(a) No wine or malt beverage retailer license shall be issued in the same building as an on-sale license or an off-sale license or another wine or malt beverage retailer license, unless the licenses are intended for use by the same licensee and licenses issued are for the same licensed premise (or legal description) or there is provided the following:
(1) Licensed premise separation. Each licensed premises shall be separated from each other by a wall extended from the floor to the underside of the ceiling above, except there may exist openings, inaccessible to the public, with dimensions no greater than 48 inches in width and 80 inches tall to connect no more than three licensed premises. There may also exist an opening within a refrigerated unit to allow refrigerated air to flow between no more than three licensed premises so long as alcohol cannot pass between the licensed premises. The portion of the wall located in the public areas of the licensed premise shall contain no openings except for the necessary penetrations of electrical, plumbing, or heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning equipment between the three licensed premises.
(2) Access. Each licensed premise shall be entered and exited directly from the exterior of the building; except that a building containing multitenant licensed premises may have entrances and exits into a common area so long as it is not part of the licensed premise.
(3) Visual separation. There shall be no visual connection in any publicly accessible area between the separate licensed premises.
(b) Notwithstanding § 111.021(a)(1), if the number of wine and malt beverage premises sharing connections for employees and refrigerated air exceed section § 111.021(a)(1), and were approved prior to the effective date of this chapter, the licensed premises may continue to operate with the number of licensed premises at the effective date of this chapter. Those licenses in operation prior to the effective date of this ordinance at the existing premises as set forth in this subsection may be transferred to a new licensee who operates at the same, existing premises.
(1992 Code, § 5-8) (Ord. 38-88, passed 5-23-1988; Ord. 60-90, passed 6-25-1990; Ord. 41-91, passed 5-13-1991; Ord. 15-01, passed 2-12-2001; Ord. 68-09, passed 7-13-2009; Ord. 60-16, passed 5-17-2016; Ord. 85-19, passed 8-20-2019; Ord. 101-19, passed 10-15-2019; Ord. 135-22, passed 11-15-2022)