§81. Location of business limited

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

B.(1) No permit shall be issued by the commissioner or by any municipality or parish to authorize any business in any subdivision of the state where the business has been prohibited by referendum vote.

(2) In any subdivision where saloons are prohibited, but package sales of liquor are permitted, Class B package liquor permits may be issued in combination with Class A retail beer permits.

(3) Any premises licensed to deal in alcoholic beverages, upon proper application, shall be issued a permit for beverages of low alcoholic content as defined in R.S. 26:241. The new permit shall be of the same class as the one for which the premises has a license.

C.(1) 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 or of a building used exclusively as a church or synagogue, public library, school, full-time day care center as defined in R.S. 17:405(A)(4), or a 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, and sidewalks, 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, synagogue, public library, public playground, school, full-time day care center, or correctional facility housing inmates, including but not limited to a halfway house to the nearest point of the premises to be licensed.

(2) 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.

D. Outside of municipalities and unincorporated areas which are not divided into subdivisions with streets, blocks, or sidewalks, parish ordinances may extend the prohibition to a distance of five hundred feet of the church, synagogue, public library, school, full-time day care center, playground, or a correctional facility housing inmates, including but not limited to a halfway house. The measurement of this distance shall be made in the same manner as the measurement is made in municipalities.

E. The prohibitions in this Section do not apply to any premises which are maintained as a bona fide hotel, or fraternal organization, nor to any premises which have been licensed to deal in alcoholic beverages for a period of one year or longer prior to the adoption of the ordinance.

F. 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. 463, §6; Acts 1964, No. 183, §1; Acts 1987, No. 696, §1; Acts 1988, No. 845, §1; Acts 1995, No. 1076, §1, eff. June 29, 1995; Acts 1999, No. 1010, §1; Acts 2003, No. 1173, §2; Acts 2005, No. 508, §1, eff. July 13, 2005; Acts 2006, No. 671, §1.