Upper Arlington Weighs a DORA for Tremont Center
City Council is considering open-container zones in some commercial districts, and residents get a first look Oct. 14. Status: Community meeting; no legislation filed yet.
Upper Arlington is considering letting people carry a drink outside in parts of its shopping districts. The city announced a community meeting on Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas, known as DORAs, and says City Council will be considering them at certain commercial district locations, Tremont Center among them.
The meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, October 14, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 2151 Dorset Road. The city's economic development staff will walk through the proposal and how it would work, and they want to hear whether residents like the idea. Questions before then go to Economic Development Manager James Russell at 614-583-5046.
State law sets the frame. Under Ohio Revised Code 4301.82, a city can mark off a public area where open-container rules are relaxed, so an adult can buy a drink from a bar or restaurant holding a qualifying permit, walk out with it and keep drinking inside the boundary. The process starts with an application to council that includes a boundary map, the kinds of businesses inside and proposed health and safety rules. Council then has 45 days to publish public notice. For cities of 50,000 people or fewer, which includes Upper Arlington, each area is capped at 320 contiguous acres.
Nothing is up for a vote yet. The October 12 council agenda has no DORA item. The idea has brushed past council once already this year: in May, when council approved wine sales for a vendor at the Common Greens Farmers Market, the May 11 minutes show Council Member Kulewicz asking whether the plan raised DORA questions, and staff answered that drinking would stay inside the vendor's tent.
For people who already use Tremont Center for dinner and errands, the practical change would be a drink that can follow you along the sidewalks within whatever line council draws, instead of staying at your table. Downtown Columbus has a DORA bar planned for its winter programming, covered in our story on the Bicentennial Park winter lights.
Keep up with the suburb on our Upper Arlington page, find drink deals in our happy hour by neighborhood guide, and follow more local decisions under City.
