Shorthanded council OKs Smithfield social district

SMITHFIELD — During a meeting on July 11 with downtown leaders, Town Council members were divided on the merits of a social district.

Just five days later, a unanimous council voted to ask the state to OK a social district, which would allow downtown visitors to carry beer, wine and mixed drinks along town streets and into participating stores.

“If we don’t give it a try, all we’re going to do is talk about it,” Sloan Stevens told his fellow councilmen on July 16.

But “unanimous” came with an asterisk. The vote was 4-0, with Councilmen David Barbour, Marlon Lee and Travis Scott not at last week’s meeting.

Stevens said he wished all councilmen were present for the discussion. But “we owe it to downtown to take action to give them every tool in their tool belt … to get people to come eat, spend money, play, go to the amphitheater,” he said.

Downtown Smithfield isn’t the retail hub it once was, Stevens noted. Gone are the likes of Belk, Rose’s, Creech’s Pharmacy, Edwards IGA and Hugh Austin’s, a men’s clothing store.

“It’s not been the same my entire life,” Stevens said. “And unless we start doing stuff differently in our downtown, nothing’s going to change.”

Stevens and others expressed concern about shops and restaurants leaving downtown.

“We have businesses leaving town in a time where we’re experiencing all this growth,” Stevens said, referring to the influx of new residents. “We need to be taking advantage of that and attracting the commercial along with the residential.”

At a meeting earlier this month on economic development, a consultant pointed to the perils of growing rooftops but not businesses, Stevens noted. The consequences, he said, are obvious in neighboring Clayton, where property taxes are climbing as new homes outpace growth in commercial development.

If the state says yes, Smithfield’s social district will stretch along Market Street from Front Street to Fourth Street. But while it will encompass one block of some side streets, including South Third, it won’t extend along North Second and North Third. Hours will be from 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays.

The district’s footprint, hours and days reflect the wishes of councilmen who, while supportive, also wanted to go slowly.

“I think we all agree to start out small and get a sample size, see how it does,” said Councilman Roger Wood.

That was fine with Stevens. “I would agree to shorten this map, I would agree to less hours,” he said. “But I’d like to see us do something.”

Downtown business owners are also fine with limits on a social district, said Town Manager Michael Scott, the new president of the board that governs the Downtown Smithfield Development Corp. “I think their goal is to just try to get it going,” he said. “If we need to go smaller, we need to reduce the hours, the days, they’re OK with that.

“They just believe that we need to get it going forward to spur the conversation for additional businesses to come downtown.”

The DSDC board had met earlier in the day on July 16.

“A big discussion this afternoon was that restaurants and retail are leaving downtown and we need to do some to try to keep them here and bring more here,” Scott said.

The town manager supported the creation of a social district. “If you want restaurants, somewhere to go in the evenings to have a nice meal, then this is one way to take a step in the right direction, in my opinion, and I think that’s what DSDC is asking for,” he said.

“You can’t create a nightlife, one, if we’re not open and two, if there’s nothing to go to,” Scott added.

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