As part of the approved revisions to Decatur’s alcohol ordinance at tonight’s City Commission meeting, the city will soon require a “sidewalk table plan” as part of the annual application process for an alcoholic beverage license.  Part of that ordinance revision includes the addition of Sec. 6.22.g.3…

Smoking is prohibited at tables included in a sidewalk table plan permit area and within five feet of any such area boundary.

The city commission voted in favor of the full ordinance, which means that the sidewalk smoking ban will go in effect for new alcoholic beverage license applicants on January 1, 2012 and renewing applicants on October 1, 2012.

At the commission meeting, Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne assured the commissioners that restaurant owners “know this is coming” and that it was “something we’ve been asked to look at”.

As noted at the meeting, this new ordinance will make it illegal to smoke along rather long stretches of Decatur sidewalks.  Based on responses to questions from Mayor Floyd, it sounds like the ordinance will be in effect 24 hours.

DHS teacher Chris Billingsley writes in…

The Decatur High School Close Up Club had a successful “Rake&Run” over the weekend. More that thirty students and ten parents began the service project early Saturday morning. Four teams of students went to the Glenndale, Vidal/Lamont/Garden, Great Lakes, Adair, and the Candler/Midway neighborhoods to rake and bags leaves. Almost 500 bags of leaves were collected, 37 at one Glenndale home and 29 at a Garden Lane home. More than $1,700 was donated by the very generous Decatur homeowners. One of my favorite stops was on Midway Road, where two young parents, their beautiful children, and friendly black labrador retriever supervised the raking. Another was a young married couple and new homeowners in Decatur who provided drinks and snacks for the kids, as well as a very generous contribution for the spring trip to Washington, D.C. Finally I want to mention a Decatur homeowner who has supported our efforts over the past four years with contributions totaling $1,200. A homeowner with no kids in the system but one who sees the value of teenagers working together to raise money for a good cause and provide a valuable service for homeowners.

Thanks to all who helped to make that year’s R&R one of the best. Happy Thanksgiving!

Amy sends along this press release from Georgia’s SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office)…

Ponce de Leon Court Historic District Listed in the National Register of Historic Places

ATLANTA (November 21, 2011) – The Ponce de Leon Court Historic District, located a few blocks east of the downtown Decatur square in DeKalb County, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 2, 2011. The city of Decatur and the property owners sponsored the nomination and a consultant prepared the nomination materials.

The Ponce de Leon Court Historic District is a single street that was developed in the 1920s by John L. Womack (1887-1956). His wife’s name (Margaret H. Womack) is listed on the subdivision plat, reportedly to insulate family assets from his various business ventures. The Womacks purchased the first tract in 1921, where they built their house at the end of the street. Subsequent tracts were purchased in 1922 and 1924. Subdivision plats for the street date from 1924, 1925, and 1926. John Womack was a small business owner, builder, developer, salesman, and amateur horticulturalist. Also known as “J.L.,” Womack owned the Fulton Lime and Cement Company in Atlanta, one of several businesses he managed.

Ponce de Leon Court is a short residential street containing 26 lots terminating in a cul-de-sac. The original development plan included this cul-de-sac as a way to direct traffic around a circular planter. Lots are deep and narrow, except for the developer’s property at the end of the street, which contains a large two-story house built in 1921 by John and Margaret Womack. This house was converted into apartments in 1958. Most lots have modest single-family, one-story homes dating from the 1920s, but there are also a few duplexes and three small apartment buildings in the district. The street maintains a unified character through similar setbacks, subtropical vegetation, sidewalks with planter strips on both sides, and houses that are generally the same scale. A few surviving palm trees and bamboo also distinguish this street from others in the area. House types include bungalows and side-gabled cottages. Stylistic influences are primarily Craftsman and Colonial Revival. Some houses have enclosed front porches, but overall the district has a high degree of integrity. The district also includes three buildings at the beginning of the street, facing East Ponce de Leon Avenue, a major east-west street through Decatur. One of these is a 1922 two-story brick apartment building with classical features typical of many built in the Atlanta area at that time.

Say what you want about Decatur’s city government and staff, but they’re planners.

While some other cities rushed to get their Sunday sales ordinance approved so that they could have one extra day of Sunday sales – to the great benefit of those cities’ alcohol distributors – Decatur apparently decided to be prompt, but also smart.

Tonight, Decatur’s City Commission is likely to approve a revised liquor ordinance that will allow for the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday starting two days after Black Friday.  (If they don’t, expect drunken recitations of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” in the streets.)  But that’s not the only change being proposed for that most hilariously-worded of Decatur ordinances.  (“Moral turpitude!” Hee hee!)  There are dang near nine different updates being made to “spirits law”.   (I quote that like I’m making some offbeat reference to a mid-90s indie film hoping to impress, but really I’m just a quotations “man of the night”.  See I did it again!)

The most notable of which is what I’ll term “The Cafe Alsace Amendment”.  That’s the amendment that will now make it legal for Decatur restaurants with valid serving licenses to allow patrons to bring their own bottles of wine to a restaurant and charge a corking fee.  This topic was brought up in a FFAF thread back in January, where a patron complained that Cafe Alsace wouldn’t let them bring in their own bottle of wine for consumption.  The proprietor of Cafe Alsace, Benedicte Cooper, rightly told the patron that while other Decatur establishments may do this, it is currently illegal, and therefore she would not.

A good six months later, Mayor Floyd mentioned in a commission meeting that after talking with Ms. Cooper, he’d like to see the alcohol ordinance changed so that this was no longer prohibited.  (See: Bring Your Own Wine? Mayor Thinks It’s Fine! post)  And then we waited.

What were we waiting for?  Apparently we were waiting for this Sunday sales vote, because now that we need to get it on the books so folks can start “rushing out for that elusive forgotten bottle of wine for a Sunday evening dinner party” – the specific reason most commonly given on DM – the city’s going to do a good bit of tweaking.  Want a list?  You’ll have to click thru…

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Photo of the Beer Growler’s “line out the door” Sunday courtesy of Scott B via Twitpic