Liquor Control Board keeps 20-mile exception for smaller stores

TACOMA — You shouldn’t have to drive more than 20 miles to buy your whiskey and gin.

That’s the idea of a rule the state Liquor Control Board proposed in March, making an exception for small stores under 10,000 square feet that otherwise are mostly barred from opening under voter-approved liquor privatization. It’s a pretty narrow exception, permitting perhaps 20 stores, the board has estimated. Most are likely to be in Eastern Washington.

The board widened the exception Wednesday slightly, moving forward unanimously with a revised proposal that also allows small stores on islands that are inaccessible by car and stores run by an Indian tribe on tribal land.

The board staff said requests for changes came from potential sellers in the Roche Harbor area of the San Juan Islands and the Samish Indian Nation in northwestern Washington.

Former state liquor stores and contract stores will continue to be grandfathered in, and aren’t subject to these limits. And stores are not allowed to open within 20 miles of a former state store whose rights have been sold at auction to a private operator, even if the store isn’t currently open — an addition made Wednesday to satisfy rights holders.

Because of the changes, the process of collecting public comment has to start over, including a June 26 public hearing and a final approval July 3 or later.