Jax Beach will restrict alcohol sales

[fieldafm]

Bar/restaurant owners will need to get a special permit(no word on how many permits will be issued) to be able to sell alcohol past midnight.

Ordinance passed 5-2 tonight. 

A sad day for Jacksonville Beach.

[TheProfessor]

Just another reason to tax small businesses.  Maybe this encourage people to go downtown.

[simms3]

I'm officially never coming back to NE FL.  I can't be around such blatant stupidity.

I don't even drink (well I try not to ), but I'm at a loss of words here.  This kind of decision making makes me want to just scream.

NE FL basically tells everyone that graduated from a good college and wants to have a productive but fun professional career "STAY AWAY!!!!  We only want to attract blue collar families, preferably Baptists since they don't drink and are pure as the wind driven snow, and retirees who forgot to save."

OMG, I will officially not even be able to go to sleep tonight after hearing this.  I have doubtfully heard of a sillier shoot yourself in the foot piece of legislation.  That whole town is held hostage and run by a bunch of loser beach bum high school dropouts who are "afraid to cross 'the ditch'" and who sit around on the crappy front porches of their crappy beach shacks smoking j's and drinking Buds all day every day (well that and growing out their hair, getting tattoos, riding their Sector 9s, surfing if they can even still get up, and failing to keep up a marriage).

Then we have Hunstville lady who hasn't even been here a decade (just a couple years actually) before she helped ram through the 35 ft. height limit.  I think in her own words she did not want future growth taking away "the view."  Then we have all the residents who continuously complain about drunken parties and crime in the area when it's their own kids and they themselves most likely have 20 bongs lying around their crappy house.

It's just too frustrating to even pay attention to NE FL anymore.  I try to remain so hopeful, boosting my hometown and trying to do what I can from a distance, but it's futile.  Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, heck Nashville, Austin, Charlotte, San Diego, etc etc one of you will become my permanent hometown some day and the high COL and traffic will be worth it!!  Oh wait, I already live in Midtown Atlanta ha

[Noone]

Bar/restaurant owners will need to get a special permit(no word on how many permits will be issued) to be able to sell alcohol past midnight.

Ordinance passed 5-2 tonight. 

A sad day for Jacksonville Beach.

I agree.

It now makes that Jbill resolution to amend the state charter for a special urban transition area in Riverside having everyone saying "We need another round over here."

[Keith-N-Jax]

Past midnight why even open then. I keep telling myself to hold on, but things are shaping up now inorder for me to get out of this city. Life is too short to piss it away here waiting for change that will never come.

[fsujax]

Maybe these establishments will consider moving to downtown. One can only hope. Maybe someone will start a campaign for that to happen.

[tufsu1]

people...the special permit will cost $75 a year....so don't get your hopes up about bars moving to downtown because of it....they'll pay the fee and stay where they are.

[Captain Zissou]

people...the special permit will cost $75 a year....so don't get your hopes up about bars moving to downtown because of it....they'll pay the fee and stay where they are.

Seriously?  IF they're going to rob the business owners, do it the old fashioned way and put a gun to their head.  Don't insult them by making them buy a permit that they know is useless.  

Last night I overheard a news broadcast about this.  The reporter said "the area north of beach boulevard is a mad house, often overrun with people until the early hours of the morning".  This should be what we're going for!!!!!!!!  The problem, as they perceive it, is that well funded people close to the administration are the only ones able to get liquor licenses, which has caused an isolated concentration of bars.  If it was easier to get a liquor license in Jax beach, there would be more places, spread out over greater distances with lower density.  This is a problem of their own creation, but now they're penalizing the bar owners.  That's Jacksonville For Ya!

If we had more than one walkable nightlife district within 15 miles, we wouldn't have this problem.  When you give 15,000 young people one option for nightlife, you're going to get a crowd.  

[Bativac]

Past midnight why even open then. I keep telling myself to hold on, but things are shaping up now inorder for me to get out of this city. Life is too short to piss it away here waiting for change that will never come.

Yeah. I don't even drink or go out past midnight all that often, but this whole place is turning into a wannabe retirement community.

[ChriswUfGator]

people...the special permit will cost $75 a year....so don't get your hopes up about bars moving to downtown because of it....they'll pay the fee and stay where they are.

Same logic you used about how all the downtown corporations would pay for parking.

Except they all left.

[simms3]

Past midnight why even open then. I keep telling myself to hold on, but things are shaping up now inorder for me to get out of this city. Life is too short to piss it away here waiting for change that will never come.

Yeah. I don't even drink or go out past midnight all that often, but this whole place is turning into a wannabe retirement community.

Thank God I'm out and probably only going further within a year!  Wannabe retirement community is the key.  The only retirees I see coming here are those who forgot to save any money.

Excluding Ponte Vedra, Northeast Florida literally shuns anyone with any disposable income/savings.  This includes the 22-35 college educated group who may want to go out on the town once/twice a week, shock *past midnight*.  Jacksonville already shuts down at 8 anyway, it's not like much will change.

Edit: WHen will we be seeing this in the news?  I can't find any sources.

[RockStar]

I haven't seen anything on the local news websites regarding this, but I've been hearing rumblings about this for some time.

There are only 12 liquor licenses (unrestricted 4COP) in the city of jacksonville beach; they put a moratorium on new licenses some time ago. The other establishments are restaurants with SRX licenses (aka 51/49's where 51% of gross receipts must be food and the kitchen must be open at all time when liquor is being sold).

The problem (as they see it) is that the businesses with SRX licenses are operating their businesses as though they have 4COP licenses. Snappers, Fionn McCool's and another (I forget who) were recently cited by the DABT for not having sales that match their required percentages (repeated infractions result in the loss of license) . Clearly the businesses who've paid the exorbitant amount for their 4COP license (current value $400k) in Jax beach don't want the additional competition for the late night drinking crowd and moreover the DABT (state run, not local) wildly expects license holders to follow the rules they set.

This restriction, I assume, will only affect those businesses with SRX licenses.

Now who's up for dinner at Snappers? I'm buying...

[fieldafm]

In regards to the SRX licenses, the owner of Chicago Pizza made the best case... basically saying 'they can't restrict me to only serve food on certain hours and only serve drinks at other hours in order to achice my 51/49 split'

I thought his more in depth answer was a compelling case.

Another thing some of you aren't thinking about... there is nothing stopping Jax Beach from restricting the amount of these permits they would issue.  Think about that for a moment.

Simms, FoxNews(or ActionNews, I hate saying that name) was out there last night... Im sure they may have something on it.

I can assure you that Jax does not shut down at 8 though, although I'm sure I wish it did some nights... especially the morning after

[Captain Zissou]

Rockstar,

Thanks for the clarification!  I wasn't aware of the entities with SRX licenses.  I knew the unrestricted liquor licenses were expensive, but $400,000 is a ton.  You can't really blame the bars for trying to get around that fee.  I've never heard of anyone actually eating at Fionn McCools.  

I also feel like Rush Street and Chicago agreement probably have an ownership structure that allows them to count Chicago Pizza revenue as a part of that 51%.  I don't think Rush has any food, but I doubt they have a 4COP as well.  This is a perfect example of GOB networks stifling the market supply, while demand is huge.  There's so much potential for the Jax beach area, but it's being suppressed by these draconian policies.  

[RockStar]

Well, I just saw a piece on "action" news 47... hard to discern from their reporting (incredibly short of any real journalism...) but it appears that Jax Beach might require all establishments to pay for this permit. Then they (action news) made it sound like last call was being moved to midnight...

I like that the mayor of Jax beach owns one of the bars there...I wonder how this will affect his re-election campaign promise of "Jagerbombs for Everyone"...

Coverage you can count on.