, likely because of its location.
“Currently, there are three bars in addition to the American Legion, the lounge at Captain’s Choice Motel, and the Haines Brewing Company within one to two blocks (of Sarah J’s) where people can conveniently purchase an alcoholic beverage,” resident Linda Moyer wrote in a letter to the assembly. “Within a mile are four more places.”
Moyer and Tengs Fowler also pointed out Sarah J’s doesn’t have indoor seating or a bathroom. “In a town of 2,000 people, there are 11 places to drink alcohol within a half-mile radius (of Sarah J’s), seven of which also serve food. Sarah J’s has no bathroom and is a drive-through coffee shop traditionally frequented by kids and teenagers,” Tengs Fowler wrote.
Some local bar owners are also concerned about the competition posed by more convenience licenses.
Unlike beverage dispensary and restaurant/eatery licenses, public convenience licenses are non-transferable. They also require the applicant to collect signatures of support from more than 50 percent of the residents living within a one-mile radius of the restaurant.
Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office director Franklin said public convenience licenses cost $600 for a two-year license. Because the population-based quotas for the other types of licenses have been met almost everywhere, the board isn’t issuing new licenses. That’s why entrepreneurs who want to open a business and sell alcohol need to find someone willing to transfer a license, usually for a large fee.
“I paid good money for every one of my liquor licenses,” said Mike Ward, who currently owns four. “They had a value, but now they are getting watered down.”
Tengs Fowler said businesses pay between $25,000 to $100,000 for the coveted transferable licenses. “This is a small town, and we like the owners of each of these businesses. But the truth is, every additional permit in Haines lowers the value of our Beverage Dispensary License and affects our ability to keep going year-round as we have for the last 60 years.”
Those transferable licenses aren’t intended to have inherent value, Franklin said, but they do because of their scarcity. When people talk about paying $100,000 for a beverage dispensary license, “That’s not money that goes to the state. That’s them selling population-limited licenses to each other,” she said.
Competition also isn’t criteria for the board, Franklin said. The board gets letters all the time from businesses complaining that a new license will increase competition, make their business less viable or dilute the value of their own licenses.
“The board has a specific list of statutory reasons to deny a license and one of them is not that it is going to (hurt) the neighboring business,” Franklin said. “The board certainly doesn’t get to say, ‘This creates unfair competition for other liquor businesses in your area.’”
Board criteria include the validity of signatures on a petition for the public convenience license, whether the location is too close to a church or school, and whether issuance of the license is “in the best interests of the public.”
Ward said he also has a problem with a business like Sarah J’s, because it’s based out of a trailer, compared to other businesses with larger buildings and more overhead. “I don’t like the idea of our community being filled with little trailers,” Ward said.
“They are giving away these free licenses so people can sit around in a yard drinking beer,” Ward continued. “I think it’s a terrible idea. I think it’s ridiculous.”
Haines Brewing Company co-owner Paul Wheeler, who possesses a brewery license, sees no reason why Sarah J’s shouldn’t get a public convenience permit.
“I think it is fine,” Wheeler said. “I guess I don’t necessarily agree with the state law that some people can have it, and some people can’t. I think it should be more of a free enterprise.”
Wheeler said he doesn’t like the idea of population-based limitations for licenses. “If we were in Anchorage, they wouldn’t even have to do a convenience license. They would probably just apply” (for a dispensary or restaurant/eatery license), he said.
Interim police chief Josh Dryden doesn’t object either. “(I have) no problem as long as they obey the laws that regulate the sale of beer/wine,” Dryden said.
The two public convenience applications will come before the assembly, which has 60 days to decide whether to protest the issuance, Franklin said. If the municipality chooses to protest, the board must uphold the protest unless it determines the protest is “arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable.”
Sarah Jaymot declined comment for this story.