A public hearing at Tuesday's Opelika City Council meeting drew impassioned residents bent on protecting the historic downtown area.
The major issue discussed was an ordinance that would create a new zoning classification called the hospitality overlay district, which would allow for mobile food vending and bed and breakfast accommodations, among other items.
The zone is to be created between the Eighth and Ninth Street blocks of South Railroad Avenue.
"The only concern I have in the whole situation is why do you want to keep up liquor sales to 4 o'clock in the morning," said Homer McCollum, owner of a business in the affected area. "To me, that just doesn't make good sense at all."
The possibility of extended hours for liquor sales was a hot topic.
"I do support the hospitality overlay district," said Deke Hillyer, who owns two buildings in that block. "A person that gets off work at 2 o'clock in the morning, if he wants to go have a beer and be responsible and have him a burger... then he oughta be allowed the privilege of anyone else."
Although the new ordinance contains 15 possible uses for property with this designation, some allowed and some conditional use, none of them specifically mention extending the hours for alcohol sales. The possibility, however, was enough of a threat.
"I think this whole thing about the hospitality district is to be able to change liquor sales from 2 to 4 o'clock," McCollum said. "If that's all this is about, then I'm totally against it."
John Marsh, a major downtown property owner, spoke on the importance of this overlay to the improvement of downtown.
"There is, right now, 47 vacant spots downtown," Marsh said. "There's some trouble down there, and we need to do something about it. We need it vibrant, and the Irish Bred Pub is the best thing that ever happened to downtown."
The pub is a business in this block of downtown that would possibly request to extend its liquor-selling hours.
"I think we're looking at this sort of as a trial in a way," said Jerry Kelley, director of planning.
If the trial is successful, the council may consider making other Opelika areas into hospitality overlay districts.
If the hospitality overlay district trial doesn't work as expected, the district could be reclassified with its old designation.
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