The campaign to revamp Colorado’s beer laws is shifting its tack.
The campaign pushing to overhaul the Colorado’s 3.2 beer law Monday.
The reversal came a month after the Secretary of State’s office approved the final language for Initiative 51 and Initiative 52 — to create a new license to allow sales of full-strength beer in Colorado grocery and convenience stores.
Instead, will move forward with . The new language is essentially identical to the original initiatives with one major change — it prohibits supermarkets and convenience stores within 500 feet of a school or college campus from receiving a beer and wine license.
The distance rule currently applies to liquor stores, but the first initiatives exempted the new beer and wine license from the restriction in a little-noticed provision.
Under , the 500-foot limit is measured from the nearest property line of a school to the nearest point of the liquor store, but it allows local governments to waive or amend the restriction.
The policy shift, according to Matt Chandler, a Your Choice Colorado spokesperson, is designed to address safety issues. “From a policy perspective … we feel that the new license should conform with existing full strength beer and wine sales regulations when it comes to sales near schools,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
Chandler said the organization — backed by King Soopers, Safeway and Walmart — may still submit additional ballot measures in coming months “before deciding on which ballot measure most closely matches the desire of Colorado voters.”
The language is from a coalition of local liquor stores, craft brewers and others who want to maintain the state’s existing alcohol regulations, which restrict sale of full-strength beer and wine to liquor stores.
The current law also limits retail chains and store owners to only one full-service liquor license. The state’s roughly 1,500 grocery and convenience stores can only sell 3.2 beer.
Itap still unclear whether the organization pushing for the change will seek to allow liquor sales in grocery and convenience stores, a move that would change the dynamic of the ballot campaign.
Once Your Choice Colorado settles on language — which may take months — it will begin to collect signatures to get the measure on the 2016 ballot.
