Minnetonka city leaders are grappling with a question more Twin Cities suburbs are asking: How many liquor stores are too many for one community?
Prompted by recent requests from Target and Total Wine, the suburb's leaders debated this month whether to change how the city regulates the growing number of off-sale liquor stores. On Monday, they'll continue the discussion but aren't expected to change the city's policy, which allows 12 liquor licenses.
Nearby, St. Louis Park leaders also will discuss Monday if the city can or should limit the size of liquor stores as more big-box stores move into the metro; the city put a moratorium on any new off-sale liquor licenses earlier this year, worried about the number and concentration of stores.
And last month in Burnsville, the city went the opposite direction, loosening its rules by removing the cap on the number of liquor licenses to accommodate increasingly popular businesses like brew pubs and specialty grocery stores seeking liquor sales.
It's a difficult balance for metro area suburbs, each of which regulates liquor stores differently. Some only have city-owned liquor stores. Others restrict the ratio of liquor stores per resident or limit how close stores are to schools and day cares. Minnetonka's policy does neither, allowing more flexibility, said Mayor Terry Schneider, for an ever-evolving industry.
"What do we want our community to look like? We don't want it to be too overwhelmed by liquor stores," he said of the city's 12-license policy. "We hear a lot about overregulation versus free market, and where does that balance lie?"
The TwinWest Chamber of Commerce, which represents 10 north and west metro suburbs, testified in St. Louis Park against the city's liquor license moratorium and recently sent a letter to Minnetonka urging it not to restrict liquor licenses.
"This is, in our eyes, a free-market decision," said Brad Meier, chamber president. "We really felt what they're trying to do is keep big-box liquor out of their community. And we feel it should be an open market."