Cheers! Durham backs alcohol-friendly ‘social district’ downtown. Will more follow?
The Durham City Council voted unanimously Monday night to create a social district that will let people drink outdoors downtown.
The new ordinance could make downtown open-container friendly as soon as Dec. 1.
Downtown Durham Inc. hopes to run the social district and has been working on getting the ordinance passed since March.
“I’m convinced that we’re on good ground,” Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton said. “We are not using city staff. We’re shopping this out to DDI, who’s well established, well known to us.”
After the vote, Mayor Elaine O’Neal raised one of the lime green buttons DDI distributed to drum up support. It’s got a big check mark on it and reads “Yes Downtown Durham Social District” in all capital letters.
“We will be ever vigilant, and we will be watching safe and happy times in downtown Durham for everybody,” O’Neal said with a smile.
Could Durham get more social districts?
North Carolina passed a law last year permitting social district and cities big and small have since jumped in. Kannapolis was the first to launch. Raleigh’s got its start in August. Charlotte is exploring its options now.
DDI brought business owners out in force when the City Council first considered the matter earlier this month. They said the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted a downtown that was booming after a decades-long revitalization effort.
“Downtown used to thrive off of employee-driven traffic, which is still fairly nonexistent,” said Adair Mueller, who opened the Durham Food Hall in 2020. “We see a little bit of trickling in through the lunchtime hours during the weekdays, but it very quickly tapers off.”
Jacqueline Wagstaff, a former City Council member and the lone member of the public to speak on the matter at Monday’s meeting, said it was unfair to only have a social district downtown.
“I wouldn’t have a problem if you were proposing this across the whole city of Durham,” Wagstaff said. “There are businesses across the city that have had those same losses due to COVID.”
It’s an issue that council member DeDreana Freeman has also raised.
“We are not out looking for other social districts to be created, but we will be responsive if there was a group or other businesses that were interested in establishing one,” City Manager Wanda Page said in reply.
Council members Javiera Caballero and Jillian Johnson said the social district is an opportunity to push for safer streets by limiting cars, especially when budgeting begins for next year.
“What I want is for us to think about the transit opportunities downtown,” Caballero said. “The farmer’s market is successful because people walk around and there are no cars.”
How downtown Durham’s social district will work
The proposed boundaries of the Bullpen — the name DDI paid a marketing firm to come up with — would include nearly all of downtown.
Daily hours will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Specially branded cups are the only open containers covered by the ordinance and only businesses with ABC permits can sell them, meaning convenience stores are excluded.
The city will enforce violations with a noncriminal infraction punishable by a fine up to $100, according to the ordinance. Proceeds will go to Durham Public Schools.
Businesses can be punished with civil penalties of $250 a day, maxing out at $2,000, the ordinance says.
Signs will be placed around the district, paid for by the city. Parks and Recreation Director Wade Walcutt did not yet know how much they’ll cost.
All businesses must display a window sticker indicating whether they participate.
City-permitted special events won’t play by the rules of the social district. They’ll have to secure their own ABC permits should they want to sell booze.
“Participants in the social district would not be able to bring their beverages within that special event and the vice versa is true as well,” Walcutt explained. “You wouldn’t be able to leave that event with your beverage and enter the social district.”
What’s next for Durham’s social district?
At a 1 p.m. work session Thursday, the council will decide whether to put DDI in charge and discuss a management plan.
A second ordinance must be passed to allow alcohol consumption on city property, including CCB Plaza, Durham Central Park and Black Wall Street Gardens.
The earliest it could go into effect is December.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 8:13 AM.
