City Council votes against seeking 5% ABV in stores for second time

Mar. 26—CHEYENNE — The Cheyenne City Council shot down a resolution seeking the sale of alcoholic beverages less than 5% alcohol by volume in grocery and convenience stores for a second time Monday night.

Council members also amended parking and vehicle impoundment measures and continued land annexation discussions.

At the Feb. 26 City Council meeting, the council voted against the resolution seeking more alcoholic beverage sales. Two weeks later, at the next meeting, council member Ken Esquibel, who initially voted against the resolution, said he had changed his mind and wanted the council to revisit the issue. The governing body discussed the topic again Monday night.

Several council members expressed concern with how passing the resolution would be a potential burden on the resources of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities (WAM). If the City Council had passed the resolution, it would still have a long way to go to become statewide law.

First, it would be introduced to the WAM annual summer conference by Cheyenne, where it would need support from a majority of the 99 participating municipalities to be added to the WAM agenda for next year's legislative session. If approved, it would then need approval from the Legislature.

"The dues we pay [to WAM] are to lobby for things that are going to be of high importance to the city of Cheyenne. ... affordable housing, property taxes, things that impact our direct distribution through the state Legislature," said council member Michelle Aldrich. "I think that there are so many more important topics that we could be asking WAM to lobby on behalf of, and to put this forward and to clog the system and, quite honestly, I think a lot of communities have made this decision locally, and I am not sure that this is the appropriate place to take this. So, I will continue to be a 'no' vote."

Mike Moser, executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association, once again opposed the resolution. He said that Wyoming has more liquor licenses per capita than Colorado, and that increasing alcohol accessibility wouldn't have an economic benefit for the state.

"People are not going to drink more alcohol because there's more package liquor stores," he said. "There's going to be more places where people buy less. There won't be any addition to employees, because it's the same cash wrap."

Esquibel said that Wyoming having more liquor stores per capita than Colorado is not necessarily significant due to the state's small population and large area. He said he changed his mind because he wanted to give the resolution, originally drafted by council member Richard Johnson, the opportunity to be judged by WAM and the Wyoming Legislature.

"I just supported it because I believe that any time that there is a resolution, we should let that process play out," Esquibel said. "Wherever it gets to, it gets to. It's not necessarily whether or not it's something I support personally."

Council member Jeff White also said his decision does not necessarily reflect his personal views, but he voted against Johnson's resolution.

"I don't have a personal objection to selling beer in the grocery store," White said. "However, as my colleague [Aldrich] said, we've just come out of one of the most contentious legislative sessions in recent memory. Whatever political capital WAM has, I don't want them spending it on this. I think there are bigger fish to fry — affordable housing is one, direct distribution another and a myriad of other issues that are far more important to our community than whether or not WAM takes this up."

The resolution failed for a second time with council members Bryan Cook, Esquibel, Johnson and Mark Rinne voting in favor, while council members Aldrich, Pete Laybourn, Scott Roybal, Tom Segrave and White voted in opposition.

Update to impounding illegally parked vehicles

The City Council also approved an ordinance amending the city code regarding the impoundment of illegally parked vehicles, what Mayor Patrick Collins described as the first of many changes to parking ordinances.

The amendments to the six-page document are largely to remove older jargon and make the document clearer and more direct.

Cheyenne Police Department Support Services Lt. Joel Hickerson said there are also some alterations to means of immobilization that aren't mentioned in the ordinance amendments. Primarily, CPD is transitioning from immobilizing vehicles with Barnacle devices, which stick to the windshield to block the driver's vision, to a tire-based immobilization system.

CPD was paying $15,000 annually for the Barnacle devices. Hickerson said the devices were subscription based, but CPD will be allowed to cancel at any time and return them without any added fees.

The amendments passed unanimously.

In other business

The City Council also discussed several zone changes and land annexations, including a second reading of annexing 924 acres of land located southwest of the Interstate 25 and I-80 interchange adjacent to Roundtop Road. The annexation was initiated by the landowners, SWAN Ranch, LLC Microsoft Corp. and Dyno Nobel Inc.

The property, which may be annexed upon third reading, is the site of a future Microsoft data center.

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.