Alcohol Outlet Density

Summary

According to the Center for Marketing Alcohol and Youth (CAMY) “One of the most effective approaches for reducing excessive drinking and its many health and social consequences is to limit the physical availability of alcohol. One approach to doing so is regulating alcohol outlet density, or the concentration of retail alcohol establishments, including bars and restaurants and liquor or package stores, in a given geographic area. A high concentration of alcohol outlets leads to a variety of serious health and social consequences, including violence, alcohol-impaired driving, neighborhood disruption and public nuisance activities.”

Research has shown that when outlets are close together, more underage drinking occurs. By controlling the location of outlets, sales to minors can be discouraged (Gruenewald et al., 2010; Treno et al., 2003).

States and localities can reduce alcohol outlet density in at least 4 ways:

• Geographic Restrictions: Limits the number of alcohol outlets per specific geographic unit. This mechanism is particularly useful in addressing the tendency for alcohol outlets to cluster and create an over-concentration in specific areas.
• Population-Level Restrictions: Limit the number of outlets per population and establish an outer limit on the total number of alcohol outlets in a community.
• Commercial Restrictions: Establish a cap on the percentage of retail alcohol outlets per total retail businesses in a geographic area which is another method to address clustering and promote retail diversity.
• Time/Space Restrictions: Limit the location and operating hours of alcohol outlets. Location restrictions can be applied to protect sensitive land uses such as schools, parks, etc. and to address clustering by establishing minimum distance requirements between alcohol outlets. Limiting hours of operation, while not technically a feature of alcohol outlet density, can mitigate density-related problems.

In addition to these possibilities, localities may use land-use powers to limit, deny, or remove permission to sell alcohol from existing outlets.” (Jernigan DH, Sparks M, Yang E, Schwartz R. Using
Public Health and Community Partnerships to Reduce Density of Alcohol Outlets. Prev. Chronic Dis 2013; 10:120090. DOI)

State and community efforts to regulate alcohol outlet density begin with public health surveillance and measurement of the number and location of outlets, with particular attention to the distances from one to another. Surveillance can include data on binge drinking (e.g., on the type of beverages consumed by binge drinkers), drinking locations, alcohol-impaired driving by adults and youth, locations where alcohol-related crimes occur, and police calls for service and the relationship of these data to specific alcohol outlets and alcohol outlet density. These data can be combined with geographic information systems (GIS) mapping to develop visual representations of the spatial connection between alcohol outlet density and community problems.

Take the following steps to reduce alcohol outlet density:

• Assess alcohol density in your community, with special attention to density near schools and other youth-related areas. Work with community members to survey and map the number and locations of alcohol outlets in the targeted area or contact your state’s licensing board or local alcohol licensing authority for the locations of the alcohol licenses in the community.
• Ascertain the rate of alcohol-related problems in the community, with an emphasis on drinking and driving, public intoxication, and alcohol-related violence and crimes. Based on the type of community problem, develop a local plan to control the density of alcohol-related outlets. Recruit institutions responsible for establishing, maintaining and enforcing compliance.
• Use your findings to develop a local plan to control the density of alcohol-related outlets. Your plan might, for example, create geographic buffer zones of approximately 1,000 feet between alcohol outlets and schools, playgrounds, other youth facilities, and residential neighborhoods, or the plan might promote conditional use permits that require alcohol establishments to meet minimal agreed- upon conditions in order to continue operating, such as conducting responsible beverage service training.
• Build community support for controls on alcohol outlet location and density from merchants, other community members, and law enforcement. Conduct activities to show the link between the density of alcohol outlets in the community and the rate/type of alcohol-related problems.
• Measure and report successful outcomes. Some objective measures of the effectiveness of reduced alcohol outlet density are:
  • Increased distance between alcohol outlets and between an alcohol outlet and a youth-related facility or area.
  • Reductions in the number of alcohol-related crimes and other problems (e.g., alcohol-related crashes) in a targeted area.

Core Components

Dosage/Frequency

Dosage will be decided dependent on the type of change the community focuses on. This dosage will need to be reviewed and approved by the Agency.

Required Key Steps:

• All policies developed or strengthened through this strategy must be formally written, signed by the community leadership and kept on file at the contracted agency as documentation. Contact the Agency Project Director/Coordinator for additional grant requirements about this documentation.
• In collaboration with the coalition, assess whether a high alcohol outlet density exists near the community’s schools and other youth-related areas. Survey/measure:
  • The location and density of establishments licensed to sell alcohol by type, on-premises and off- premises.
  • The rate of alcohol-related problems in the community, with an emphasis on drinking and driving, public intoxication and alcohol-related violence and crimes which can be done through the following:
    • Outlet density should be measured at the smallest local level for the area.
    • Survey and map alcohol outlets in the community. Consider working with coalition members or youth to survey and map the number and locations of alcohol outlets in the targeted community.
    • Contact the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division for the location of the alcohol licenses in the community.
    • Use Google or another mapping service to map the location of the alcohol outlets.
• Develop a plan based on the community problems to control the density of alcohol-related outlets.
  • Recruiting institutions responsible for establishing, maintaining and enforcing compliance with zoning regulations within the community such as:
    • Local law enforcement
    • Elected officials
    • Alcohol policy organizations
    • Organizations influenced by alcohol availability
• Determine how alcohol outlet density will be measured.
• Determine which types of alcohol density regulations are the best fit for the community.
• Determine existing and possible land use regulations.
• Work with City/County Attorney to create or strengthen a local ordinance.

Capacity Building

Create a capacity building plan to continually engage strategy stakeholders. Some ideas include:

• Build support for this strategy from community leadership.
  • Focus on how alcohol outlet density can lead to alcohol-related problems.
• Hold individual meetings with those who are in key positions to affect change.
• Provide examples of suggested new or revised regulations to community leadership and obtain support.
• Disseminate data briefs or reports related to the strategy with community leadership.
• Once a policy has passed:
• Create a plan to educate the community about the policy.
• Create a plan that will ensure ongoing monitoring of use and enforcement of the policy.

Implementation Resources

Guide for Measuring Alcohol Outlet Density
Preventing Underage Drinking: Using Getting to Outcomes with the SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework to Achieve Results

References

Campbell, C. A., Hahn, R. A., Elder, R., Brewer, R., Chattopadhyay, S., Fielding, J., Naimi, T. S., Toomey, T., Lawrence, B., & Middleton, J. C. (2009). The effectiveness of limiting alcohol outlet density as a means of reducing excessive alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms. Am J Prev Med, 37(6), 556-569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2009.09.028

Jernigan, D. H., Sparks, M., Yang, E., & Schwartz, R. (2013). Using public health and community partnerships to reduce density of alcohol outlets. Prev Chronic Dis, 10. http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd10.120090

Gruenewald, P. J., Johnson, F. W., & Treno, A. J. (2002). Outlets, drinking and driving: A multilevel analysis of availability. J Stud Alcohol, 63(4), 460–468. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsa.2002.63.460