Real Frisco

After much debate at last night’s city council meeting, the council voted 4-2 to hold a public hearing on the possibility of changing a zoning ordinance to allow for alcohol variances.

The city currently follows the rules of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code. These rules cannot be made stricter but can be loosened if that is the direction that the citizens indicate and council decides that they want to go.

The code the city follows says there cannot be alcohol sales within 300 feet of a church, public or private school or a hospital. The exception to this rule is when schools either public or private submit a written request from their board of trustees or governing body to the commissioner court or governing body of a city to extend the distance to 1,000 feet.

Council’s vote last night will allow for a public forum to see if citizen’s like the system that is currently in place or if they want to see changes made to allow for variances. The public hearing will result in no ordinance changes but is a chance to hear how the public feels.

The council had a chance to voice their opinions last night before a vote was taken.

“I think if a law is good when the economy is good then a law is good when the economy is bad,” Council Member David Prince said. “I don’t see a need for a public hearing. The safety of our children needs to stay in the forefront and development can’t take place within that 300 feet of an alcohol establishment. That does not stop the progress of the city. They can still build restaurants and I don’t think a restaurant has to have alcohol to be successful.”

Other council members saw not having a public hearing as limiting the scope of development that could possible happen in the future.

Council Member Bart Crowder thinks the public forum would be a “common sense forum” to be ready for developers, property and business owners that might come before them in the future.

“I think it’s ridiculous that we can’t be open to hearing what people have to say and not being afraid of what people bring in front of us,” he said.

A Frisco resident, Will Russell, came before council and asked for a forum for property owners “to come and be heard.”

Council Member Bob Allen follows the philosophy if it’s not broken then don’t fix it.

“Why would we do this now?” he asked. “We can always do it later.”

There is no specific property that has come forward the city asking about such a variance so Allen feels that there is no need to put one in place at this time.

After all opinions and comments were heard from the council they voted 4-2 for there being a public hearing.

Mayor Maher Maso said the item will be on a future agenda.