Trumble said she's pushing for changes to city code, but concedes it'll probably be faster to push for updates to the PODA law in the upcoming legislative session.Īsked how cities like Huntington are getting around these issues, Trumble said one major difference is Huntington's college bars are largely separate from the city's downtown district. 'So now, you have popular businesses like and that are not able to get a full liquor license because they can't prove 60 % of their sales come from food, ' Trumble said.Īnd if they don't have a liquor license, they can't participate in a PODA.

Fearing the city center would be overrun with booze-fueled dance clubs, rules were then implemented that said the only way to get a liquor license downtown going forward would be if 60 % of your sales came from food. When city leaders made a move to clean up Sunnyside in the 1990s, it essentially forced all the college bars into the city's downtown. Because of the peculiarities in how liquor licenses are allowed downtown, that means primarily college-oriented bars. Maybe they wouldn't do that, but that's a real concern for people who operate bars and restaurants as their livelihood, ' Simonton said.įurther, the law mandates only businesses with a liquor license can participate. So, potentially, if someone just walks down the street where one of these PODAs is established and opens a can of beer, and they're drinking underage, ABCA could come and enforce a violation against any bar or restaurant that's agreed to participate. 'There's a provision in the law that makes every participating establishment jointly and severally liable for any violation. Trumble said provisions put in the law by the ABCA are scaring off, or flat-out excluding, local businesses. Recent media reports out of Charleston include rave reviews from business owners in the state's capital, with one business claiming to have sold 800 drinks during a single event.īut none of that is happening in Morgantown. In less than six months, Huntington City Council has already voted to expand not only the size of the district, but the months in which it's active.

In June, Huntington became the first city to create a PODA. Regardless of what they're called, the oversimplified gist is cities can get permission from the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration to create districts in which customers can get alcoholic beverages to go from participating businesses.

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