Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone is challenging state restrictions on the number of liquor licenses the city can grant to local businesses, citing a need to attract and help new restaurants and increase economic activity.
The Licenses and Permits Committee of the Somerville Board of Aldermen is now considering a home−rule proposal Curtatone submitted on July 14, which would petition the state to relinquish its power in capping the number of liquor licenses the City of Somerville can allot to local businesses.
Somerville is currently authorized by Massachusetts to issue 16 beer and wine licenses and 84 all−alcoholic beverages serving licenses, 10 of which are reserved especially for future businesses in the undeveloped Assembly Square.
Curtatone, in a Sept. 23 op−ed in the Somerville News, referred to the state−determined limit on the number of liquor licenses Somerville can sanction as a "counterproductive leftover of Prohibition Era thinking."
He noted that it has become less attractive for new restaurants and clubs to open in Somerville due to the constraints of having to pay for expensive liquor licenses or never being able to receive a license at all.
Curtatone pointed to the fact that both the City of Cambridge and the Town of Arlington are authorized to issue unlimited beer and wine licenses as a reason why Somerville should follow suit.
The fee for a liquor license in Somerville varies depending on the type of license and can range from $1,600 to $5,000.
Somerville Alderman Robert Trane, who serves on the Licenses and Permits Committee and represents Ward 7 — which includes a part of Tufts' campus — told the Daily that a restaurant's ability to serve alcohol often defines its "bottom−line" in terms of profits.
Though the proposal has not yet been finalized, Trane predicts that it will pass.
"It's going to get approved in some form," Trane said.
Although the reform — designed primarily to help new restaurants — is unlikely to affect liquor stores, some area liquor store owners have raised concerns that an increase in licenses may lead to increased competition that could pressure stores to sell to minors in order to break even.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman argued, however, that if this proposal only affects restaurants, as he expects will be the case, the selling of liquor to minors should be a non−issue.
"I don't worry as much about restaurant licenses as I do liquor stores," Reitman said. "I don't think that an awful lot of our transports [of alcohol to Tufts] come from restaurants and clubs, because … you can't take alcohol out of the establishment, and so if you're getting intoxicated, they see it and they stop serving."
He noted that Tufts students should expect secondary benefits from this proposal, including having more nearby restaurant options.
Some local business owners are skeptical that the city's downtown restaurant business is in need of this expansion in liquor licenses.
"I don't think they're suffering now," Steve Mosher, manager of The Wine & Cheese Cask, told the Daily. "I think there's probably more revenue in restaurants in Somerville now than ever before, and they just probably want to keep that revenue stream going up."
He recognized that his business, which has been a fixture on Washington Street since 1968, is better prepared to sustain economic hardship than newly opened businesses, which are the crux of the problem according to Curtatone's released argument.
"We've been here for more than 30 years, and other places have opened up certainly in Cambridge and Somerville two or 10 or 15 years [ago] … so I think it kind of depends on what your niche is and who you're trying to serve," Mosher said.
