§281. Location of business limited; exception

A. No permit shall be granted under this Chapter in contravention of any municipal ordinance adopted pursuant to the zoning laws of the state.

B. No permit shall be issued by the commissioner or local authorities to authorize the conduct of business in any subdivision of the state wherein that business has been prohibited by referendum vote.

C.(1)(a) When prohibited by municipal or parish ordinance, no permit shall be granted for any premises situated within three hundred feet or less, as fixed by the ordinance, of a public playground, of a building used exclusively as a church or synagogue, public library, school, or full-time day care center as defined in R.S. 17:405(A)(4), or correctional facility housing inmates, including but not limited to a halfway house. In municipalities and in unincorporated areas which are divided into subdivisions with streets, blocks, sidewalks, etc., subject to the adoption of the alternate method of measurement as provided for in Paragraph (2) of this Subsection, this distance shall be measured as a person walks using the sidewalk from the nearest point of the property line of the church or synagogue, public library, public playground, school, full-time day care center, or a correctional facility housing inmates, including but not limited to a halfway house to the nearest point of the premises to be licensed.

(b) A municipality may adopt an ordinance establishing an alternate method of measurement of the three hundred foot limitation by measuring in a straight line from the nearest point of the property line of the church or synagogue, public library, school, or full-time day care center to the nearest point of the premises to be licensed. Such alternate method of measurement shall only apply prospectively to the issuance of a new alcohol permit issued on or after the date the ordinance has been adopted.

(2) The commissioner shall not deny any applicant located outside a municipality a permit based on the distance requirements of this Subsection, if the parish governing authority and the organization that operates the public playground or owns the building used exclusively as a church or synagogue, public library, school, full-time day care center, or the correctional facility housing inmates, including but not limited to a halfway house waive opposition to the applicant's permit. The provisions of this Paragraph shall not apply in the parishes of Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, and St. Bernard.

D. Police juries may enact ordinances extending the distances between licensed premises and the property line of churches, synagogues, public libraries, public playgrounds, schools, full-time day care centers, and correctional facilities housing inmates, including but not limited to halfway houses to five hundred feet.

E. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to registered pharmacists or licensed drug stores, licensed under the laws of the state of Louisiana who are permitted to sell alcoholic beverages by prescription only, either of high or low alcoholic content under Chapter 1 or Chapter 2 of Title 26 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950.

F. Should any premises licensed to deal in beverages of low alcoholic content be located within a distance less than that provided by a municipal or parish ordinance pursuant to this Section from property which is purchased or acquired after the license was obtained for the construction, erection, movement, or development of a public playground or a building used exclusively as a church or synagogue, public library, school, full-time day care center, or correctional facility housing inmates, including but not limited to a halfway house, such subsequent purchase or acquisition shall not be grounds for the revocation, withholding, denial, or refusal to renew the permit on said premises either by state or local authorities.

G. In undeveloped rural areas, the distance shall be measured in a straight line from the nearest point to the nearest point of the respective premises.

H. The provisions of this Subsection shall not apply to municipalities with over four hundred thousand population.

I. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Section or any other law to the contrary, the sale of six percent alcohol by volume shall be allowed in any political subdivision which has approved the sale of three and two-tenths percent alcohol by weight until such time as prohibited by a referendum vote of the qualified electors within that political subdivision.

J. For the purposes of this Section, "public library" shall mean a public library which is located in a permanent structure and is open to the public for three or more days per week.

Amended by Acts 1962, No. 400, §1; Acts 1968, No. 427, §1; Acts 1969, No. 144, §1; Acts 1987, No. 696, §1; Acts 1988, No. 819, §1; Acts 1989, No. 585, §2; Acts 1999, No. 1010, §1; Acts 2003, No. 1173, §2; Acts 2005, No. 508, §1, eff. July 13, 2005; Acts 2006, No. 671, §1.