Specialty Shop ordinance gets Rockmart Council’s OK

The Rockmart City Council took a rare split during their Tuesday session on an item on the agenda that expands business opportunities and investment within the city limit – with some caveats.

A new Specialty Shop ordinance was approved and is now in effect with a 4-1 vote during the monthly regular session held on August 13. The vote now gives business owners who qualify and meet certain requirements the opportunity to apply for and be granted permission and licensing to sell alcoholic beverages within certain limits.

The way this differs from a liquor store is that a liquor store’s majority of business comes from the sale of spirits in packages – bottles and cans – that can be taken home and is their primary revenue source for a store. Their taxes are handled somewhat differently through the Department of Revenue and stricter requirements are placed on those who sell package spirits.

They fall into requirements over where they can be located, how many can be built in an area based on population and other regulations that govern how they operate. Generally speaking, there are no limits on their sales of bottles and cans versus how other operations that are allowed to sell alcohol are structured.

A restaurant’s sales are a better way to look at how the city has structured the ordinance. When a restaurant is allowed to sell alcohol in Georgia, they have to limit those sales to a certain percentage of how much they are bringing in via food. Bars, microbreweries and wineries who have tasting rooms have certain limits on them as well, but operate under a different set of restrictions on sales percentages and taxation.

The Specialty Shop Ordinance essentially seeks to provide businesses who want the option to sell alcohol a way to do so and remain in compliance with city, county and state laws regulating those sales.

For example, a business owner who wants to offer customers drinks while they are sitting in a salon could sell those beverages for a set price, but would have to do a majority of their sales in the services offered or haircare products, accessories, jewelry and other products usually offered in salons for patrons.

City Manager Stacey Smith said the goal of the ordinance is to give business owners looking for new opportunities a chance to seek out non-traditional options without being a restaurant or liquor store.

“We see this as another tool at the city’s disposal to encourage all kinds of economic development, especially around our downtown area,” Smith said. “We’ve seen a lot of growth around South Marble Street and East Church Street in the past few years, and we want to not only continue to see that growth continue but give opportunity for other areas around Rockmart to also benefit and find new ways to attract people into our city.”

Council member Rick Stone was the lone vote against the measure during last week’s meeting.

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