{"id":2446158,"date":"2019-07-09T21:44:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T03:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/in-beer-battle-with-clarks-market-aspen-liquor-store-alleges-rubber-stamp-policy-by-city\/"},"modified":"2019-07-09T21:44:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T03:44:01","slug":"in-beer-battle-with-clarks-market-aspen-liquor-store-alleges-rubber-stamp-policy-by-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/in-beer-battle-with-clarks-market-aspen-liquor-store-alleges-rubber-stamp-policy-by-city\/","title":{"rendered":"In beer battle with Clark\u2019s Market, Aspen liquor store alleges rubber-stamp policy by city"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen Wine & Spirits filed a complaint after business hours Tuesday asking a Pitkin County District Court judge to vacate the Aspen Local Licensing Authority\u2019s decision allowing Clark\u2019s Market to sell lower strength beer with 3.2 percent alcohol content.<\/strong>
Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Does the city\u2019s liquor board blindly approve applications for licenses to sell booze?<\/p>\n

Aspen Wine & Spirits thinks so and is arguing the alleged de facto policy hurts competing businesses.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, that argument was made to a judge who will decide whether the municipal government should remain a defendant in the liquor store\u2019s lawsuit protesting the sale of full-strength beer at Clark\u2019s Market, a neighbor of Aspen Wine & Spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the city has adopted a policy of approving all liquor licenses for any individuals that seem to be qualified, regardless of whether or not they have demonstrated need,\u201d said Richard Neiley Jr., counsel for Aspen Wine & Spirits, during a case-management teleconference before Pitkin County District Judge Chris Seldin.<\/p>\n

Such a rubber-stamp policy violates Colorado law that says before granting a liquor license, a licensing authority must consider \u201cthe reasonable requirements of the neighborhood or the desires of the adult inhabitants,\u201d Neiley Jr. is arguing.<\/p>\n

Aspen Wine & Spirits wants Clark\u2019s Market to stop selling full-strength beer, which it has been doing since Jan. 1. That\u2019s when a Colorado law rolled out allowing existing grocers and convenience stores to sell the same-strength beer offered by liquor stores.<\/p>\n

Aspen Wine & Spirits and Clark\u2019s Market are separated by a hallway; both are located at the shopping complex at North Mill and Puppy Smith streets.<\/p>\n

The liquor store sued the supermarket and city in September, after the Local Licensing Authority \u2014 a city board of volunteers who review applications to sell liquor and marijuana \u2014 in August approved an application from Clark\u2019s to sell full-strength suds once the new law took hold.<\/p>\n

The suit, which has been amended multiple times, is seeking three avenues of relief.<\/p>\n

The first claim contends that because the LLA violated the law by blessing Clark\u2019s\u2019 liquor license application by not weighing the neighborhood needs, a judge should void the license.<\/p>\n

The second claim seeks a judgment determining that the city has an unlawful policy of approving all liquor license applications, and that Clark\u2019s failed to demonstrate to the LLA that its neighborhood\u2019s desires were met.<\/p>\n

The third claim, for breach of contract, alleges that Clark\u2019s Market had a lease agreement from January 2000 giving Aspen Wine & Spirits exclusive rights to sell full-strength beer from the shopping complex.<\/p>\n

The city and Clark\u2019s, however, have argued that there was plenty of evidence showing the supermarket\u2019s selling full-strength beer met the desires of the neighborhood, and it was presented to the LLA when it approved the license. The city also has said it doesn\u2019t have a blanket policy to approve liquor licenses, while Clark\u2019s maintains it did not breach any lease agreement with Aspen Wine & Spirits.<\/p>\n

Neiley Jr. said statements from LLA chairman Bill Murphy, made the day Clark\u2019s won its license, show there is such a policy. According to Neiley Jr., Murphy said \u201cwe\u2019ve never in the past denied somebody a license because it\u2019s been perceived that the desires of the neighborhood haven\u2019t been met because we don\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another board member made similar remarks, Neiley Jr. said, \u201cwhich indicates, I think fairly clearly, that the city has adopted a de facto policy approving liquor licenses for all qualified individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney representing the city in the matter, D.J. Goldfarb, who was sitting in for lead attorney Josh Marks, countered that Murphy was commenting on his own behalf and not the city\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis comments are not binding on the city,\u201d Goldbarb said. \u201cThe city can act independently of what the chairman said.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the immediate question before Judge Seldin is whether the city will remain a defendant in the case; that could hinge on whether Aspen Wine & Spirits can demonstrate there\u2019s a valid argument that the city has a rubber-stamp policy alleged by the liquor store.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Wine & Spirits filed a complaint after business hours Tuesday asking a Pitkin County District Court judge to vacate the Aspen Local Licensing Authority\u2019s decision allowing Clark\u2019s Market to sell lower strength beer with 3.2 percent alcohol content.Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times Does the city\u2019s liquor board blindly approve applications for licenses to sell booze? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 01:54:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}