Create a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) in Fairport Harbor
| FHACA request for a DORA |
| Sample DORA Application submitted to FH Village Administrator |
On July 10th, 2020, our Alliance submitted an official letter to the Village Administrator of Fairport Harbor to begin working on an application for a D.O.R.A. (Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area) for Fairport Harbor. A DORA is property within the municipal corporation or township, designated as an outdoor refreshment area. In this area, any person who is carrying an opened container of beer or intoxicating liquor (if the container was purchased from an establishment with an “Outdoor Refreshment Area” designation on their liquor permit) is exempt from the Open Container Law. For the ordinance to come in to affect, the Village Administrator must complete an application and submit it to the legislative authority.
On July 21st, 2020, our Alliance completed a sample application and submitted it to the Village Administrator so that it could be used (or revised) to help save time with filing. In the message crafted to the Village Administrator, we listed the following next steps:
1. Please review the application and lets have further discussion on boundary if necessary. I included the entire parcel (not just sidewalk) of touching parcels in the boundary, which would make our area about 35 acres of the 150 possible acres allowed. If we mainly just did sidewalks/streets it would cut it down to about 16 acres.
2. Once all edits to the application are complete, the application should be submitted to the legislative authority (my assumption is council). Within 45 days of application submittal, the "council" needs to publish a public notice of the application once per week for at least 2 consecutive weeks in 1 newspaper of general circulation. "The legislative authority shall ensure that the notice states that the application is on file in the office of the clerk of the municipal corporation or township and is available for inspection by the public during regular business hours. The legislative authority also shall indicate in the notice the date and time of any public hearing to be held regarding the application by the legislative authority."
3. Within 30-60 days (min/max) after initial public notice, the council needs to approve or disapprove the application by ordinance or resolution.
4. If approved: The legislative authority shall provide to the division of liquor control and the investigative unit of the department of public safety notice of the approval of the application and a description of the area specified in the application. If not approved, Amy can make changes until it is approved.
5. We can chat about the next steps of what needs to happen once approved to stay within the ORC I guess once we get to that point ( ORC - (e-j) ).
At the time of initial conversations, no D.O.R.A’s were in Northeast Ohio. Now a year and 3 months later, many communities around us have (or will have shortly-ordinances have already been filed) these D.O.R.A’s to help support their communities and local businesses.
So why doesn’t Fairport have one yet? According to the allowed ordinance, 4 liquor permit holders must be within the D.O.R.A. area. The village would like to only have the D.O.R.A. in our downtown district (2nd and high street down to 4th and high street and over to 3rd and eagle street). This area only has 2 (soon to be 3) allowable liquor permit holders. So, they have asked our Senator to change the current State Law that would affect all cities and villages, instead of attempting to make the current law work for our village. (Many other small villages have already been able to work this law into their ordinances with no issues). Most cities are expanding their D.O.R.A. areas, not reducing them or dissolving them.
Lets cross our fingers there is progress soon!
On July 21st, 2020, our Alliance completed a sample application and submitted it to the Village Administrator so that it could be used (or revised) to help save time with filing. In the message crafted to the Village Administrator, we listed the following next steps:
1. Please review the application and lets have further discussion on boundary if necessary. I included the entire parcel (not just sidewalk) of touching parcels in the boundary, which would make our area about 35 acres of the 150 possible acres allowed. If we mainly just did sidewalks/streets it would cut it down to about 16 acres.
2. Once all edits to the application are complete, the application should be submitted to the legislative authority (my assumption is council). Within 45 days of application submittal, the "council" needs to publish a public notice of the application once per week for at least 2 consecutive weeks in 1 newspaper of general circulation. "The legislative authority shall ensure that the notice states that the application is on file in the office of the clerk of the municipal corporation or township and is available for inspection by the public during regular business hours. The legislative authority also shall indicate in the notice the date and time of any public hearing to be held regarding the application by the legislative authority."
3. Within 30-60 days (min/max) after initial public notice, the council needs to approve or disapprove the application by ordinance or resolution.
4. If approved: The legislative authority shall provide to the division of liquor control and the investigative unit of the department of public safety notice of the approval of the application and a description of the area specified in the application. If not approved, Amy can make changes until it is approved.
5. We can chat about the next steps of what needs to happen once approved to stay within the ORC I guess once we get to that point ( ORC - (e-j) ).
At the time of initial conversations, no D.O.R.A’s were in Northeast Ohio. Now a year and 3 months later, many communities around us have (or will have shortly-ordinances have already been filed) these D.O.R.A’s to help support their communities and local businesses.
So why doesn’t Fairport have one yet? According to the allowed ordinance, 4 liquor permit holders must be within the D.O.R.A. area. The village would like to only have the D.O.R.A. in our downtown district (2nd and high street down to 4th and high street and over to 3rd and eagle street). This area only has 2 (soon to be 3) allowable liquor permit holders. So, they have asked our Senator to change the current State Law that would affect all cities and villages, instead of attempting to make the current law work for our village. (Many other small villages have already been able to work this law into their ordinances with no issues). Most cities are expanding their D.O.R.A. areas, not reducing them or dissolving them.
Lets cross our fingers there is progress soon!
