Cambridge drops – Cambridge’s License Commission scrapped two proposed alcohol regulations Tuesday night after residents and business owners pushed back, abandoning plans to ban sales during the final hour before closing and to impose a 30-minute wait between drink orders.
Cambridge’s License Commission moved to pull back two proposed alcohol regulations Tuesday night—after the draft rules triggered backlash from the very people who would have had to follow them.
The city will no longer pursue an earlier last call of one hour before closing or require a 30-minute wait between drink orders. The revisions came after commissioners reviewed feedback from residents and business owners and concluded the proposals were “too restrictive to businesses and the consumer. ” Jeremy Warnick. the city’s director of communications. said in an email.
The turnaround is also tied to how the draft was rolled out. The commission had circulated the proposed regulations throughout the business community last month. raising concerns about how they would be enforced. One business owner said they would have had to place egg timers on each table to follow the 30-minute rule between drinks.
Commissioners acknowledged those concerns but said the document was only a draft. They also said the commission has open ears before anything is set in stone later this year. Three more listening sessions focusing on feedback from license holders are scheduled for this month. A meeting will also happen with the city’s Economic Opportunity and Development Division. business associations. and the Office of Tourism.
After those meetings, the commission plans a formal discussion at its August and September public meetings before any votes are taken to update the rules.
The debate dates back further. The License Commission. made up of three people—the commission chair. the fire chief. and the police commissioner—first said it was updating the rules in January. Commissioners pointed to the lack of significant changes over the past 10 years and said they wanted to bring the regulations up to speed with state laws.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Chair Nicole Murati Ferrer said sending the draft regulations to license holders before any listening sessions did not work. She said the approach caused much more “confusion” and “misunderstanding.”
In the vote, the commission also removed a separate provision that would have created a separate last call for pitchers. Ferrer said the rules being dropped were “too restrictive and not in the manner of how this board operates.”
For now, Cambridge’s alcohol rules remain on the path of further discussion and scheduled listening sessions—rather than the stricter enforcement timetable that businesses say would have been difficult to implement.
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