Kent City Council
Kent Council favors downtown drinking zone, proposing July 9 start
If approved by the council on June 17, the outdoor area for alcoholic beverages could revive Kent nightlife this summer.
By Gina Butkovich
News Lab
Kent City Council gave initial approval Wednesday for a plan that could rescue downtown bars from slumping sales while allowing residents to drink outside within a designated area stretching from Haymaker Parkway to Lake Street.
Tom Wilke, Kent’s economic development director, presented the concept of the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, or DORA, to the council. Alongside the DORA proposal, the council also considered a request to close Franklin Avenue on Saturday mornings to open Haymaker Farmers’ Market to pedestrians and voted on new regulations for farm animals kept in residential areas.
A DORA is a defined area where people can drink alcohol outdoors during designated days and times. State law allows for communities to create a DORA, and as of the end of 2019 about 23 other cities in Ohio have one.
For Kent, the proposed hours are noon to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Beverages may not be taken from one bar or restaurant into another, and only those purchased within the DORA boundaries are permitted to be consumed outdoors within the area. Specially created plastic cups will have the DORA logo on the front, with the DORA rules on the back.
“It’s really no different than the current enforcement of our liquor laws within our liquor establishments,” Wilke said. “It’s really up to the owner and operator of the bar or restaurant first and foremost and then secondly the police department.”
For some, the DORA offers a chance to help Kent businesses struggling economically because of COVID-19.
“I know firsthand how difficult it has been for small businesses, for our retailers, our restaurants and our bars,” said Gwen Rosenberg, a Kent City Council member and owner of Popped!, on Acorn Alley. “This is not the time to just stand by and do nothing and hope for the best. This is a time that we urgently need to get creative and start thinking about things.”
Rosenberg said the DORA is a temporary solution to an economic emergency. The plan proposes a 90-day “test period” to determine if a DORA makes sense for Kent long-term. The city can also shut down the DORA sooner than the 90 days.
“Where my support comes from is we’ve created a downtown where we’ve told business owners that they should have their business here,” Rosenberg said. “We have to be there to support the business owners and do what we can and explore the options that we can explore.”
John Kuhar, the councilman for Ward 4, does not fully favor the DORA out of concern that Kent is not set up for the police patrols that would be necessary to regulate it in a college town.
“I’ve talked to several mayors of college towns and about 75 percent of the ones I’ve talked to have been agreeing with me,” Kuhar said before the meeting. “I just got off the phone this afternoon with Mayor [Steve] Patterson of Athens, and they had considered looking at it prior to the pandemic and they didn’t feel like it was a good thought. And with the pandemic and now with these demonstrations going on, that just confirms what they are thinking.”
Kuhar’s worries also include litter and the dangers he feels could come with people walking around with alcoholic beverages.
Despite Kuhar’s concerns, the DORA plan as presented to the committee was approved. The full council will vote on June 17, with the first day of the DORA set for July 9 if it’s approved.
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The council also discussed the reopening of the Haymaker Farmers’ Market downtown and new regulations for farm animals kept in residential areas.
To provide more space for the farmers market to reopen in accordance with the Kent City Health Department’s COVID-19 guidelines, Franklin Avenue will temporarily close from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays from June 6 to Oct. 31 to allow for social distancing.
“As far as I’m concerned, this is an easy one,” Rosenberg said. “Yes. Anything to bring people downtown, to give people a sense of normalcy while maintaining health and safety is like a win-win.”
Kuhar agreed, pointing to the benefits of a farmers market and the fact that it was not an everyday event.
“You are producing local products so you don’t, hopefully, have to worry about having a problem with the vegetables, with the migrant workers where they all have the coronavirus,” Kuhar said (though it is not true that all migrant workers have coronavirus nor is it clear which group he was referring to). “And so I don’t think that issue is on the vegetables that come into the farmer’s market, where it’s hopefully a little more controlled atmosphere.”
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Kent Law Director Hope L. Jones presented her recommendations to add deeper penalties for the regulations that govern housing farm animals in residential areas.
In his briefing to the council, City Manager Dave Ruller wrote that “the item came up because of complaints over donkeys being maintained in a residential area where enforcement had proven unsuccessful.”
Jones’ proposal would allow police officers to charge citizens with a misdemeanor for violating the existing regulations for housing farm animals in residential areas.The city council authorized Jones’ proposed amendment to the city’s regulation of farm animals in residential areas.
“It’s public safety,” Rosenberg said. “We can’t have dogs running around, we can’t have cats running around, we can’t have donkeys, apparently, running around.”
This article was produced through a reporting partnership with the Collaborative News Lab @ Kent State University.
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