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Show Fifteen Cents Box SLC, Volume Three I - . p I III , ; I V I 'i III 7 ; fiSfj w jtd 1 " - -,",v '' ' '? '''S'vJ. "'y';&&Si Utah's Liquor Could D By Tina Moeneh ; A road-weary visitor can belly up to almost any bar in the country and ask for two fingers of the usual and have it served up promptly. But not in Utah. That same visitor can go to nearly any restaurant in the country, select a wine, and it will be served chilled at the table. But not in Utah. In Utah, the sale and consumption of liquor is regulated by a law that has been little altered since the post-Prohibition post-Prohibition law of 1935. It is a law that allows only private clubs to sell a mixed-by-the-bartender drink or a fifth fif-th of wine over the bar and then only to a card carrying member. You can get a drink in a mini bottle licensed establishment but you have to first purchase the mini and bring it to your table yourself, where you can mix it into the set-up you have been served. In a licensed restaurant, you can get a drink, but if you leave without having eaten a meal, you are breaking the law. You can at least buy a beer in any bar, but Utah law requires that it be a low 3.2 per cent alcohol content. Once you understand the Utah liquor laws, getting a drink is easy. But to the unsuspecting un-suspecting visitor, the laws are about as simple to follow as the hand that hides the pea under one of three shells in a carnival side show. In 1968, publisher Jack Gallivan led a Salt Lake Tribune sponsored liquor-by-the-drink petition, the ultimate goal of which was to stimulate the Utah economy through increased tourism and convention traffic. He contended that, compared to Colorado, Utah was losing a potential 400 million tourist dollars every year, despite its wealth of scenic and recreation areas. Why? Because major hotel chains would not locate in a state that forbade profit-making in the area that nets the highest profit liquor sales. According to Gallivan, without recognized hotels providing necessary and comfortable accommodations in strategic areas, Gymnasts Meet ...Page 7 2ov3 UT 84110 rive You Utah would not realize the profits of the potentially biggest money-making industry in the state. Without major hotels, Utah would remain a pass-through pass-through state, with the average visitor staying .9 of a day. "We had our brains bashed in," Gallivan said recently of the 2-to-l vote against the Liquor Initiative Petition A in the November 5, 1969 elections. Opponents of the liquor-by-the-drink, or free pour, referendum, according ac-cording to Gallivan, were "profoundly LDS influenced" and afraid mixed drinks over the bar would change the moral fiber of the state by encouraging en-couraging increased consumption. "Consumption doesn't increase with liquor-by-the-drink. Bootlegging decreases," Attorney General Phil Hansen said in 1968. According to many private club owners, the still existant non-profit stipulation does encourage profit hiding through eleborate bookkeeping techniques and illegal sales practices to keep peace with the customers. In an effort to compromise liquor-by-the-drink and brown bagging, the state legislature amended amen-ded the law to allow the sale of mini bottles in both private clubs and restaurants. Ironically, the opponents accepted mini bottles, whose contents make a drink with .6 more liquor than the usual one-ounce serving in a free pour drink. Dennis Kellen, operations manager for the Utah Liquor Control Commission, said tms causes some intoxicated in-toxicated driver problems in the state. Many out-of-staters accustomed to the standard strength drink come to Utah and drink their usual few cocktails. They are not aware, however, that with minis, for every two drinks they are imbibing the liquor content of three. And because brown bagging (carrying in your own bottle) is permitted in any bar or restaurant, many drinkers feel obliged to finish their fifths before INSIDE Hockey Team Wins ...Page 10 Wednesday, Laws they head home. According to Kellen, the state may look toward better controls, con-trols, but no new legislation is slated for this year. A decade has passed since the last all-out effort to promote the free pour system in Utah. Slowly, major hotel chains are beginning to build in Utah; fine restaurants are opening; and the convention business is at an all-time high in fact, according to Martin Nielson of the University of Utah department of Business and Economic Research, Utah is the 8th fastest growing state in the nation. "The liquor laws do present problems," Tom Brown of the Salt Lake Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau said. "And the biggest problem is even the locals don't understand un-derstand the laws. We're in an awkward awk-ward position. We can't, by law, advertise ad-vertise liquor if we could, we could clear up a lot of questions and misconceptions." Currently, Brown said, Salt Lake City is hosting as many or more conventions con-ventions as Denver. The liquor laws don't interfere with the convention business because the liquor availability can be pre-arranged and served at a private party. "Changing the liquor laws would have an impact on the tourist industry, in-dustry, sure," Brown continued. "But more important than changing the laws is changing Utah's image." Dr. John Hunt of Utah State University Univer-sity conductd an image study of Utah ten years ago and is currently doing a study of Salt Lake City for Tom Brown and the visitors bureau. The changes over those ten years have been dramatic. "I've watched Utah for the past fifteen fif-teen years," Dr. Hunt began. "I saw a state that had all the goodies a state with a successful tourist industry had. A state endlessly rich in resources and history, yet a travel industry that was relatively insignificant. Why? Continued On Page 3 Clark Bronson Exhibit ...Page 11 To Drink """" M March 1, 197B Zone Change Recommended To Allow Gas Station, Office The Park City Planning Commission Com-mission last Wednesday night gave a positive recommendation for the commercial rezoning of 1.7 acres of land located at the junction of Highways High-ways 224 and 248. If the change from residential to commercial zoning is approved by the City Countil, a self-service self-service gas station and a professional office building are planned for the property. The commission decision to recommend the rezpning came despite resistance from chairman Burnis Watts and efforts by City Planner Dave Preece and Commissioner Com-missioner Roy Reynolds to bring about a compromise zone change. , "Strip Commercial" "This opens up the possibility of strip commercial (along the highways)" high-ways)" Watts said before the vote. "It was the intent of the zoning ordinance -to get away from that." One of the arguments presented by property owners George Polychronis and Cliff Read was that the land had been zoned commercial for many years before being downzoned by the revised zoning ordinance. Watts noted that other adjacent land was down-zoned down-zoned at the same time. He expressed ex-pressed apprehension that the owners of these properties also would request commercial zoning. "I'm not sure it is reasonable to rezone this parcel and not the rest of the land that was downzoned," Watts j said. UOjajaiasionjr.Rusty. Davidson Holiday Village Developer Answers Critic The Park City Planning Commission Com-mission last week received a nine-page nine-page response to concerns expressed by Commissioner Greg Lawson regarding the proposed Holiday Village shopping center. The document was prepared by realtor Bill McComb, one of the developers of Holiday Village. It addresses the shopping center's "compatibility with Park City's goals and objectives" and the traffic and economic impacts which would be created. In a memorandum dated February 6, Lawson questioned whether Holiday Village would be compatible with the city's goals and objectives and stated that the economic and traffic traf-fic impacts have not been considered thoroughly. Lawson said the timetable for the new state highway should be considered in the phasing of the shopping center and stated, "The proposed project appears to have the potential to affect the character and economic stability of Park City." Is Compatible In his response, McComb noted that "...the proposed Holiday Village Mall site has been surrounded by similar commercial uses to the south, condominiums con-dominiums to the east and west, and the town's newest and largest hotel (the Holiday Inn) to the north..." McComb said development which has been allowed in the adjacent area is not in the same style as the older part of town and that Holiday Village would be "harmonious to the surrounding uses." He stated that a report prepared by the Architects Planners Alliance in 1973 at the request of the city called for the designation of areas "appropriate and adequate" for developments such as Holiday Village. McComb said the proposed site is such an area. "A recurring theme of the Architects Planners report is the need to avoid strip commercial development; a confusion of signs; and trite unrelated buildings," McComb wrote. "The Holiday Village embraces all of these . concepts. ..quite unlike other scattered scat-tered projects given approval near-by." near-by." The Holiday Village response states that Park City has become "two separate entities (old town nestled in the hills and a booming, affluent, suburban area to the north of town)..." "In short, there is no disharmony with Park City goals and objectives which I am able to ascertain at all..." McComb wrote. Traffic He said the traffic issued will be dealt with by the city traffic engineer agreed that the zone change could create a "Pandora's box situation" but he said the Polychronis Read property differed from the surrounding surroun-ding land. "The problem with this property is that they paid commercial prices for what is obviously commercial land." Davidson said. Three commercial establishments -the Mt. Air Cafe, a carwash and a service station- were approved by the city before the ground was changed to medium residential use. The service station was never built. "It seems we have denied... probably a very economic and functional use of this property," Davidson said. "I'm against strip commercial but I'm also aware of the problem we created." Commissipner Reynolds and Plan in a separate report. However, McComb Mc-Comb noted that the developers are working with the engineer to "handle the flows during the peak periods until the Department of Transportation finishes completion of the road widening process at which time the expanded roadway will handle the flows 'quite nicely'." At last Wednesday's Planning Commission meeting, McComb told the commissioners he and his partners part-ners have had "a great deal of conversation conver-sation with the highway department." He noted that state highway officials, in a preliminary study, have signed off the Holiday Village site plans. In his response, McComb said the "unique L-shape" of the Holiday Village site would route peak period traffic away from U-224 to the "underutilized" "un-derutilized" U-248. Treasure Hills ay Be The Treasure Hills property received a favorable annexation recommendation from the Park City Planning Commission last Wednesday Wed-nesday night. The proposed annexation an-nexation of the 45-acre parcel, which lies to the northwest of the Holiday Ranch area, will go to the City Council for a final decision. At Wednesday night's commission meeting, City Planner David Preece told the commission he favored bringing Treasure Hills into the c. ' limits provided: the developers assure road access to property lying to the east and west The development density is compatible com-patible with the adjacent Park Meadows subdivisons an "appropriate" amount of water is provided by the developers to service the residential units to be built. Commission chairman Burnis Watts agreed with Preece's stipulations but noted that density restrictions could not be considered until specific development plans are presented. This would occur after annexation, if it is approved by the coun il. Former City Councilwoman Mary Lehmer, who owns property adjacent to Treasure Hills, said she would "hold in abeyance" her claim for ac-' M Number Twenty-Four ner Preece proposed that the land be zoned RDM, a more dense residential zone which would allow the office building but not the service station. A conditional use permit had been approved ap-proved for the service station under the previous commercial zoning but no construction was initiated before the permit expired. "I do have a problem with GC (general commercial zone) because it could lead to the whole strip being rezoned or applying to be rezoned," Reynolds said. "The property lends itself to commercial use with less impact." im-pact." Reynolds said RDM zoning would allow the land owners to develop the office building without necessitating commercial zoning. Read, who operates a service Continued On Page 5 a. Chance of snow showers on Friday with an increasing chance of snow on Saturday and Sunday. High tern- I peratures will be in the 30s with lows between 10 and 25. The developer said he had little to add to an economic analysis of the project already submitted to the Planning Commission. "The suggestion that they (Skaggs, the major tenant of the center) have purchased a half-million dollar piece of ground with the intention of adding improvements worth over twice that amount without doing their homework is, of course, ludicrous on its face," McComb wrote. McComb contested Lawson's statement that Park City is "just recovering" from last winter's drought. He said business and city revenues increased last year due to the "unprecedented influx of new permanent residents." Regarding the effects the new shop-Continued shop-Continued On Page 5 Annexed cess through the area. Lehmer told the commission she would make such a claim if and when another adjacent parcel of land, belonging to the Park Meadows Development Company, is proposed for annexation. Lehmer said the Treasure Hills developers should be required to provide water but added that they should not have to pay connection fees. She stated that the Prospector Square area was given "free" water upon annexation and that the impact fees paid by developers should be use'd by the city to purchase additional ad-ditional water sources. Alan Thomson, one of the Treasure Hills developers, told the commission he intends to negotiate with the City Council to exchange water rights for hookup fees. A previous application for the Treasure Hills annexation was denied by the council due to water supply problems. Treasure Hills proponents now say they have the necessary water rights and are waiting to be granted a point of diversion diver-sion by the city. In a motion made by Commissioner Greg Lawson, the commission voted unanimously to recommend annexation an-nexation of the 45 acres if access is provided to the east and if sufficient water is supplied. The proposal now will go to the City Council, which will set a public hearing date. |