Push Is On To Legalize Alcohol Sales Throughout Grand Prairie
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Grand Prairie businesses are tapping into strong early voter turnout, gathering petition signatures as part of an effort to level out liquor laws across the city.
If successful, the proposed law change would allow alcohol sales city wide and end a requirement to have customers join a private club in order to be served in some restaurants.
The petition would allow for the legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed drinks, within city limits.
Because of its location straddling different counties, Grand Prairie currently has different rules depending on where a business is located.
On the Dallas County side, the law was changed more than 30 years ago to allow restaurants to sell mixed drinks.
On the Tarrant County side though that change never happened. In order to serve an alcoholic drink, restaurants must have customers join a private club.
That comes with a number of state requirements that business owners like Don Walker said can cost as much as $50,000 a year.
"It doesn't put us on the same playing field, the level playing field, as our competitors," he said.
Walker, who owns the Oasis Marina on Joe Pool Lakes, said he had been trying to change the law for years, but only recently had support from the business community to make it happen.
The petition needs the signatures of 8,400 registered voters by mid-December in order to place the change on the ballot in the spring.