Austin, Texas, has a local ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquor within 300 feet of a church, school, or hospital. How far away does a location that sells alcohol need to be from a church or school? The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code permits city councils or county commissioners courts to adopt a local ordinance prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages within 300 feet of a public or private school, church and/or public hospital. ... Cities and counties are not required to have these ordinances (the statute is merely permissive) ... http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/faq/general.asp 1. A person may not sell nor engage in the business of selling any alcoholic beverage where the place of business of the person is located within 300 feet of a church, public school, or public hospital except as provided by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code. 2. A permit or license holder under Chapter 25, 28, 32, 69, or 74 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code who does not hold a food and beverage certificate may not sell or engage in the business of selling any alcoholic beverage where the place of business of the permit or license holder is located within 300 feet of a day-care center facility except as provided by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code. https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Planning/Applications_Forms/alcohol_bev_waiver.pdf
I often have dinner once a month on Sundays with a group of ancient coin enthusiasts. We meet at a Chinese restaurant with a Catholic church across the driveway. They cannot serve beer or wine or liquor. They do let us bring our own, and do not charge a corkage fee. It is funny if you stop to think about it. Demon rum will lure people right out of church. Well, OK... but apparently, if a restaurant serves alchoholic beverages near a school or hospital, the teachers and doctors will be over there getting sloshed. Here in Texas you cannot buy beer or wine until after 12 noon on Sunday. During the week, you cannot buy after midnight (1:00 AM Saturday night to Sunday morning). The Alcoholic Beverage Commission has a Peace Officer's Guide (here). It warns: "If permittees/licensees are operating outside the legal hours of sale and consumption, then it is likely that they are allowing or participating in other public safety violations (e.g. prostitution, trafficking of persons, narcotics offenses, intoxication offenses, assaultive offenses, sexual assaults, etc.)." You cannot buy liquor at all on Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's Day. If those days fall on a Sunday, then licensed liquor stores must also be closed the following Monday. I lived in Charleston, South Carolina, in the 60s and you could only buy liquor from the state. (Red Dot stores. The crimson circle was the only advertising allowed, supposedly to show "sunup to sundown" hours of operation.) In Ohio, similarly, back then, only the state could sell liquor. Now they license contractors (see here) if they perceive a need in the neighborhood. Landon Erp's comment was interesting because I learned in sociology and criminology that Indiana is the classic case of "Baptists and Bootleggers" sometimes being the same people. (And, in Texas, a car dealership can only be open one of two days on the weekend, not both.) (Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 8/06, 5:45am)
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