City Council discusses restriction of liquor stores within city limits, proposal expected to be postponed

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – An ordinance was brought before the City Council at their latest executive session meeting on Thursday, June 27, that would restrict the number of liquor stores within city limits to 14.

Councilperson Wanda Smith serves as the sponsor for the amendment and told the council she’s concerned with the number of DUI’s, as well as wrecks and fatalities caused by alcohol consumption. Smith said she was approached by some citizens of Clarksville to bring the ordinance forward, which included some business owners who actually own liquor stores. “They wish they had never owned a liquor store,” Smith told the council.

CPD DUI statistics

Smith went on to breakdown some statistics that were provided by the Clarksville Police Department, which detailed in 2023 there were 554 DUI’s, 136 alcohol related crashes with property damage and 74 DUI related crashes with injuries. Meanwhile, there were 5 fatal DUI related crashes, according to Smith.

“I just don’t want to see anymore crashes and fatalities because of alcohol,” Smith said. “We know that alcohol changes your mind of thought, alcohol causes health issues… But, we have too many liquor stores already and if we keep bringing liquor stores, we’ll see more crashes, more deaths, more traffic tickets being written.”

However, Smith motioned for the ordinance to be postponed until September due to some discrepancies with the proposal.

Possible conflict of interest

Councilperson Deanna McLaughlin responded to the ordinance by saying she also spoke with one of the liquor store owners previously mentioned. They had asked her to bring an ordinance forward that addressed the same issues.

“Yet, he owns two liquor stores and wasn’t willing to turn in his certificate for somebody else to use,” McLaughlin said. “I told him I would not bring this forward, because it seemed kind of ironic that he was one of the people that wanted the limit lifted before he was able to obtain liquor store licenses. He got his, and he didn’t want anybody else to have theirs.”

Councilperson Karen Reynolds also addressed some of her concerns by saying she supports the intent of what the sponsor is trying to accomplish but has a hard time voting in favor of limiting the number of liquor stores to 14. “We have a responsibility to our community not to use government overreach,” Reynolds said.

Councilperson Ambar Marquis said implementing an ordinance like this wouldn’t stop DUI’s, rather, it would just make some people go out of their way to purchase alcohol.

“I think that, as a society, that’s where we get it wrong,” Marquis said. “We try to ban all of these things without really looking at ‘why is this individual doing this.’ The root causes go back to mental health, trauma that lead people into addiction. That’s what we really need to look into.”

The conversation over the ordinance should continue next week with the council expected to take a vote to postpone the proposal at their regular session meeting.