Meeting for the China City Council March 17th, 2026.

Can I get a motion on our minutes from the third of March, please?

So move.

Second.

Okay.

We are going to let the minutes stand without objection.

Thanks, everybody.

Okay, we have a lot of council business to work on today.

So let's go ahead and start with Phil giving us some updates on special exceptions permits, what our options are here.

Looks like you've got some things to pack out.

I do.

Karen has been very nice about making copies for everyone here.

Thank you.

What types of things she thought would be something for us to discuss here regarding the strategic planning aspect of liquor stores.

And y'all last time around were saying that you might want to deal with some other items here that are not necessarily special exceptions, but things that you might want to consider that the planning agency would bring to you as opposed to just making a decision itself.

So we were trying to make sure at least there is a requirement in a uh just a setting that we had for locations in the city for liquor stores to have uh some type of action by the council.

But that's really the only reference that there was in the code.

This uh handout that I've given you is what was looked at in connection with uh the one I guess uh case that you had before you last week here, and these are the types of items that were included on that list.

And I guess the question becomes uh do you need to have uh any other uh items that you're gonna look for in an area regarding a liquor store and whether you think that that would be something that would be compliant with the I guess the uh public safety in an area here, what types of offenses would you like to look at in connection with those cases?

So we got um drug offenses, uh theft offenses here included last time around, and some of those are and some of them are not related to liquor store operations.

So that's that's the question about what would you like to have in the so council just a reminder as a council we have agreed that we do want to maintain the requirement of council approving certain types of uses through special exceptions permits.

So our goal with this conversation and what what Phil has been researching is how might we strengthen this so that it is less susceptible to being challenged successfully in a court of law.

We want this to be a stronger.

So, Phil, if I'm hearing you correctly, what you're saying is here's a whole list of different things that we might add to our requirements for the review.

Um, a lot of those that councilwoman Dotley had done research on for one that came in district seven.

So is this kind of a talk through that and maybe check the boxes and do a check the box on which ones you think are important, which ones not in the operation of the liquor store.

Uh the other things that we also discussed, we had a pretty lengthy discussion with the planning people and the police department folks yesterday here concerning this matter.

And uh, do you want to keep your spacing the way that you've got it?

Because we reduced the spacing requirements down to just 200 feet, and does that 200 feet uh work with what you're looking for on here?

We have other different types of establishments here in the city that have uh higher distance restrictions than that, but if you want to have that, the distance restrictions did not apply in the urban areas right downtown to begin with under the form-based code.

If it was under the form-based code, those uh uh 500-foot restrictions were not applicable.

But if if you want to consider other areas, then that's possible uh that it makes it easier to get your numbers, at least that you're looking at about what is the crime like in the area.

You have to be careful about going too large in size to the area as well, because if you do, you may be looking at other uh locations that may be completely away from uh the the area you're trying to protect.

Okay, so those are those are some of the things we're looking at.

And so as we um strengthen our requirements for these types of applications, we can then use that as a pattern for others that we consider related to vape shops and things like that, correct?

Yes.

Okay, all right, council councilman Elliott.

When you're talking about spacing, are you talking about in between two of the same two of the same of the same type of businesses or certain businesses that you think may need to have protection from that?

Uh the argument always comes out in the regard to schools, the churches, and uh playground type areas for kids on there.

So uh what do you have?

And um we uh need to be at least looking about what is your desire as a council in in uh protecting locations from uh areas here, and this is a little bit different than a bar or two.

You need to be aware of that because normally unless somebody is uh cracking open that a half pint of whiskey when they go out of the liquor store, they're gonna be taking that a little bit further away.

But the question becomes is that uh something in your community that might result in more crimes or more concerns for your your public councilman Henderson.

Um well, two questions.

One Phil, what's the distance between in I believe in our um the pawn shop?

Yes, what is I think it's 500?

I was thinking 500.

You say a thousand?

Is it a thousand?

Um alternative financial circus of two thousand I know that uh adult-oriented establishments is five hundred feet.

Okay, uh for some reason I was thinking that the pawn shops were a little bit further.

Which I thought if that if you know if we've got an ordinance that already states that amount it I don't understand the difference on here, you said changing back to 500 feet space and it's currently 200 feet, but then you've also got change distance requirement to between liquor stores at a thousand.

So it so this you're you're saying the options are returning back to 500 or it could be a thousand feet.

Could be depending on what y'all think would be appropriate.

And and I should have more and more distance requirement.

Yes.

We're right now we're at 200, we could go back to 500 or a thousand, depending on I I don't know why I thought the pawn shops were maybe a thousand, but seven hundred and seventy-seven.

We could do any number of any number that is let's pick some arbitrary number so that's maybe something arbitrary and capricious, we'll throw in capricious.

If if you make it where you can have one in the entire city, sometimes that may be a problem if they're legally allowed under state law.

Well, let's face it, I need to be able to go to Jackson my way home.