Discuss amendments to the Mankato City Code related to Administrative Procedures and Liquor Licensing.

Discussion and revised recommendations.

Recently, a review was done of Chapter 2, Administrative Procedures, and of Chapter 4, Alcoholic Beverages, to clean up former amendments that were missed and to provide further clarity of licensing requirements (see attached ordinances). Upon further discussion the changes in Chapter 4, Alcoholic Beverages are summarized below:
 

• The occupancy limit of under 400 applies to all licenses, so it is referenced in the beginning and not repeated in each section.
• The food requirement for a Class R is being lowered to 30 percent from 40 percent to allow businesses more flexibility in meeting the requirement. 
• The “grandfathered” license information is listed as a Class B, bar to help provide clarity on those licenses that are for legal non-conforming uses. There are no other existing b licenses; thus, the previous language was removed.
• The liquor license agreement is changed to be acknowledged during renewal instead of having a new copy sent annually and signed unless there are changes.
• Cleanup on the movie theater license information within the chapter. 

In addition to the above, amendments are also being requested to the administrative procedures to provide clarification and reflect current practices (see attached) within Chapter 2 and eventually in other chapters where the procedure is reflected. This is further cleanup needed following the recodification that took place in 2025.

The date of hearing on the amendments has been scheduled for February 9. If approved, the ordinance amendments would go into effect 30 days after the date of publication.