Quint Forgey

The News Journal

Attorneys and residents on Thursday offered dueling testimony at a public protest hearing about whether Wilmington’s new Constitution Yards Beer Garden should receive a two-year license to operate and serve liquor.

The beer garden opened last month on a temporary permit. Some residents have raised concerns about noise, traffic and parking, and have alleged public drunkenness.

Delaware Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner John Cordrey said he would render his decision in the near future.

Cordrey presided over three-and-a-half hours of courtroom-style deliberation featuring attorneys for the Riverfront Development Corp. and Homeowners Association for the Condominiums at Justison Landing, a development near Constitution Yards.

Currently running on a day-to-day liquor license that expired at 1 a.m. Friday, the beer garden is the most recent initiative by the nonprofit RDC, which oversees development along the Wilmington Riverfront.

RDC Acting Executive Director Megan McGlinchey said the beer garden is consistent with other RDC-developed initiatives on the waterfront, including a mini golf course, Delaware Children’s Museum and an ice rink that takes the place of the seasonal beer garden during the winter months.

“The whole point of the Riverfront is to create a community,” said RDC attorney Michael Hochman. “If you look at the Constitution Yard’s attraction, it’s a family-friendly attraction in keeping with other attractions on the riverfront.”

Hochman presented a dozen witnesses before the commissioner, many of whom were local business owners and restaurateurs.

Bryan Sikora, owner of La Fia Market Bistro, Cocina Lolo and Merchant Bar in Wilmington, said he hoped visitors to the beer garden would consider patronizing his restaurants on their next visit to the city.

“Summertimes around here are very slow,” Sikora said. “I know my kids would be in the [beer garden’s] sandbox playing, and I’d be happy to have a beer and hang out.”

In his argument against the beer garden, attorney Stephen Spence, representing the council of Justison Landing condo owners, pointed out that the RDC saved roughly $50,000 in manual labor costs that went to the disassembling of the ice rink. Part of that structure's staging now remains a permanent part of both seasonal attractions.

Spence also characterized the biennial gathering license — usually reserved for picnics, fairs and banquets by nonprofit organizations such as churches or volunteer fire companies — as an improper avenue for the RDC to pursue development on a beer garden that turned profits.

“There’s something not right about that,” he said. “There may be a way to get this done, but I don’t think a biennial gathering license is it.”

Charles Fleming, Jr., a representative of the council that hired Spence, said the area now occupied by the beer garden served as a much-needed green space for condo residents, who hoped to turn the land into a public park.

“What we have here is a full time business operating four months, seven days a week during the school season. Kids in our building will have to try to study with a beer garden right out front,” Fleming said. “You have crowds of people who congregate when they close. You can hear people’s voices clearly, distinctly right outside your window.”

Contact Quint Forgey at bforgey@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @QuintForgey.

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