Proposed alcohol ordinance bans hard liquor in Christmas Hill
and Las Animas Parks
Gilroy – Hard liquor will be banned in the city’s two biggest parks under a proposed alcohol ordinance, while beer and wine will only be permitted during evenings and weekends in a handful of picnic areas.
The decision to ban hard liquor represents the latest tweak to an ordinance motivated by complaints about gang members and vagrants drinking in Christmas Hill and Las Animas Veterans parks – the only city parks where alcohol consumption is still allowed.
City Councilman Roland Velasco tipped council in favor of the ban on hard liquor during informal policy discussions last week, though not before questioning the departure from city staff’s original recommendation to ban all liquor.
“This doesn’t seem like a compromise,” said Velasco, who missed a meeting earlier in the summer when council first debated the policy.
“You should have been here last time,” Mayor Al Pinheiro responded. “We wanted to scrap the whole thing.”
Pinheiro and other council members have expressed concern about restricting personal freedoms because of a handful of homeless people and others abuse the privilege of drinking at parks.
“At some point in time, you’ve got to give people a chance to still live,” Pinheiro said. “You don’t just stop something because a few people might not be able to manage to do things right.”
But rather than scrapping the ordinance, council agreed to limit the times when drinking is allowed. The new ordinance would allow consumption of beer and wine in picnic areas at both parks from 4 to 8pm on weekdays, and from noon to 8pm on weekends and holidays. City ordinance currently allows drinking week-round, between 10am and 8pm, in picnic areas. The new times aim to eliminate drinking during the hours when families and summer youth programs tend to use the parks.
Council rejected a proposal to burden residents with a tedious permitting process. Under the staff proposal, residents would have had to pass through the same permitting process now in place for reserving picnic areas for private parties. The permit requires a fee and proof of insurance.
A number of families have pulled their children from summer youth programs because of drinking at the parks, and many had hoped for a ban of all liquor, according to Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax.
Still, she called the latest draft of the ordinance “a mid-point” between residents’ concerns and personal freedoms.
“I think that’s what we’re all hoping for,” she said. “The least amount of regulation that is effective.”
The ordinance is not yet finalized and must receive two rounds of formal council approval. Officials expect the first vote to come Nov. 6.
If approved, the ordinance would empower police to issue citations to violators. Currently, officers can only arrest people if they are clearly intoxicated.
