An area in Edmonton referred to as Happy Beer Street will be the city’s newest entertainment district after a unanimous city council vote Wednesday.
Entertainment districts are areas where alcohol can be purchased and consumed from participating businesses within specific boundaries during events. In such cases, these areas are restricted to foot traffic.
This district, along 78th Avenue between 99th and 100th streets, is the city’s third. The others are on Rice Howard Way and a section of 104th Street.
Cole Boyd, the co-owner of Bent Stick Brewing, told CBC News Thursday the district has been a long time coming.
“With the concentration of breweries we have got on 78th Avenue, to be able to use it as more of a gathering spot and leverage our proximity and collaboration into something to better the community — we’re pretty excited about it,” said Boyd.
Cultivating a vibrant city
Most community members seem to welcome the district. Of 1,484 respondents of the city’s public engagement survey, 87 per cent indicated support.
Eleven per cent opposed the change, citing noise, public alcohol consumption, traffic congestion and parking scarcity as concerns.
Natalie Darrah, a director of local non-profit Paths for People, told the city’s executive committee on Wednesday that the district supports her organization’s “vision of a human-centred, vibrant city.”
Edmonton’s local economy director Tom Mansfield said on Wednesday that entertainment districts can reduce red tape. (Submitted by City of Edmonton)
The area is well-serviced by non-vehicular forms of transportation like public transit, sidewalks and bike lanes, said Darrah.
“It makes sense to carry this momentum forward and to take full advantage of this existing community infrastructure to create an active node … that benefits our local economy and our identity as a city,” she said.
At a city council committee meeting Wednesday, Edmonton’s local economy director Tom Mansfield said entertainment districts can reduce red tape so businesses can host events with ease and more regularly.
Currently, individual businesses must get a special licence from Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis. Obtaining these licences can involve additional fees and costs and can take up to six weeks to process.
A separate application is also needed to request temporary street closures from the city.
This new event-hosting ease will breed collaboration between businesses in the neighbourhood, said Boyd.
“It’s things that we’ve wanted to do before, but were restricted by our use case,” he said. “If we put live music on the street 1771669781, everyone benefits from it instead of just one brewery.”
“It’s going to be a bit of a touch-and-go trial year, but we’re excited. We’ve got good bones in place to make this year’s programming go over well.”