A.G. Gancarski
Those interested in filing a local bill with the Duval Legislative Delegation have until Nov. 14 to get it done.
The deadline was extended from Oct. 13, due to the general election.
This is well ahead of the next meeting of the delegation. The organizational meeting to elect the incoming 2016-2017 delegation chair and vice chair, and the general legislative public hearing, is set for Monday Nov. 28 at 1 p.m. in the Jacksonville City Council chambers.
Last year a local bill, pushed by the council and then by the delegation through the Legislature, involved relaxing capacity requirements for restaurants with liquor service in a specialized zone called the Riverside Avondale Commercial Character Areas. The bill would reduce requirements to 100 seats (down from 150) and 1,800 square feet (down from 2,500).
Despite worries at the time among some on the city council that such a move could create a Jacksonville equivalent to New Orleans’ bacchanalian Bourbon Street, the council expressed support for such a bill in Tallahassee, and Reggie Fullwood and the Duval delegation carried it through without any significant pushback.
