Sherman Byrd, who has been involved with the beer business for 40 years, is attempting to open a new night club called The Legend at 121 Honest St. He told the Chattanooga Beer Board that he has been a distributor, a retailer and helped put together Riverbend and the Bessie Smith Strut. As it currently stands, it is unlikely that he will be given a beer permit for the new business. Mr. Byrd came before the board Thursday morning to protest ordinances created by the city of Chattanooga that he said are causing problems in opening the new club.
The beer board does not create the ordinances and has no power to change them, but is responsible for enforcing them, it was stated. Before receiving a beer permit, a business must meet building, health and zoning codes. Mr. Byrd has been working to satisfy requirements to pass the building and health codes and has, so far, spent around $37,000 to fix up the building including putting on a new roof, painting and doing other work. The biggest problem and the one that has not been addressed is a zoning issue. The building is closer than 500 feet to an “adult establishment.” Previously, a teen club that served no alcohol was in the building in question, which according to the ordinance, is allowed to be close to adult businesses.
“That’s ridiculous,” said board member Christopher Keene. If an adult club moved to Market Street that would mean no new restaurants or bars could receive a beer license.
The application that Mr. Byrd was given to fill out for a beer permit, specified requirements that businesses serving alcohol must be at least 500 feet from a church, school or day care center. Even though the proximity issue to an adult establishment is in the ordinance, there is no mention of it on the application.
Assistant City Attorney Keith Reisman said that Mr. Byrd did all the work to the building without pulling permits from the Land Development Office (LDO) which oversees zoning matters. If that had been done, he said, Mr. Byrd would have been notified of the distance problem.
Mr. Byrd also complained that it was necessary to have a signed lease before making a formal application to the beer board, as well as spending money to bring buildings up to standards, yet if the board decides, a beer license can still be denied. He also found unfair that permits are refused for people who have met city codes when special event organizers are approved without any code requirement.
Mr. Reisman said the best chance for getting a license to sell beer will be for Mr. Byrd to go to the Regional Planning Agency and request a zoning change to “exception zone” which would allow the business to sell alcohol.
The board voted unanimously to table the application from The Legend, until the zoning issue is solved. A suggestion was also made to take his objections to the Chattanooga City Council which created the ordinances.
Another violation, this one for a wrecker company, Lockwood’s Auto, 2317 Bragg Ave., was also tabled. Stemming from a complaint received on Nov. 24, 2015, Officer John Collins investigated a history of similar grievances about the business, and found it is an on-going issue.
The police department contacts dispatchers when a wrecker is needed. The dispatchers call wrecker companies on a rotating list to answer the calls. Officer Collins said from Aug. 3 through Dec. 3, he found 21 calls to Lockwood’s Auto that had been refused by the company due to being unavailable. A call back, turning down the tow, most often came 30-45 minutes after the original call had been accepted. This causes traffic delays, keeps the police officer out of service, and requires that the dispatcher go back to square one, said Officer Collins. “They either need to get in the business, or get out of it,” said board member Ed Townson.
Ken Lockwood from the company did not appear at the hearing Thursday morning. A motion passed unanimously, to remove Lockwood’s from the rotation list until a representative comes before the board for this violation.