Topeka city leaders consider bringing common consumption area to new side of downtown
TOPEKA (KSNT) - City leaders met Monday afternoon to discuss some changes to the downtown Topeka alcohol drinking zone.
The City of Topeka Policy & Finance Committee, consisting of City Council members Spencer Duncan, Marcus Miller and Michelle Hoferer, gathered on Nov. 18 to discuss some updates to one of the local common consumption areas (CCA) or "social drinking zones." City of Topeka Attorney Amanda Stanley was on hand to explain what these changes would look like.
Duncan said the original layout for the CCA in downtown Topeka did not initially include the area in front of the Topeka Performing Arts Center (TPAC) located at 214 Southeast Eighth Street. He said TPAC's board has put forward a request to be included in this area for multiple reasons.
"So as we tried to look at how do we include TPAC, I think what we determined would be the easiest would be to have it go down Fourth Street all the way down to Monroe to Eighth Street and come across TPAC," Stanley said. "That would allow all of the areas that TPAC wants so that at intermission they [TPAC guests] could go down the side, they could set up picnic tables, they could take their drink outside and come back in."
Stanley said the current proposal would include City Hall and its parking lot in the redrawn CCA map. To avoid this, a separate proposed change would have the CCA come from Southeast Sixth Street down Southeast Quincy Street.
"Currently what we have here representing the map is that the common consumption area comes from Sixth Street, down Quincy, basically cuts across Quincy Street right in through the parking lot and essentially divides the City Hall and TPAC building in half, comes out the other end through the sidewalk to Monroe Street and then from Monroe to Eighth," said Assistant City of Topeka Attorney Brandy Roy-Bachman.
The committee did not take any action on the potential changes to the downtown CCA. The Topeka City Council is expected to vote on this proposal at a later date.
Topeka's current CCA for the downtown area includes businesses from Southeast 10th Avenue up to Southwest Fourth Street on Kansas Avenue. Topeka first opened two CCAs earlier this year for downtown and the North Topeka Arts District (NOTO). CCAs were first approved in Kansas after being introduced in the 2023 Legislative session.
People visiting on of Topeka's CCAs can drink outside of a licensed bar, restaurant or other establishment that is approved to sell alcoholic beverages by the city and state of Kansas. These areas are marked by signs and operate between 8 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. seven days a week.
You can watch the full City of Topeka Policy & Finance Committee from Nov. 18 by clicking here. For more information on CCAs in Topeka, click here.
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