The Gainesville City Council voted Tuesday evening to relax some restrictions in it's alcoholic beverage ordinance to allow for distilleries to operate in the city.
Gainesville already allows breweries to operate in the city limits, but City Manager Bryan Lackey said the move to allow distilleries started several months ago when one asked to open in the city.
"We began addressing it at that point in time and working through those ideas, and while that project is, I think, on hold for now, I think there's other distilleries looking to go in the city," Lackey said.
Allowing distilleries is not the only change that was approved for the ordinance Tuesday. Lackey said it also changes the volume limit for growlers and other non-restaurant businesses that sell alcoholic drinks and allows businesses to request permits to serve alcohol at outdoor events.
"It'll allow those restaurants, if they want to hold an event in their parking lot or off into a yard on the side of that, then they can do that," Lackey said. "I know Wild Wings in town wants to hold a corn hole tournament outside and to be able to that and be able to serve outside their normal boundaries for that limited amount of time, so any restaurant in town will be able to take advantage of that a certain number of times per year."
The changes were approved with a 4-1 vote. Councilman George Wangemann was the only vote against the changes. Councilman Zach Thompson recused himself from the vote.
