The Minot City Council has walked back a decision that would have restricted the ability of alcohol license holders to serve unlimited special events.

The council last month approved adding a provision to a proposed ordinance draft that would limit the number of special event permits to 21 event days in a calendar year unless the events are on property contiguous to the licensed premises.

At its meeting Monday, April 6, the council reconsidered its previous vote and agreed to search for a better option to address what council members see as misuse of the current ordinance.

“As it turns out there are potentially some unintended consequences of this decision,” Mayor Mark Jantzer said of the March 16 passage of the special event provision. At that meeting, the council heard opposition from The Regency, which contracts with bars through the special event permit process. Jantzer said it has since been realized the proposed rule change also could negatively affect the Minot Area Council of the Arts, which manages the Carnegie Center, and potentially Citizens Alley, a downtown gathering space.

“I think there’s potentially another way to get to where we wanted to get to, which is to provide in the ordinance that a license may not be used for sequential or ongoing or continuous special events, contriving to operate two locations with one license for an extended period of time,” Jantzer said. His suggestion was for violations of that type to result in denial of special events permits to the license holder for 180 days.

“Under the current rules, we’ve got the ability for people to do things that I don’t think the ordinance is intending,” council member Mike Blessum agreed. However, he added the mayor’s suggestion still leaves city staff with the existing dilemma of a fuzzy set of rules to enforce. It leaves staff to determine whether manipulation of the rules is occurring.

Blessum, who had pushed for the 21-day limit on special events, was willing to retreat on that.

“We can choose to pull it back out, but let’s continue to do the hard work and figure out how to regulate this the right way,” he said.

Council member Paul Pitner, who served on the city committee considering revisions to the alcohol ordinance, said there was some committee discussion on creating a separate event or venue license. He suggested it might be an option to look at more closely.

Council member Rob Fuller suggested a solution that limits the ability to receive special event permits to the 36 full liquor license holders, rather than any license holder. City ordinance already prohibits these operations from operating more than one bar on a license, he explained.

It was pointed out by staff, though, that a winery that takes out a special event permit for a farmers market would then need to work through a bar that could sell for them.

City Attorney Stefanie Stalheim said special events are required to be temporary under city ordinance. The difficulty is determining the threshold for “temporary,” she said.

Among proposed solutions were limiting permits to 48 hours and allowing businesses that operate on an event model to work with the police department to establish policies around that.

Police Chief Michael Frye suggested creating a committee to work toward a solution.

“If we put together a working group, maybe that is the best option,” he said.

The motion to reapprove the reconsidered limit on event permits failed 0-7.

“I would suggest those that care about this a lot – that we heard from – we need to hear from you on how we solve it,” Blessum said. “Because leaving it as it’s been is not going to work for me. We’ve chosen a path that’s regulatory in nature, and we’re going to regulate this. So, I want to hear from those that thought that this was the wrong approach, so we get the right approach.”

The council considered the timeframe for bringing the full alcohol ordinance draft back for review. The ordinance could get another look in May. The goal has been to have a new ordinance drafted and license holder education completed for implementation in 2027.