Commissioners Address Alcohol Sales In Valle Crucis

By Scott Nicholson

Alcohol sales in Valle Crucis are back under the microscope after a last-minute legislative change opened up the possibility of sales in historic districts.

A technical corrections bill adopted on the last day of the General Assembly session reinserted language that allows establishments in a “state historic district” to sell alcohol by the drink. The county commissioners had sent a resolution opposing the change, and it was dropped from some drafts of the bill only to turn up again in the final version.

County may challenge

At Monday’s commissioners meeting, county manager Rocky Nelson said the county would be in a position to challenge any alcohol sales permit application because Valle Crucis falls under county zoning authority due to its designation as a local historic district.

Planning Director Joe Furman told Nelson, “The National Register of Historic Places and local historic designations have no mention of state historic districts. This is significant because of the recent ABC legislation referring to a ‘state historic district,’ and there is no such designation. Therefore, it would be reasonable for the county to oppose any ABC application based upon that provision.”

State historic districts

The North Carolina Office of Cultural Preservation also maintains that a “state historic district” doesn’t exist and wasn’t aware of the technical change to the alcohol law until people began making inquiries.

Such beer and wine sales were previously allowed in any facility on the National Register of Historic Places that meets other criteria specific to Valle Crucis. An eligible historic place or district would also have to be “designed to attract local, state, national and international tourists located on a State Route (SR) and with a property line located within 1.5 miles of the intersection of a designated scenic byway.” N.C. 194 in Valle Crucis is a North Carolina Scenic Byway.

Qualifying districts would also have to be within 15 miles of a national scenic highway such as the Blue Ridge Parkway and is located in a county in which the on-premises sale of malt beverages or unfortified wine is authorized in two or more cities in the county.

The county commissioners’ resolution opposing the language change said that allowing alcohol sales based on state designations circumvented local control. The resolution pointed out that state scenic highway are in there now.

A brief history

Valle Crucis established a community council with approval from the county in 1990, and was designated a “local historic district” that September, which brought limited zoning restrictions. The council is currently trying to get designation as a National Historic District.

While specific historic places on the national register are eligible for the alcohol sales, an entire national historic district is not eligible as the statute is currently written. The Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis began serving beer and wine several years ago, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

The Mast Farm Inn, located in the district, already has beer and wine sales because individual restaurants and inns that meet all the criteria are eligible for legal sales, provided they meet other requirements such as selling a certain percentage of food.

The inn was placed on the national register in 1972 and had a brown bag permit from 1985 until 1996. Since then, it has had culinary, brown bag and special occasion permits, and received a permit to sell malt beverages and unfortified wine on the premises in 1999.

Camp Broadstone in Valle Crucis, owned by Appalachian State University, has a special occasion permit.

A special occasion permit, according to the state ABC commission, “authorizes the host of a reception, party or other special occasion with the permission of the permittee, to bring fortified wine and spirituous liquor onto the premises of the business and to serve the same to his/her guests.” Restaurants, hotels, eating establishments, private clubs, and convention centers are eligible to apply for the permits.

A brown bag permit allows patrons to bring up to eight liters of fortified wine or “spirituous liquor” onto the premises for their own consumption.

Columbine Restaurant in the Valle Landing commercial complex is currently listed for sale by a local realty firm. The restaurant held brown-bagging, special occasion, and culinary ABC permits from 1989 until 1998, and again from 1999 to 2001, with Luciana Anita Jacobs listed as the permittee.

The restaurant held culinary and brown bag ABC permits under the name “Las Cruces, Inc.” with Ann and Eller Roqueta listed as the permit holders, from 2002 to 2003.

An ABC commission spokesperson said permits are generally canceled when the holder doesn’t apply to renew the permit.

She said no new applications have been received from Valle Crucis since the law took effect.

Repercussions

The Doc and Merle Watson Highway is also a state-designated scenic byway and some sections of it meet the other criteria in the law, opening up the potential for alcohol sales in the eastern end of the county if “state historic districts” are later established.

Commissioner Keith Honeycutt was also concerned about the Blue Ridge Natural Heritage Area designation and at Monday’s meeting asked the staff to investigate how that might apply to alcohol laws.