Document Highlights Proposed Liquor License Changes

Baltimore County could move to county-wide liquor licenses in as little as five years under a set of recommendations from a task force appointed to look at overhauling the current system.

The final report of the , which was appointed in August by County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, was scheduled to be delivered today. That timeline has been pushed back a week, said Mike Mohler, co-chair of the task force and chief administrator of the county Liquor Board.

The nine-page document of recommendations contains 11 recommendations that will serve as the road map for the final report. Mohler said the recommendations are not intended to give Kamenetz some a la carte options. (The document is attached to this post.)

In fact, the report will contain two competing recommendations.

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Currently licenses are doled out by population in each of 15 districts.

Under one proposal, the county would move to a county-wide system that is based on need, not population, over a period of 12 years. That plan would phase in lower population standards in the last five years.

Current license holders, especially those in the Essex-Middle River areas where there is a glut of licenses, could sell their licenses to businesses in other areas of the county. The county could also create as many as three new licenses for other areas, if existing licenses are not transferred out of the Essex-Middle River areas.

A second, more aggressive proposal would do essentially the same thing, but in a five-year period.

Representatives of the Baltimore County Licensed Beverage Association opposed both plans. An alternative plan proposed by the organization was voted down.

Jack Milani, chairman of the county association, was not immediately available for comment.

"These are complex issues," Mohler said of the votes. "We got consensus where we thought we could get consensus."

All 12 members of the group agreed to propose changes that would eliminate the residency requirement to hold a license as well as requiring the applicant to file a petition with 10 signatures of community members. The group will also propose increasing the total number of licenses a company can hold from six to 12, with an additional license being available if it's located within the Liberty Road area.

Mohler called those proposals "the low hanging fruit."

Kamenetz will review the recommendations and is expected to use it to craft legislation he'll attempt to push through the General Assembly in January.