By DANIELLE ZULKOSKY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
A proposed Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area would allow people in Carmel to take drinks from inside bars and restaurants, and walk around outdoors within the boundaries of the district.
The Carmel City Council on Monday night introduced the DORA proposal. If approved, participants would be required to use a labeled cup, something safe to carry outdoors and not made of glass.
Carmel City Council member Matthew Snyder is a co-sponsor of the DORA ordinance.
“Well, it brings in more tax revenue. That’s one thing,” Snyder said Monday about the positives. “I think about many of the people that own condos on the Monon [Greenway] that spend many evenings at Savor, or the GOAT or anywhere else in Carmel, it would be nice if instead of having to chug their beer before they leave, just be able to walk home with it.”
A map in the ordinance shows the district roughly bordered on the north by First Street Northwest; on the west by Fourth Avenue Southwest and Third Avenue Southwest; on the south by West Carmel Drive; and on the east by Executive Drive, the businesses along both sides of Range Line Road, and First Avenue Southeast. The Carmel Arts & Design District and The Center for the Performing Arts would be within the district.
Two residents publicly spoke about the proposal during its introduction.
Carmel resident Jill H. Meisenheimer said, “I would like to know, why do this? How residents will benefit from this? What are the rules? How it will work?”
“I don’t see how residents will benefit from this,” said Wade Tharp, another Carmel resident. “It seems to me that, especially because I think three businesses already put in their permit applications for this, that it’s only to benefit the commercial.”
Bruce Calabrese, the owner of Old Town Tavern in Carmel, said a DORA could be a positive for his business on West Main Street. Calabrese said he supports it “as long as it’s enforced correctly and it’s patrolled correctly by the city.”
The finer details of the proposal will be hashed out in future meetings. Those details include the start and end times, and what drink cups will be allowed outdoors.
The ordinance was referred to the council’s land use committee for further discussion and input.
According to the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, these cities and towns have active DORAs: Batesville, Fort Wayne (it has two DORAs), Greensburg, Huntingburg, Jasper, Jeffersonville, Kirklin, Lawrenceburg, Logansport, Shelbyville, Warsaw, Winona Lake, and Yorktown.
Noblesville City Council in April approved the startup of a DORA, and Westfield City Council on June 24 agreed to try to begin one of its own.
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/local-news/carmel-introduces-plan-to-allow-special-outdoor-drinking-rules.
Graphic provided by City of Carmel